The Need of Sales Force Automation

We do business in an age of high competition, where most of our competitors have adopted to up-to-date technology and tools. Their employees, especially sales peoples, are supplied with detailed customer and product info which enable them to offer highest levels of customer service. So what is your option here? Nothing else, sales force automation (SFA), to supply your employees with similar weapons as your competitors. Sales force automation includes the automation of your sales related processes by increasing co-ordination among your sales peoples and between sales peoples and management. It is considered now as one of the vital requirement for business success. There are plenty of SFA software available for specific and general SFA purposes. There are specific sales force automation systems which handle only sales related processes and systems integrated with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, which handle almost all business related processes. And also there are installable softwares and on-demand softwares. Sales force automation offer many advantages to businesses, irrespective of industry or company type. The general advantages include increased productivity, higher levels of customer service, resourceful database customer details and enhanced communication methods. We can other benefits into three main classes as those for sales persons, sales managers and for marketing managers or company management. The number and level of benefits that one gets depends on the type, objective and quality of the system he/she uses. The advantages that sales force automation offer to sales people include relieve from paper works such as report preparation, sales order writing, etc as all these things are replaced by computer forms, visually enhanced and more detail product catalogs which let them to better present customers, saving time for report preparation and delivery as most SFA systems are capable for automated report generation and delivery, more detailed customer info which enable sales peoples to better communicate customers, reduced need of frequent seminars and meetings, automated sales lead generation, better communication with management and team members, enhanced mobility – on demand systems allows you to access the system from any where in the world. The advantages that sales force automation systems offer to sales managers include easy-to-understand reports on sales activities, automated lead routing, effective sales territory and team management, fast discount approvals, online sales person or customer counseling, better planning or customization of sales processes based on near real-time data, easy market research, and more. Company management benefit from cutting down of vital costs involved in paper works and manual data transactions, better co-operation between different company departments, getting swift and accurate feedbacks, planning better marketing plans, etc.