The fact that sales reps spend only 35.2 per cent of their time selling is shocking. And the rest of their time goes to non-revenue-generating administrative tasks.
Field staff need better levels of connectivity with their sales managers as the long chain of sales takes away 20 per cent of the sales reps’ productive time.
This article will highlight the importance of optimising sales processes, automating repetitive tasks, and providing sales reps with the solutions they need to maximise their time on the field.
Understanding the building material industry.
The building material industry is one of the significant primary industries of a national economy that promotes the development of the construction industry.
Meanwhile, the latter relies upon the former to provide quality materials like cement, wood, and glass when needed.
Apart from that, the players involved in the supply chain of the building material industry are manufacturers, distributors, contractors, and retailers.
What challenges does the building material industry struggle with?
The major bottlenecks in the operations of building material companies consist of complex supply chains, fluctuating demand, and intense competition, which directly hamper profitability and revenue growth.
Moreover, the field reps in sales operations go through efficiency-related issues that are not just restricted to their performance but also the overall growth of the business.
Lengthy sales cycle
An average sales cycle for the building material industry ranges from 3 to 18 months, owing to the complex nature of construction projects.
Alongside, the manually-driven tasks involved in the cycle take another 6 to 12 months to close a deal.
Sales managers don’t have visibility into the progress of sales opportunities throughout the pipeline, which leads to ineffective workflow.
Mismanagement of data
The amount of insights that are generated by sales reps on the field is enormous, though managers grapple in the process of making informed decisions.
Nevertheless, sales data in the building material industry comes from various sources such as CRM systems, ERP software, and spreadsheets, eventually leading to fragmentation.
Due to improper collection and management of sales data, it becomes harder for other departments to have easy or full access to it.
A complex offering of products
Building material companies often have a wide range of products with varying specialisations to provide to their customers.
However, the sales team working in the field finds it challenging to communicate the product details and the benefits to customers effectively due to the unavailability of an accessible catalogue.
Excessive market dynamism
Many factors shape the trends and trajectories of the building material sector that eventually cause brands to lose market share.
The major ones that influence the revenue model of businesses are technological advancements, consumer preferences, and economic conditions.
What is sales force automation?
Furthermore, the algorithms of SFA eradicate the outdated traditional methods of managing clients, account management, business process management, and preparing reports and analytics.
The ultimate goal of cloud-based SFA tools, like GrowmaxBI’s, is to enhance the productivity level of sales teams by saving up their valuable time to make them focus on revenue-generating work for businesses.
What are the benefits to the building material industry post-SFA implementation?
The reason why building material companies must take software platforms or tools into consideration is that it reduces the workload of their field team by streamlining the sales operations.
Information under one roof
The issue of data silos and their unorganised forms are sorted out with the advanced centralised platform of SFA.
Sales managers don’t have to fuss around anymore, as the interactive dashboard of SFA allows them to access real-time sales data.
Apart from that, it has become easier for managers to search, retrieve, and analyse data in an organised and structured manner.
This eventually improves efficiency and enables quick access to relevant information whenever needed.
Data-driven decision making
The analytics of SFA software examines sales data to identify trends, patterns, and correlations in the building material industry.
SFA leverages and consolidates structureless data to form valuable and accurate insights to empower businesses to make informed business decisions.
The real-time reporting capability of SFA determines the effectiveness of the decision-making process as the probability of success relies upon it.
Simplified order processing
The SFA system automates the order entry process and reduces the need for manual data entry.
Moreover, the sales reps can now input orders directly into the system, even while working outside of the office, speeding up order processing time.
Another feature of SFA is to track orders throughout the entire process, from placement to delivery. This visibility allows sales reps to provide accurate delivery estimates.
Enriches collaboration
All relevant information, either related to sales, customers, or products, is stored on the SFA cloud. It allows other departments to get access to such data without any hustle.
Up to you
The building material industry has several significant hurdles that can be overcome with SFA. The cloud-based tool transforms the way the building material industry operates leading to increased profitability and competitive growth.
Furthermore, if you desire to gather additional information on SFA: A CEO’s guide to Sales Force Automation
