Knowing your market plays a significant role in finding the right city for your retail merchandising business. The Internet is home to a wealth of government-produced market and demographic information on large and small cities across the country (including Business.gov's Business Data and Statistics Guide, the U.S. Census Burea's American FactFinder, and FedStats.gov). These databases include statistics about local market trends, demographics, and small business lending, among other things. Field sales managers who understand their customer market will be able to use this data to select a city that will be best suited not only for their product, but also for their field sales strategy.

Once you have a clear understanding of how your target demographic fits into the atmosphere of the city in which you plan to establish a presence for your merchandising company, it is time to consider more logistical factors. One such consideration is making sure the location is consistent with the brand image that the field sales manager is maintaining for the merchandising company. Another is the element of competition in the area. Evaluate whether nearby businesses are competing with your business for the market or if they are complimentary. Also, consider the future of your company. If you anticipate future growth, be sure that there is room for it in your new location, both physical room and room in the market.

Finally, be sure to evaluate your company's finances, keeping in mind varying local costs. When deciding what is affordable, be sure to keep in mind hidden costs, such as renovation, decoration, IT upgrades, etc. Also, be sure to know the tax situation for your state. While this may not come to mind when choosing a physical location, it will certainly be a factor further on down the road. In addition, the area you are considering may offer government economic business programs. Look to see if your retail merchandising company could qualify for these small business loans or other financial incentives.

Frank Brogie

Frank Brogie is a Boston based freelance blogger with a passion for leadership. He is currently a regular contributor to several on-line and print publications, and is developing deep expertise in mobile sales technologies and best practices. In addition to driving inbound marketing for Salespod, Frank is an avid sports enthusiast, self-proclaimed foodie and music junkie.

1. While smart phones and tablets have been getting lighter and thinner, their screens are becoming larger. Across the board, screen size and picture quality have been increasing. Larger displays make web-browsing and posting media more user-friendly. Most importantly, however, is that larger screens paired with better cameras make it easier for field reps to conduct on-site photo documentation that is clearer and more detailed without having to sacrifice size or bulk.

2. More and more mobile devices are supporting near field communication (NFC), allowing them to communicate with one another when they are touching or near each other. This technology is becoming more widespread, and, in turn, more practically applicable. NFC payments are on the rise, and will allow field reps to accept payments from clients more easily, especially with the integration of virtual wallet software such as Google Wallet and Passbook. Also, agile field sales reps can quickly share customer data with one another using NFC, improving mobile sales team efficiency and team collaboration.

3.Wireless charging for mobile devices is beginning to pop up, and will surely grow in popularity and prevalence as the year goes on. Without having to plug in and be tethered to a wall or vehicle power source, wireless charging allows for quick and less restricted charging capabilities. If field reps could be charging their devices every time they put them down, in a wider variety of locations, they would be able to not only work without fear of losing a charge, but could more freely use features that usually put a heavy toll on battery life, such as photo documentation or activating a geo-location-based workforce locator.

4. The increase in personal cloud use bodes well for companies looking to become agile field sales organizations, as they can say goodbye to having physical copies of photos, work time clocking, forms  or other mediums used for customer data capturing. Keeping this data stored on a personal cloud means that it can be easily accessed anywhere with a mobile device, and just as easily shared with other team members. With the syncing capabilities of smartphones and tablets, an entire history of customer data can be accessed just about anywhere.

Frank Brogie

Frank Brogie is a Boston based freelance blogger with a passion for leadership. He is currently a regular contributor to several on-line and print publications, and is developing deep expertise in mobile sales technologies and best practices. In addition to driving inbound marketing for Salespod, Frank is an avid sports enthusiast, self-proclaimed foodie and music junkie.

Salespod's "Mobile CRM" edition already allowed field reps to enter and edit client information while in the field, but the new intergation with Google Places allows them to explore places around them and enter client info more easily. It's even fun thing to do!

How does it work?

When you press on the "New client" button you will see one new button - "Search nearby". It will initiate a search for the 60 most relevant Google places in a 500 meters radious. When you pick a location from the list Salespod will show you basic information about that place: title, address, phone number, web address and the possition on the map. Click on the "Select" button to import google location in the Salespod and add additional details on the client, e.g. sales pipeline status. Ones you press on the "Save" button the client will be automatically imported into the Salespod system and ready to work with.

Tell us what you think about this new feature! We would be glad to hear you comments!

