What does SFA mean?
SFA (Sales Force Automation) refers to the process of automating Presale activities, Van Sales, Merchandising and Marketing, carried out by field agencies. Thus, an SFA software has the role of automating repetitive tasks, from visit preparation, to the point of sale to the analysis and optimization stage, contributing to an increase in efficiency and the productivity of teams on the field.
How does it work?
The SFA system usually has two components:
- The mobile application , which works on tablets or smartphones, used by employees in the field. With the help of the SFA mobile application, sales agents manage customer contact data, view product stocks and characteristics, take sales orders, collect balances, record market or competition information, communicate with managers, and follow the daily route they need to travel, and much more.
- The Administrator Console, used by sales managers. They can establish daily routes for agents and assign them to different tasks, define steps and sales processes, see the volume of daily orders or receipts for each agent, etc.
In addition, if the SFA solution is integrated with an ERP system , orders taken by agents on the field immediately reach headquarters, to process and issue necessary documents, such as invoices, shipment notices, etc. At the same time, the information from the ERP system regarding stocks of the products is also visible in the SFA system, so that the agents can have access to them in real time, thus avoiding the situations in which the agents take orders for products that are no longer in stock, or cannot place an order because they do not know if products are in stock.
What activities does the SFA system cover?
- Management of contact data for clients and prospects
- Registration of orders from customers
- View product characteristics: color, size, stock, order history, etc.
- Sales process management: establishing stages and sales steps according to the needs of the company
- Communication between employees on the field and those at headquarters
- Managing and tracking performance indicators and targets specific to each employee
- Management of promotions and marketing campaigns
- Capturing market and competition information
- Sales data analysis
What are the advantages of an SFA system?
- It shortens the sales cycle, reducing the time spent on pre-sale and post-sale activities
- It allows a more efficient control of customer balances, which can be later collected and tracked directly from a mobile device
- It facilitates the correlation of stocks and sales, so that these will no longer be a capital asset but a competitive advantage in the market
- It ensures transparency and customization in the sale process, according to the best practices in the company
- Sustains loyalty in employees with the best results, managing their performance indicators transparently and in real-time
- Increases sales team performance by giving them access to the best practices validated by experienced employees
- It allows managers to easily identify unusual situations and act quickly to remedy them
