The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the B2B sales and marketing space. Most B2B interactions have now moved online and field sales have taken a back seat. However, nothing can replace the value of motivated sales reps in the field, and if small businesses are the heart of a country’s economy, then field reps represent the legs that drive it forward.
Enforced restrictions that affected normal face-to-face meetings have spawned an inaccessible customer base, but perceptive leaders have spotted gaps and created new possibilities through personalized sales calls. Apart from generating sales, field reps can offer valuable customer insights which can inform marketing strategies to further boost your revenue, if data from conversations with customers can be captured effectively.
What is the difference between inside sales and field sales?
Field sales or outside sales is a process in which your sales representatives go to the market and sell directly. These representatives take all the responsibility of identifying prospects, making contact, pursuing leads, and then closing the deal. Put simply, field sales representatives remain the sole point of contact with your customers throughout their buying journey.
Inside sales involve selling your products and services remotely. The sales representatives seldom or never meet the customer, but remain in touch through phone, email, or other online channels.
Why does field sales matter?
LeadSquared lists studies that found that while your inside sales team may be making more pitches, field reps are closing more deals. As a result, field reps are able to convert 40% of leads into customers. In contrast, inside sales teams closes deals only 18% of the time.
Despite the digital migration, field sales teams are still crucial for B2B businesses. If you want to sell more, hire more. It’s that simple, and here’s why.
1. Field sales boosts revenue
Field sales teams play an important role in growing your revenue. Reps are always meeting clients face-to-face and initiating interactions, spending time nurturing leads, and aligning your products or services with a prospect’s pain points.
Inside sales teams would have to rely on tactics such as cold calling or email to connect with their prospective customers. To reinforce just how challenging selling from the inside can be, only 27% of sellers believe that cold calling is an effective way of attracting new customers.
According to another study, nearly 65% of field sales representatives were able to reach their assigned quotas. Conversely, only 59% of inside sales teams were able to do so. This shows that your business can expect greater revenue share from field sales representatives if they’re sufficiently motivated and ably equipped.
But that’s not to say that inside sales don’t work. The best strategy would be to use the two processes together and maximize the benefits of both approaches.
2. Improve customer relationships, even during and after the pandemic
Another reason why you need to leverage field sales during the current market environment is that it can help you establish lasting relationships with your customers.
Long-term customer relationships are essential for the growth of your brand. While you can, of course, maintain customer relationships remotely, field sales teams can take this relationship to the proverbial next level, especially once the pandemic-related restrictions are over.
Field sales bring that personal, human touch to sales that many customers prefer, and which inside sales teams by their very nature are unable to achieve. This is especially important when it comes to strategic client accounts that require greater focus, as they bring huge value to your brand.
3. Field sales activities are great sources of data analytics
Data-driven decision-making is critical to helping you make the right business choices. In fact, a study found that organizations that make decisions based on data are three times more likely to report a significant improvement in their decision-making processes.
However, for effective data-driven decision-making, you need to be able to gather reliable data. Field sales representatives are invaluable in this regard. Reps are always engaging clients face-to-face and building relationships and trust. This places them in a unique position to offer valuable customer insights based on these interactions. This information can be analyzed to make more informed and targeted sales and marketing-related decisions.
Gathering the data is important, but just as crucial is how it is stored and managed. Implementing a Skynamo-driven platform gives you clarity and control of your data. Your field sales representatives can seamlessly provide important information to you while on the move, and you can share material with your rep with the integrity of your data intact on the Skynamo app.
A Skynamo solution also provides you with a wide range of insights based on the data collected from your sales representatives. Skynamo lets your rep start customer engagements with full knowledge of all previous interactions and info – even if they’re taking over an account. All information is available – even offline.
You get real-time insights on your visitors, sales performance, sales rep KPIs and customer history. As a result, you don’t have to spend too much time analyzing the data and can concentrate on making those all-important business decisions.
Skynamo lets your field team cover the whole field
To survive the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses have been forced to rethink the way they market and sell their products and services. Many business operations have shifted online and most sales functions are now carried out remotely. However, as outlined, there are compelling reasons why field sales teams remain a convincing avenue to boost your sales figures and revenues.
Whether inside sales (where selling is handled remotely) or outside sales (where reps sell face-to-face), what is clear is that sales is not a game of luck or chance. The more organizations can provide structure, support, and systems, the faster reps can get up to speed and start growing that bottom line.
This is where Skynamo’s dynamic mobile sales app and desktop dashboard comes into play. For reps, our easy-to-use mobile sales app automates the typical repetitive administrative tasks that could slow down your reps, allowing for more time to build relationships and sell more. For managers, the platforms grant a real-time view of all field sales activity so you can make confident and informed decisions to drive your team to greater sales success.
Get in touch and schedule a demo now and discover how a Skynamo-driven solution will enable you to make smarter field sales decisions today and every day.
