For small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) with field teams, breaking into an industry and gaining brand recognition can be difficult. One way to aid the process is by evaluating the performance of your reps in the field. This is not always easy with your workers constantly on the road and with clients. With Field Activity Management software, back-office managers can see how each individual rep is performing in comparison to the rest of the team. Take a look at how this kind of visibility can help push the success of your SMB.
1. It Helps You Hire
Hiring can be a tricky business. You want to hire the best people for your specific needs, and you want them at a price you can afford. Currently, hiring in SMBs are on the rise. To keep up with the competition while ensuring that your new hires will be meaningful additions to the team, you’ll need to first take a look at your current staff.
Many Field Activity Management software tools provide ranking systems, where managers can see which of their field reps are high performers in areas like sales and client visits. Track these leaders in your team and understand their work methods and, more importantly, the attitude they exhibit on the job. Studies have shown that positive employee attitudes can drive higher revenue. By identifying your high performers, you can see what attributes to look for in new hires.
2. It Helps Coach Reps
Conversely, SMBs need to identify their low-performers. Just as high performers foster productivity and rising sales, subpar field reps can cause a loss of revenue. Low-ranking reps are the result of various circumstances. Some are just not the right fit for the company. Other struggling reps may just need more support and guidance from their managers. You may have anecdotal evidence of who these individuals are, but to truly judge without any bias, it is important to see performance in numbers and figures.
To get the hard facts on your field team’s performance, utilize software tools that create ranks for the members your team. Areas like client visits, sales, and audits are made available by many tools. Remember that just because one rep has more sales than another doesn’t necessarily mean they are performing higher. At times, “low sales” reps are spending time with quality clients that will put out referrals, raising the overall revenue of the business. Determine which category has the most effect on your bottom line. Reps performing poorly in these areas may need additional training or altered responsibilities.
3. It Helps Identify Success Strategies
Advances in Field Activity Management software have made it possible for field reps to perform fast and focused merchandising audits via their mobile phone. In addition, reps can take geo-tagged photos, allowing managers visibility into competitor product placements. Mobile strategies like these two examples have been shown to grow business revenue.
To understand which strategies will work best for your business, take a look at your reps with the highest sales. You may find that field reps who consistently do more audits or who take geo-tagged photos have higher sales. One strategy may work better than the others. By tracking the progress of your field team, you can identify the best ways to use mobile software tools. Encourage high performers to continue executing these strategies, and help low performers rank higher by introducing these ideas.
How To Get Ahead
As a general rule, it is always important to measure the success of your team. Without gathering this information, it can be difficult to move forward. However, the information must be detailed and clear for managers to truly build upon that knowledge. The performance rankings offered by many Field Activity Management software tools will allow you to hire more wisely, help reps in need, and evaluate the effect of mobile strategies. These advantages are key to any SMB trying to shine in their industry.
Source: <https://www.repsly.com/blog/consumer-goods/3-ways-to-evaluate-the-performance-of-your-field-reps> by Erin P. Friar - Accessed - 4th Feb 2019
