Field sales is the direct selling of products or services by sales representatives or agents to customers. Sales agents meet their customers face to face to do the selling and may not always work in an office. Some may not even work during what are considered normal work hours. 

Field Sales Software Applications

Customized field sales applications help managers and sales agents perform their tasks effortlessly - either in the office or on the field. 

A field sales software application helps managers assign tasks and remotely track sales teams' activities. It helps sales agents log in, perform tasks assigned to them, record visiting statuses, etc.

Vtiger Field Sales Add-on

The Vtiger Field Sales Add-on is built for those in managerial or administrative roles and sales agents. 

Using the app, managers can create a plan (called Beat Plan) - outlining and assigning the agents' routes and outlets they have to visit. Managers can also track agents’ activities and updates they make on the app. 

Sales agents can use the app to check Beat Plans, assigned outlets, and routes to take, and plan their travel schedule to outlets accordingly. They can also perform assigned tasks, take orders, and create events on the app, like meetings, leaves, and visits.

The Field Sales app is available on both desktop and mobile versions.

Field Sales App - Mobile Version

The app's mobile version is available on a mobile phone or tablet and can be used by sales agents to perform their activities while on the field.

Agents can use the app to: 

• Take orders 
• Track payment status of past invoices
• Log in to headquarters (head office) and distributor visits
• Create leaves 
• Create a joint-work event to work jointly with a team member 
• Check in to an outlet
• Perform auditing 
• Take surveys 

We will learn about special features, line joint work, surveys, and audits in the section below. 

Field Sales Dashboard

The Field Sales App (FSA) has a dashboard button allowing you to navigate it from the FSA app on your phone. 

This will load the Dashboard widget and display the related information below:

• Admins can view the following:
  • The total number of agents, Agents (Users) Logged In Attendance as present, and Agents on leave. (Pivot Report)
  • The number of visits were assigned vs. how many visits were completed per agent.
  • The number of customers created by each agent. (Pivot Report)
  • The number of orders created by agents. (Pivot Report)
  • The number of invoices created for each customer.
  • The time spent at each store (Organization) with Check-In and Check-Out details. 
  • Target vs. Achievement by agents.
  • Top-selling product for the company by agents.
• Agents can view the following:
  • How many visits were assigned vs how many visits were completed
  • How many customers were created
  • How many orders were created
  • How many invoices were created for each customer
  • Target vs. Achievement

Note: The above widgets are not provided in the CRM by default. You can create them in the Insights Designer and pin them to the Dashboard.

Features of the Vtiger Field Sales App

The Vtiger Field Sales App includes the following features:

• Beat Plans
• Live Tracking
• Routes
• Insights

Beat Plans

Beat Plans are travel schedules for outlet visits. They are created by managers (or those in admin roles)and assigned to sales agents.

Beat Plans ensure:

• One sales agent’s visit to an outlet does not overlap with the others.
• Outlets in certain areas or locations are fully covered.
• Optimal routes are picked to the outlets.
• Agents know of their schedules ahead of their visits. 

In the Beat Plan feature, you have multiple functions, such as:

• Filters - Outlets filtering
• Start location and End location
• Fixed and Flexible Routes
• Shortest Route
• Scheduling

If you create a Beat Plan that Sales Agents use more often, you can use the same one using the Repeat option. The Repeat option in Beat plans allows you to repeat a Beat Plan by changing the dates and retaining all other details relevant to that Beat plan.

While creating a Beat Plan, you must enable recurrence in the Schedule section. If recurrence is not enabled, you can create Beats for only one day.

Check-in Mode

The Check-in mode in the Events module is a field that is updated when:

• A sales agent reaches an outlet (organization) location and checks in manually or,
• A sales agent reaches an outlet (organization) location, and the CRM automatically checks them in.

The Check-in mode field is available:

• In the Events List View, events with the Activity Type as Beat.
• In the Summary View of an Event record for a field sales agent. 

Let us see how the Check-in mode works. 

1. You begin by adding Beat Plans for your agents.
   1. Events and routes are created automatically. 
   2. For the Events created in the Events module, the Activity type will appear as Beat. 
2. At this stage, you must enable or disable the Allow Check-in Outside Geo-Fence field on the Vtiger 360 > Configuration Settings page.
3. When the sales agent reaches a location:
   1. When the Allow check-in Outside Geo Fence field is enabled, they can check in manually on their FSA mobile app. 
   2. The system checks them in automatically when the Allow check-in Outside Geo Fence field is disabled. 
4. If the system auto-checks the sales agent, the Check-in mode in the Events module will automatically be updated. 
5. If the sales agent checks in by themself, then they will have to update the Events record manually.

Live Tracking

The Live Tracking feature relies on a Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled in the field sales mobile app connection. Managers can view the sales agent's location on the map in the web client. Searching for specific agents may be challenging when you have many agents working for you in the field. In such a case, you can use the Search field to look up an agent and track their location. 

You now have a search option in the Live Tracking module for Agents. The search will be available if there are more than 5 Agents.

