How Field Force Management Software Overcomes Door-to-Door Sales Challenges

We live in a highly digitalized world. Still, door-to-door sales is a $28.6 billion industry with salespersons positioned as the core of field operations. After all, no sales, no profit, right? 

Door-to-door is not only a time-tested sales technique but also a spectacular marketing tool. It helps you make sales while making your brand a household name! 

So, do you want your organization to ace field sales? The best way to do so is by investing in a field force management software system! 

Salesperson’s POV: Challenges to Door-to-Door Sales 

Salespersons have a lot to deal with each day. Adding the stress of administrative tasks would be a little too much, don’t you think?

Here are a couple of things that salespersons have to face on the field that can be easily negated:

• Attendance Logs: Field executives should be able to start and end their working hours on the field itself. They shouldn’t have to waste time trying to reach the office just to mark attendance. Attendance logging should be remote yet simple. 

• Checking Tasks: Tasks should be documented in one place for everyone to know what each executive is doing. What if the executive already has work and their manager assigned them a new task to work on? Task centralization also helps executives remember their plans for the day! 

• Route Settlement: Executives can plan their day’s route according to the doors they need to knock on. However, if something new comes up in between, their entire plan can go to waste. Managers should know where the executives are and will go next so that they do not make them go haywire. 

• Misinformed Management: Management can make misevaluations when things are not documented. Everything from the executive’s location to their achievements should be transparent so that nobody’s efforts are misinterpreted or ignored. 

• Documentation Handling: Executives might need different information from each customer and hence handle too many documents on the go. When executives have to run around blocks, carrying a lot of paperwork can be extremely tiring. 

• Confusing Operations: Task assignment, attendance management, and communication are the three main problems in employee management. If an organization uses three separate software for them, operations can get confusing while switching between apps. 

Manager’s POV: Challenges to Managing Field Salespersons 

Managers whose entire team is in the office have a lot to handle. However, keep that manager in the office while the team is on the field and the confusion magnifies. 

Explained below are some challenges that come managers’ way: 

• Fraudulent Attendance: When managers cannot see executives, it is easy for the latter to mark fraudulent attendance. People can use VPNs or share their phones with others to fool the system. They can also lie about their phone battery status as a way to get out of attendance-related issues. 

• Deviating and Roaming: While strict sales targets make it difficult for executives to find the time to roam, it is a possibility. If executives spend half of the day idling, they will have time to hit some more targets.

• Record Handling: Managers need to have a record of each field executive’s verification records, employment agreements, strengths, weaknesses, etc. This profiling is necessary for official purposes, but it might also help them assign tasks needing special skill sets. 

• Proof of Engagement: Yes, the executive had three engagements scheduled today. But who is to say if they actually went to them? Managers need ways to know if executives have reached the site for the best real-time supervision experience. 

• Task Allotment: Managers should have all their tasks in one place from where they can divide them between their teammates, right? Without a proper system, task allotment, especially emergency tasks can become very tricky. Managers need to know which executive is best suited for the job and how close they are to the site. 

• Progress Reports: Managers need to track each executive’s performance and then give them constructive feedback. Generating progress reports for everyone is extremely taxing leading to several teams never getting a proper feedback. 

How Field Force Management Software Help 

Now that you know all the problems that make door-to-door sales difficult, let us devise some solutions. Well, more like understanding than devising since you’ll have software to do the work. 

Here, let us explain the solutions offered by TrackoField that will make your door-to-door sales exemplary. 

Location-Specific Solutions

• Fool-proof Attendance: FFM software helps you verify attendance through geocoded visual verification. The software can read executives’ device network and battery status while also verifying that both person and device are on the field.  

• Live Location Tracking: The first thing managers see when they open the dashboard is each executive’s location. When executives are being tracked during working hours, their chances of roaming around will reduce due to accountability. 

• Employee History: If managers suspect idling or need to see what an executive was up to, they can check employee history. The best software will give you six months’ history backup.  

• Complete Geo-reporting: Geofences play a huge part in any asset tracking software. With geofences, you can know if and when the executive reached specific points. Geofencing helps in more comprehensive locational tracking. 

Communication And Task Management Solutions 

• In-built Chatboxes: With FFM software, you don’t have to rely on third-party applications to communicate with your team. In-built chat rooms help you keep track of the communication between managers and executives to avoid confusion.

• Smart Task Allotment: With profiling and locational data, managers get more clarity on task and executive compatibility. Moreover, both managers and executives get full control of the tasks, making scheduling more flexible. 

• Insightful Reports: FFM software collects a huge database through executives. It leverages that database and generates reports that are insightful for the managers. This removes their need to make manual progress reports and also helps them get an inside look into their team’s productivity. 

Organizing Made Easy

• Digital Documentation: Executives won’t have to carry multiple documents on the field and managers do not have to deal with never-ending paperwork. When field operations are digitized, all documents go on the cloud and are more organized and secure. Moreover, less paper means environmentally sound operations. 

• Custom Fields and Forms: With FFM software, managers and executives do not have to draw new documents because of small changes. Instead, they get custom forms and fields that they can edit according to the information they need. All this customization is only a few clicks or taps away! 

• Dual App: To avoid any confusion between the executive and manager functions, FFM software comes with two app faces – one for the executives and another for the manager. Both parties only see the features relevant to their role so that they do not drown in information overload. 

Make Management Your Priority! 

Consider two field operations team switch members of the same calibre. However, one reaps bigger profits than the other. More likely than not, the latter doesn’t use the right managerial tools and practices, costing it severely. 

So, you should make the smart choice today and invest in the right employee tracking software. If you want all the solutions explained in this blog, you should surely try TrackoField, field force management software from the house of TrackoBit.

Ayushi Nagalia

Ayushi Nagalia is a Senior Content Specialist at TrackoBit. She is passionate about music, writing, and reading. When not abusing her keyboard, you will find her lost in her playlists or organizing things.

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