Retracing the Journey of SFA




When we introduced our SFA products to the FMCG Industry, its initial perception of automation and taking everything digital was different. In the first version of its evolution, salesforce automation got lapped up by retail-oriented companies who were keen to just shift from the ‘pen and paper mode of manually capturing and compiling data, because of 2 major challenges:

Poor data visibility & Inaccuracy

Businesses that had a large sales force were struggling with serious data visibility issues around outlet coverage and SKU penetration across outlets. This concern was compounded by the manual DSRs each sales rep had to maintain for the colossal number of outlets they covered, making the overall data extremely error-prone. We have seen this happen with one of the largest spice manufacturers in India, who found it difficult to manage and optimize the manual secondary schemes across the distribution network because of their sheer size.

Fuzzy View on Sales Channel efficiency

Especially for emerging B2B businesses, there was no clear visibility on beat plans or the actual number and spread of active and dormant outlets. Therefore, companies could monitor neither product performance nor sales team performance very effectively.

How it has grown into a Giant today

In its current form, a sales force automation platform is crammed with features and functionalities that have changed the way companies run their sales organization. The smartphone app, gamification, beat planning, machine-learning-based smart recommendations for product assortment, WhatsApp integration, etc. are now basic expectations for getting actionable real-time insights, monthly and daily sales reporting as well as detailed sales data analytics. Sales force automation has also evolved to allow for tracking and optimizing visual merchandising, POSM deployment, and such.

The approach towards SFA has therefore also changed from being a pure operations tool to being a strategic solution. As of date, SFA is the largest component of the larger sales technology market, comprising approximately 55% of the overall sales technology market. According to the report by Gartner in 2019, the sales technology or sales force automation market grew by an estimated 11.1% to $7.8 billion, with almost all the growth coming from cloud-based offerings. 

Despite such encouraging numbers, many Sales Directors and CEOs still remain unconvinced on the ROI that a full-service SFA can give them. It’s surprising even to us just how fast technology evolves every day. In the past year or so, we’ve ourselves built over 5 new product lines and over a dozen module enhancements, because that’s what the market required. To catalyze current adoption and market growth rate, SFA Platforms will need to preempt the future as far as innovation, execution, and usefulness goes. That will require a sustained innovation trajectory with respect to technology implementation and functionality. One way to do that is to bring all offerings across channels under one umbrella to have a greater focus on the entire consumer experience.

The power of One

The Market is currently providing multichannel solutions by giving separate Apps and Dashboards for different functions in the entire supply chain process. We have envisioned a single platform that has all the touchpoints for the client to view everything that is relevant to them without needing to toggle between multiple apps. For eg. with one sales solution,  a Manager will be able to view everything that is relevant to him, from the performance of the salesman, orders received from Retailer & HoReCa, distributor performance, his own Joint Working, retailer grievances, promotions, and store audits. The aim is to unify and bring a digital revolution in the retail industry by providing 360 data-driven analysis.

A comprehensive and integrated unified channel strategy can empower you to compile your data from all channels to determine the best strategy to reach the right customers with the right products on all the right shelves.

Sales force automation is at an exciting place on the evolution curve. As the market dynamics keep changing shape every few months, it is both challenging and exhilarating to keep building SFA solutions that solve retail business problems effectively. 

How has been your SFA journey? Are you still living in the past or are you excited to ride the future bandwagon? Get in touch with us today to know your current SFA health

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