What's the most common difference between an excellent salesperson and an average salesperson? It's their organization, their ability to reproduce intense sales efforts with regularity.
To do this, he structures his activity so as not to waste time on tasks that don't add value to sales.
And the grail is to transmit this state of mind to your entire sales team so as to explode your performance. An SFA, or Sales Force Automation, will help you do just that.
So, what is it? How can this tool help you increase your market share? Why adopt SFA software? Answers with Sidely!
Contents:
SFA software - an acronym for Sales Force Automation - is a technological solution designed to automate and optimize sales processes and activities.
The main aim of SFA software is to maximize the efficiency of sales teams by reducing the time spent on administrative tasks and improving the management of customer interactions.
The SFA is a tool that simplifies the life of your sales force by:
Theresult is that when faced with a lack of organisation, an oversight or an unforeseen event, the sales force can remain organised and focused on their objectives.
Having an SFA has become a key factor in the success of sales forces, and one that is growing over time. And with good reason.
And all this increases sales while reducing costs: a virtuous circle!
Inshort, SFA boosts the performance of your teams, empowering them and supporting them in their success. Another strong point: It enables ****more reliable data collection, and ultimately more reliable analyses, to better steer your growth.
CRM(Customer Relationship Management) and SFA are two crucial tools for managing customer relationships and optimizing sales processes.
The SFA is not just a component to be grafted onto a CRM, or a simple collaborative tool to streamline exchanges. The two tools are often used together and complement each other, with distinct functions that meet specific needs.
CRM focuses on global customer relationship management, while SFA concentrates on the efficiency and automation of sales activities. Together, they form a powerful duo to maximize sales performance and enhance the customer experience:
This sounds good, but how do you know if your team really needs it?
Anyone looking to improve the performance and efficiency of their sales team while delivering an enhanced customer experience can benefit from such a solution.
Here are 5 reasons why companies are taking the plunge:
Every day, a salesperson wastes time on tasks that have no impact on sales results. Administrative tasks are usually very time-consuming.
According to a study by Salesforce, most salespeople spend barely more than a third of their time on sales (planning their rounds, looking up information on dozens of Excel, travel times, etc...). By the way, if you're still on Excel, here are 11 reasons why you should do without it.
The rest is mostly administrative work, but also training, services, business travel, internal meetings and breaks.
So, is it necessary to eradicate some of these stains?
Not really. On the contrary, the solution is to ensure that the sales force can devote time to what it does best: selling.
To achieve this, an SFA reduces and automates certain tasks. As a result, sales staff have more time to nurture their relationships with customers and prospects, and improve their results.
The philosophy of IT tools has changed in just a few years. Before, they were very few in number, not always very functional and quite complex to use.
To alleviate this problem, very simple, specialized IT tools have taken over. Some are marketing tools, others are productivity tools. Then there's e-mail, calendars and so on.
However, the multiplication of these tools, which in theory improve sales productivity, does not produce the expected effects. They should complement each other, but in the end they are independent of each other. As a result, information is distributed in silos, complicating work processes. And, ultimately, this lack of coordination between sales and other departments can lead to a loss of efficiency.
So what's the solution? Integrate these different systems into a single one. In this way, the tool meets the needs of the teams concerned, without being a gas factory that's tricky to get to grips with. This is exactly the challenge that SFAs are taking up today: facilitating collaboration and communication by centralizing information.
While CRM and SFA share the objective of improving the efficiency and performance of the sales force, they address very different needs.
Most companies already use a CRM to consolidate the many points of contact with customers. CRM is a must-have tool for all customer-facing people: sales, marketing and customer support professionals. This tool collects and provides customer data throughout the sales cycle.
For its part, SFA reduces the silos between marketing and sales teams. It integrates with your CRM to centralize sales planning and management. CRM therefore complements SFA, but one does not replace the other!
Some tools, like Sidely, are both an SFA and a CRM. CRMs are obviously very useful: their success is confirmed year after year. However, they make salespeople's workloads heavier, as they require them to record every activity and every piece of customer data manually. On its own, this information-gathering tool remains insufficient to improve sales results and the commercial relationship.
So what are CRMs missing? An SFA, that famous automation and internal communication brick, that individual and collective support for commercial success, which, among other things, enables rapid reaction to market changes.
The sales profession is evolving rapidly, as are the tools that support it. As a result, personalizing customer relations to stand out from the crowd is more essential than ever to win over customers and win their loyalty.
Engaging your customers and prospects through dedicated platforms happens at every moment: emails, calls, instant messages, visits, etc.
Information is no longer collected a posteriori but at each interaction, in real time. All information is recorded in one place and has a direct impact on the daily life of sales staff.
In short, instead of being a time-consuming burden, the SFA is a tool for performance. So you might as well take advantage of it!
Lack of mobility and limited access to key information on the move is a major problem for sales teams.