• This will enable you to track your agents in the field in the Live mode.
• The count of users includes the Active, Suspended, and Deleted list of users.
  • Note: You can view the tracking details of deleted users (when they were active in the system). 

Routes

Routes are the distance between outlets on the map that must be visited. They are created automatically from the Beat Plan and assigned according to the order of the outlets to be visited.

The sales agents can see the distance and duration to travel between one outlet and another. This will help them plan their visit accordingly. 

You can see the distance between outlets while creating Beat plans.

There are two types of Routes:

• Fixed - The sales agent will follow the route assigned to him. The planner decides the routes in the Fixed route, and the sales agent must follow the same order. If the sales agent fails to follow the route assigned to them, a warning notification will be sent to the managers.
• Flexible - In the Flexible route, the planner selects only the outlets; the sales agent can select the Beats and plan his visit to the outlet accordingly. The sales agent can modify the route to get the shortest path.

Benefits

The following are the benefits of using the Field Sales app:

• Saving time for managers by creating routes automatically.
• Providing insights to managers.

In this article, you will learn about:

• Creating a Beat (in the Organizations module)
• Creating a Beat for an individual
• Creating a Beat Plan
• Using the Vtiger Field Sales app
• Generating Beat Insights

Key Terminology

• You can select multiple Beats for a sales agent.
• The Outlet Beat should also be selected and saved for the sales agents on the My Preferences page. When you select the agent under the Select Outlet section, the outlet can be retrieved for that agent.

1. Select the Route from the drop-down.
2. Click +Add Start Location.
3. Select Add as Start Location by clicking the More icon on an organization.
4. Select Add as End Location by clicking the More icon on an organization.
5. Select Add Break.

6. Select +Add End Location.
7. Click Generate Route. The route will be displayed on the map.
8. Click Next.​​​​​​

Note: 

• You can rearrange the outlets by using the drag-and-drop option.
• You can add the Preferred Visit time for any outlet.
• You can add duration for Breaks for any outlet.
• You can also remove any Outlet.​​

Step 3: Selecting Actions

This step includes the actions a sales agent needs to perform at the outlet, like taking orders, conducting an audit, and receiving feedback. You can add these actions for a sales agent in the Actions tab.

Once the sales agent logs in, they can see and perform the actions you assigned to them.

You can enable the Mandatory toggle against actions like Take Order, Auditing, and Feedback. If the Mandatory toggle is enabled, the action has to be performed and completed.

You can also enable the Take Signature option if the sales agents must take the outlets' signatures. Once the Take Signature toggle is enabled, the sales agents must take the signature without fail.

Once an order is created, a sales order is created. When you click on the record in the Sales Order module, the signature is captured in the Description Details section of that record.

Note:

• If you are expecting the sales agent to perform an audit, you should have created an audit template in the Quality Audit module of the CRM. To learn more about the Vtiger Quality Audit feature, click here.
• If you expect the sales agent to take feedback, you should have created a survey in the CRM. To learn more about Vtiger Surveys, click here. ​​​​​​

Follow these steps to select the Actions for a sales agent:
 

1. Enable Take Order.
2. Enable Auditing. You can link the Audit Templates by clicking the Audit Template icon. 
3. Click the Audit Template icon.

4. A List of Active Audit Templates will be displayed.
5. Select the Audit Template you want to attach.
6. Enable Feedback. You can link Surveys by clicking the Survey icon.
7. Click the Survey Icon.
8. A List of Active Surveys will be displayed.
9. Select the Survey you want to attach. 
10. Enable the Last 5 Orders if you want to repeat your orders.
11. Click Next. 

Step 4: Creating a Schedule
Follow these steps to create a Schedule: 

1. Select the Frequency based on Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly.
2. Select Repeat from the drop-down if you want the Beat plan to be repeated every once in two days or five days.
3. Select the Number of Recurrences from the drop-down.
4. Select Until.
5. Click Save.

You have now successfully created a Beat Plan.

When managers create Beat Plans, the CRM will automatically create the following:

• Routes for each day
• Events for each Outlet to be visited on that day

These will be reflected in the Vtiger Field Sales app

Beat Insights

You can use the Last 5 orders option if it is a repetitive order.

Follow these steps below for taking an order on call: 

1. Log in to the App.
2. Type the outlet's name in the Search field.
3. Select Take Order from the list of outlets displayed.
4. Select the Last 5 Orders to repeat the previous Orders from the outlet if required

Adding new outlets 

When sales agents are on their beat and find a new outlet, they can add it to the CRM using the New Outlet option.

Follow these steps for creating a new outlet:

1.  Log in to the App.
2. Type the Organization Name.
3. Type the Website.
4. Type the Phone number.
5. Select Assigned To from the drop-down.
6. Select Organization Status from the drop-down.
7. Select Price Book if you want to link any.
8. Select FS Beat from the drop-down.
   1. The Shipping Latitude will be auto-filled.
   2. The Shipping Longitude will be auto-filled.
9. Click Save.