Cutting Costs with Sales Force Automation
Sales force automation (SFA) pertains to the automating of all the actions relative to sales of any business or organization. SFA also denote the technique of using computer programs or software in performance of tasks involved in sales such as contact management, order processing, order tracking, inventory monitoring and control, customer management, employee performance evaluation, sales forecast analysis and information sharing. SFA is commonly used interchangeably with customer relationship management (CRM) as SFA falls within the framework of any CRM systems; but customer relationship management may not necessarily imply automation of the tasks associated with business sales.
SFA more specifically refers to the coordination of applications primarily geared towards contact management and scheduling. SFA actions are usually incorporated with other systems that supply the status of orders, inventory and products and other related information and can be a part of a bigger program of customer relationship management.
What Does SFA Do?
It makes all business actions relative to sales, automatic. Some of these actions include:
• Contact management
• Order tracking.
• Meting out of orders.
• Sales information and statistics sharing.
• Inventory screening and control.
• Future sales patterns and behavior analysis.
• Sales employees performance evaluation
SFA helps an organization to control its entire sales process from beginning to end. There is a wide variety of software and solutions available for SFA that can help any small, mid size, and large enterprises to meet sales targets and initiatives. The information provided by such solutions helps businesses in their sales analysis and identify future trends and courses of action.
What are its common features?
• Customized solution. Your organization can obtain SFA solutions that are tailor fit to your specific business. These entire solutions range are completely configurable to satisfy your individual business and sales automation requirements.
• Complete Sales Solutions for both Employees and Executives. SFA software can help executives define and prescribe individual sales goals, manage sales and advertising information, analyze results and reports, and plan future courses of action. Sales employees also benefit as the solutions simplify their tasks of obtaining leads, managing their databases, setting schedule and appointment reminders, and saving innumerable orders and applications.
• Fast Launch and Easy Configuration. Most SFA software can easily be incorporated into in-house sales programs and can be configured according to your organization’s special requirements. As a result, your sales team support can be fully functional in shorter span of time than it takes to hire and train personnel for these backend tasks.
• Provides Better Control. Through SFA software, managers get to know how his sales team is performing at any given time and may therefore take corrective measures on any possible problem before it gets out of hand. Sales representatives can easily be brought up to speed by being provided all the sales information in one software package.
• Safeguards Data. SFA systems come with built-in security tools that help to safeguard your business data and statistics. Advances in data security technology enable complete protection of entire client and company data. In addition, these systems have data encryption and user authentication functions that help to back up the saved data and also prevent unauthorized use of your sales solutions.
What are the Primary Benefits?
For businesses, Sales force automation creates competitive advantages as seen in the following examples:
• Increase in productivity. Sales staffs as well as managers are able to have efficient and effective use of their time. This translates to productivity which creates competitive advantage by reducing costs, increasing revenues through sales, and increasing market share and penetration.
• Timely generation of reports. Rather than waiting for the weekly report submission, field staffs are able to send information after each sales call, providing management with current information that can be used in real time planning. The organization becomes more agile and management support response time is faster.
• Increased customer satisfaction. Wise use of information obtained and analyzed leads to products and promotions that matches or even exceeds customer expectation. When sales staffs use the system and the information generated therein to more efficiently service customer needs, this makes for more satisfied customer base, increased customer loyalty, lower customer acquisition costs, and increased profit margins.
What Do I Look for When Choosing a Solution?
The chief selection criterion for any organization seeking SFA solution is flexibility. You will need to select a solution with robust customization capabilities, so it can be tailored to meet the specific needs of your business. Individual personalization capabilities are also critical for each of your staff to structure the solution in a manner that will best work for them.
With the proper solution and enabling technologies put in place, Sales force automation can enable your business to optimize sales productivity and make positive impact on the bottom line.