A staggering 89% of field sales reps interviewed shared that they don’t trust the data they themselves record during customer visits and process into their company’s reporting system. We uncover various reasons for this self-sabotage.
How are sales reps sabotaging their own selling efforts?
It’s impossible to deliver a quality service and achieve sales success if you don’t have a true understanding of your customers and what their needs are. Nearly 9 out of 10 reps interviewed in our UK sales survey believe their own reporting processes fail to deliver information that accurately portray their customers’ business needs.
Let’s think about this for a moment: sales reps consider themselves responsible for creating data that hinders their selling efforts!
Why is this happening?
Some of the main factors hindering sales reps from capturing field data accurately:
- poor WiFi/internet coverage (41%)
- poor phone signal when out on the road (36%)
- work pressure to get to the next meeting (39%)
- being interrupted by managers (32%)
- being forced to use technology not fit for the task (18%)
Nearly a quarter (23%) of reps wait until the end of the day to enter data, when they’re tired and can’t remember exact details discussed during customer visits.
Our takeaway: sales reps don’t have sufficient means to capture data quickly and accurately during customer visits.
Mobile sales tools capture accurate data
Triangle Lubricants and Interstat Stationery are two companies that found great benefit in implementing mobile sales technology to eliminate small but crucial errors during their order taking process.
‘Someone forgetting the correct order details just once, could mean losing a big customer along the way,’ according to Triangle Lubricants sales manager Christoff Sonnekus. These errors inevitably crept in while they used their old paper-based system, but now ‘there’s no more talk of the one that got away,’ shares Sonnekus.
Reps now log order details while they are with customers, who can confirm their own order in real-time, ensuring that the right orders are delivered at the right time.
Read the full Triangle Lubricants case study now…
Interstat Stationery also got used to errors creeping into their paper-based system. Because of the wide variety of very similar products they sell, product names and codes were very easily confused. during ordering and consultation processes.
“Now, having all the information they need at their fingertips, our reps are able to answer questions more accurately and make more informed suggestions to customers,” explains Interstat sales manager Lisa Joao Campbell.
Read the full Interstat Stationery case study now…
Skynamo’s Field Sales Management software and Mobile Sales App assists field sales reps in capturing and compiling quality data which is crucial to long term sales success.
Related reading: How to overcome new tech resistance in your sales team