Sales Force Automation (SFA)
Situation:
In today’s competitive era of business, one of the crucial factors to increase sales is time management. However, the workforce especially salespeople, instead of focusing on growing their sales, spend a majority of their time on other administrative work like contact and task management, that come along with it. This drastically reduces their work efficiency and creates a negative impact on the sales and revenue of the company.
A seamless sales process, that creates a simplified and profit-driven workflow for the salespeople was required to combat the situation.
Problems and implications:
When the sales team of an enterprise is overloaded with various administrative tasks, the impact can be seen on the company’s sales. For businesses that consider sales and client relationships as the backbone of their organizations, the above situation can lead to tremendous losses. A few more issues are addressed below:
1. Time-consuming - Handling administrative tasks along with sales is not just
cumbersome but also a wastage of time, as these tasks can be automated and completed in a lesser interval of time.
2. Increased chances of error - Every human is bound to make mistakes. Especially when the workload is high, there is an increased chance of error. Unfortunately, these small errors can greatly affect the likelihood of making sales. After all, it takes a small human error to lose a potential customer.
3. Low productivity - Even if the sales team focuses to generate sales, they will have one or two tasks added to their list of work. This will lead to an overall decrease in productivity of the company, making it difficult for the business to sustain itself.
Need pay-offs:
The need of the hour was a system designed to construct a hassle-free workflow process, especially for the sales team, that reduces the manual labor required to generate sales. This is exactly what ‘sales force automation’ provides to different companies. With the help of sales force automation, the sales team can now focus on increasing their sales without worrying about the administrative tasks that come along.
Sales force automation can be used for various tasks like sales reporting, client prospecting, activity tracking and alerts, deal management, sending outbound emails, etc. These settings can be customized to keep a track of all sales-related activities. Various benefits of investing in sales force automation are as follows:
1. Better insights - By incorporating this system, companies can manage their sales structure in a better way and make data-driven decisions to improve sales. This system will provide businesses with the clients’ data and purchase history, which can act as a base for the next product/service launch.
2. Increased efficiency - When manual tasks are automated, it removes the burden of the daily administrative task of the sales team. This will help them to focus on creating strategies or meeting with potential clients to grow their sales.
3. Minimized error - Sales force automation system will eliminate the smallest possibility of human error and bias, helping the businesses to maintain a professional image to the customers. As the accuracy of the work will be enhanced, more clients will be satisfied with the results, which means more revenue for the company.
4. Response time reduced - This system will not only save the time of the sales team but also enhance the user experience. As all the information is readily stored, the response to the customer’s query will be quick. Maintaining fast and consistent customer service will increase customer retention and acquisition rate.
The main focus of sales force automation is on the sales process of services or products to existing customers. The end goal is to witness a growth in sales and enhance conversion by turning a prospect into a client. Sales force automation is essential for businesses that value their sales process and overall performance.