In our increasingly competitive world, it is more critical than ever before...
...that companies encourage their field representatives to drive sales. When it comes to field team management, your reps can, and should, empower sales with the help of mobile data collection—here’s how to make that happen.
Strive for smarter communication.
Retail execution begins with better communication, and with your field team battling for shelf space and superior merchandising, it is critical that decision makers maintain a clear line of communication with reps. Smart communication goes both ways; managers must be able to deliver questions and feedback to reps in real time so that adjustments can be made instantly. Reps must also be equipped to share insights about sales trends and implemented strategies.
Communication within a field team is just as critical. A best-in-class field team is one that shares best practices, with representatives offering advice and suggestions to help each other out and solve problems as a unit. An effective field team should be able to quickly and easily access and manipulate data stored by its members. Without smart communication, sales opportunities are squandered and field representatives can’t reach their full potential.
Aim for better data collection.
Field teams are often the first ones to identify what’s driving profits and causing problems. By leveraging a robust retail data collection tool, reps can drill down in the data, pinpoint root causes of problems and see which effective merchandising strategies are providing desired results. They can do all of this on the go, responding to business needs and issues rapidly, when timing and connectivity are crucial.
Gone are the 9-to-5 days when employees clocked out at the end of the workday. Retail data collection and access are essential to answer constant requests for information. Having a robust mobile data collection tool that fosters agility and collaboration will make an immediate impact, leading to effective and long lasting change.
Nurture customer connections.
Field team reps are in a unique position; they can observe consumption and shopping trends first hand, generating insights into customer behavior. Encourage them to connect one-on-one with customers when appropriate, eliciting product feedback and proactively sharing brand information. This unique in-store perspective is a wellspring of valuable, sales-driving information for an executive team, and positive interactions with customers can build brand affinity and sales.
With the right mobile data collection platform, consumer information, product performance and in-store insights can be collected, shared, and leveraged in the name of empowering sales.