Field sales staff often find themselves in a tricky situation when they can't instantly access crucial information on products, stores, customers (floor manager, sales manager...) or stock levels while out in the field.
This constraint reduces their responsiveness and their ability to make informed decisions, directly impacting their sales efficiency and performance.
Sales Force Automation (SFA) software is designed for total mobility and accessibility. They are accessible via mobile applications, ensuring that sales reps have the essential data they need, anytime, anywhere.
sfa software addresses many of the operational and strategic issues faced by CPG sales managers. Here are the main ones:
You don't know whether action plans are being properly implemented in the field. Reports are incomplete or arrive late. This opacity makes it difficult to monitor performance and priorities.
The SFA allows you to :
Thanks to this visibility, you can react quickly, adjust objectives and provide targeted support for your teams.
Your brand's image is not uniform from one store to the next. Some sales reps scrupulously apply merchandising guidelines, others do not. This lack of consistency is detrimental to your visibility on the shelves and in the territory.
SFA software allows you to :
In this way, you guarantee more consistent execution, in line with the expectations of head office and distributors.
Your teams spend too much time filling out statements, sending e-mail reports or looking for customer information. This administrative time is detrimental to sales productivity.
The strong point of SFA software is task automation:
You gain in efficiency, while making the data collected in the field more reliable.
It's difficult to objectively assess the effect of events, promotions or relocations on sales. You can't link field actions to observed results.
The SFA allows you to :
You can adjust your strategies according to what really works, on a measurable basis.
Decisions taken at head office (promotions, sales pitches, point-of-sale advertising) are poorly understood or poorly relayed to the point-of-sale. Conversely, execution suffers from a lack of clarity or connection with reality in the field.
It is interesting to note that 12.7% of area managers would like to see an improvement in the relationship between the field and head office, with the majority deploring a lack of recognition of field jobs by head office and poor internal communication.
The SFA software is designed for this purpose, allowing you to :
This fluidity in communication avoids misunderstandings, improves responsiveness and reinforces the overall coherence of your sales deployment.
🎯 Optimize promotional execution in supermarkets with SFA software
Context
A national fruit juice brand is launching a "2+1 free" promotional operation in supermarkets over 3 weeks in the Carrefour and Intermarché chains.
The Sales Manager wishes to guarantee :
- Maximum shelf presence.
- Real-time visibility in the field.
- Precise monitoring of the operation's ROI.
Players involved
- Sector Managers (SM): visit target stores to check set-up and negotiate locations.
- Regional Manager (RR): oversees point-of-sale coverage and CDS performance.
- Trade marketing: wants to obtain proof of execution for the brand balance sheets.
Deployment with SFA software
1. Before promotion
- Head office sends a digitized brief to CS via SFA: DN objectives, success criteria (TG, signage, stock).
- The tour plan is optimized using geolocation and store priority scores (e.g.: high DN + high potential = high priority).
- A specific "Mission Promo Jus d'Orange" form is configured in the SFA with :
- Checkboxes (TG present? signage compliant?).
- Photo upload required.
- Volume ordered/recommended.
2.During the promotion
- In just a few minutes, each CS informs us of their visit via the mobile app.
- The RR monitors coverage in real time via a dashboard:
- % of stores visited vs target.
- TG presence rate vs. forecast.
- Field feedback: out-of-stocks, store refusals, adjustments.
- Automatic alerts if an area is underperforming ➝ rapid corrective action.
3. After the promotion
- Head office retrieves a consolidated report:
- Time-stamped photos.
- Prom DN achieved by brand/region.
- Correlation between TG presence and sell-out (if data available).
- The report is sent to the retailer with proof of execution in the field ➝ reinforces the supplier's credibility.
Results obtained
- +20% of stores with TG installed vs. previous campaign.
- 2 days saved on consolidating field feedback.
- Accurate reporting strengthens arguments for future retailer negotiations.
Adopting CRM / SFA software doesn't just mean modernizing your tools. It's about responding to the concrete, recurring challenges you face every day as a sales manager.
In organizations where sales people are constantly on the road, where every visit counts, and where room for maneuver is often tight, it's essential to have a tool capable of centralizing data, simplifying information flows and making management more reliable.
CRM / SFA software does just that: it structures your sales data, automates low value-added tasks, and improves coordination between all levels of the organization.
You gain in responsiveness, clarity and efficiency. Every point of sale has a history that can be consulted at the click of a button. Every action in the field is recorded, time-stamped and visible. At last, you can base your decisions on objective, up-to-date information.
But beyond the data, it's also a tool that enhances the value of your teams. By offering them an easy-to-use, mobile solution designed for their day-to-day work, you free them from administrative tasks and refocus them on their core business: sales.
Finally, a CRM / SFA is a convergence tool. It aligns head office and the field around the same objectives and priorities, with a shared vision of commercial reality. It's not a control software, but a real lever for action, at the service of your strategy.
If you'd like to find out how our CRM-SFA software can help you, request a demo of our solution.
