Definition Challenges and Strategies In Field Sales

Are you a salesperson or have you seen a salesperson? What comes to your mind when you hear this question? Someone at your doorstep dressed in formals carrying a bag and trying to sell some products, right? They are called field salespeople or outside salespeople. But it is not confined to consumer products alone. 

Field salespeople are those who sell anything from a soap to a software product! They follow a set of field sales techniques that address the customer pain points and make a sale happen.

Let’s discuss in detail the definition, challenges, and strategies in field sales.

Definition – Field Sales

Field Sales or Outside sales is the method of selling a product or service at the customer’s location directly. This type of sales is preferred to have a face-to-face engagement with the buyers and maintain customer relationships. Whereas in inside sales, a salesperson connects with the prospects via calls, emails, or WhatsApp. 

It’s 2024 and the business environment is rapidly changing every day. Everyone needs to sell their product. But how uniquely you are selling is the deciding factor. A field salesperson should adapt to a modern and personalized sales strategy to stand out from the crowd. One should also be dynamic and build a good rapport with potential customers.

Challenges And Strategies In Field Sales

While field sales may look fancy, it is not all roses on the way. There will be an equal share of challenges as well.  Let’s see what are the possible challenges in field sales and strategies to overcome them.

• Prospecting and Lead Generation

The sales process starts with finding high-quality leads. Getting them on a discovery call or making them reply to your messages is the first challenge every field salesperson will face. As business people are busy with their schedules, they might end up ignoring your calls/messages. To overcome this, set up omni-channel communication, follow social selling methods and do consistent follow-ups, and get them on call.

• High Competition

“No competition, No progress”. If you take any product today, there will be a lot of competitors in the market. Differentiate your product with a Unique Selling Point (USP) and devise a personalized sales strategy to sell it. 

• Productivity & Tracking Performance

Maintaining a high field sales productivity and monitoring the sales reps’ performance are crucial factors in closing more deals. Track the right metrics to understand how your field employees perform, their average deal size, whether they meet their respective quotas, etc. Evaluate their daily activities with an app like Lystloc to improve their productivity.

• Aligning Sales With Marketing

Bridging the gap between your sales and marketing departments will help you optimize your budget and resources. Also, when there is an easy flow of communication between these two teams, they can work together to build a better sales strategy and get the right leads for the business. A report says that when marketing and sales teams unite, the company’s revenue can increase up to 32%! Is that amazing?!

• Effective Data Management 

Data management is critical when it comes to field sales. Because, sales data encompasses the entire history of your ideal customers and the sales processes. If you want to get any data about your leads in the future, start preparing sales data reports. By analyzing these data reports, you can make informed decisions for your business growth. To get those real-time insights from the data, use a tool that efficiently stores your data and fetches you the desired results whenever needed.

Summing Up

If you are building a complex product or service, you need a team of talented field sales representatives to sell it. Give them the necessary training to develop in-depth product knowledge, and empower them with field sales productivity tools and techniques to close better deals in the days to come!