• Social media monitoring is a useful tool inidentifying potential customers. By monitoring the conversations surrounding your product and area of expertise, field marketing managers can easily identify populations that are interested in their product. After discovering a forum related to your retail merchandising company's area of expertise, it is important not to come on too strong. Simply observe and "listen in" to the conversation for a while, taking note of the mood and the needs of the consumers. Then, ease into the conversation by providing educational links, resources, and professional expertise. This is the time to build relationships, not push your product.
  When finding relevant conversations, it can be overwhelming to sort through hundreds of search results from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Try adding "buying words" to your search, along with brand or product names. Buying words include "recommend," "suggest," "buy," and "shortlist," among other words that indicate the conversation involves people looking to make a purchase.
• After identifying pools of interested consumers, field marketing teams can further use social media monitoring tocreate customer profiles. Social media is unique in that it allows marketers to see into consumers' minds more than traditional customer connections. Through the sentiment and tone of the conversations surrounding your product or retail area you can learn a lot about your customers. The customer profiles your marketing team creates may include the size and scope of the market, as well as psychographic elements such as the culture and philosophy of potential customers or demographic information based on age, location, or gender. Social media provides a depth of customer information that cannot be found anywhere else, much of which can be utilized by your retail merchandising company's marketing team.
• Having identified both a group of potential customers and an accurate profile of those who may be interested in your services or products in the future, your outside sales team will have to makefewer cold calls.Rather than approaching consumers who may have been unfamiliar with your product or were not necessarily interested in making a purchase, your "scouting operation" through social media monitoring has identified those who are likely to purchase. Replacing cold leads with warm or hot leads can drastically improve marketing efficacy and turn calls to sales more quickly, contributing to your agile field sales strategy. It is important to remember, however, that everyone will be at different points in the buying process, even if they have already been exposed to your company through your social media visibility efforts. It is therefore important to prepare content for customers at every level of the buying process. Adding value to conversations on social media by posting professional expertise and education is the best way to generate warm leads, as valuable posts will be shared the most, leading to site clicks and generation of warm leads from cold ones.
• All of these lead harvesting efforts on social medianaturally increase SEO. Search engines pick up social media activity, and as valuable content is shared from person to person online it builds SEO organically, as search engines regard shared information highly. The gain from social media involvement is more easily measured than the effect of Adwords, because you are already part of the conversation and can evaluate the situation directly.
• In the view of the bigger picture, using social media monitoring to cultivate leads spurs closesales and marketing integration. If sales and field marketing teams work together in social media networking, their efforts will become intertwined. As field marketing managers produce the material and the website content used to engage potential customers, members of the outside sales team follow through by interacting with them by sharing knowledge and building relationships. This way, the two departments accomplish their shared goal, increasing sales, through team collaboration.

Frank Brogie

Frank Brogie is a Boston based freelance blogger with a passion for leadership. He is currently a regular contributor to several on-line and print publications, and is developing deep expertise in mobile sales technologies and best practices. In addition to driving inbound marketing for Salespod, Frank is an avid sports enthusiast, self-proclaimed foodie and music junkie.

No More Reports!

Any time that a rep spends writing a report about what they accomplished over the prior day, week or month is time they could better spend talking to prospects, or preparing for valuable client interactions. Any focus on administrative reporting by reps that summarizes business or activities reduces the agility of the team. Not only is this all too often a wasteful exercise in creative writing, it results in information flowing to management after the fact, when it is too late to make impactful adjustments to process or activities. Management should have access to a real time stream of activity information that is generated while the rep is going about their business in the field, and should always know what their reps are working on 'in the moment,' not what they worked on in the prior week or month.

The same holds true for reports created by 'Sales Ops' that are distributed to the field… they are a waste of paper, pixels and time. Reps should have access to the pieces of data that are relevant to the task they are conducting at the moment, and no more. When a rep opens a spreadsheet or report and scans for relevant information, they are typically looking at something that is already out of date, and probably thick with distracting, superfluous data.

The most agile organizations access and generate only bits of relevant information, and they do this within the execution of valuable sales tasks.

Leverage Mobility!

The typical SmartPhone that a rep carries with them has more power than a laptop computer had just a few years ago. They have gigabytes of storage, broadband connectivity, multiple processors, high definition displays, GPS and much more… This is a tremendous resource that all too often goes untapped by Outside Sales organizations that think of them a simple communication device for phone calls and email. The most agile reps use their SmartPhones to document everything they do, and wield them more nimbly than pen and paper. Field sales solutions, such as Salespod, give reps access to the data they need through a simple and very well organized SmartPhone interface, so they have it accessible instantly and all the time.

This instant access and the incredibly familiar nature with which people interact with their phones, means that reps are very open to using these devices as their activity diaries, record keepers and real-time reporting tools. The connectivity to these devices establishes a means for the information generated 'in the moment' to illuminate details of field activities to management as they are happening. It costs the rep absolutely nothing to keep management informed about exactly what is happening in the field at all times.

The incredible power and capabilities that every rep carries in his or her pocket present the greatest opportunity for enabling agility by establishing two-way access to the most relevant bits of data, and creating an 'always on' communication channel.

Drive Accountability!

Accountability is a fundamental part of a successful sales team (See my post 'Accountability is a 2-Way Street in Sales'). Without it, there is no real urgency to respond to change rapidly and pro-actively. Reps that know their management will hold them accountable for making the prescribed number of client visits are much more likely to make those visits (and subsequently make their numbers) than those who feel they can get away with cutting corners. The manager that knows exactly what her reps are doing at any time is much more likely to provide relevant direction and coaching, and subsequently makeher numbers as well. Accountability can be built into the culture of a sales organization by making metrics visible across the team, and having frequent, informal and unexpected communication across the team. Direct coaching when expectations are not being met, and explicit policies around abuse of the flexibilities afforded to outside reps are key to driving accountability.

Success in sales comes from solid planning, and disciplined execution of the sales plan. The benefits of an Agile Sales Team come from being able to quickly adapt to competitive, customer and market condition changes; and to implement adjustments to the plan with crisp execution. This agile ability comes from practiced accountability and the resulting organizational discipline.

Agility in a sales organization is the culmination of culture, processes and tools that drive out wasteful activities and meaningless data, while maximizing visibility, accountability and communication.

Frank Brogie

Frank Brogie is a Boston based freelance blogger with a passion for leadership. He is currently a regular contributor to several on-line and print publications, and is developing deep expertise in mobile sales technologies and best practices. In addition to driving inbound marketing for Salespod, Frank is an avid sports enthusiast, self-proclaimed foodie and music junkie.

As communication tools develop and new ones rise to prominence, there are several platforms that will serve your interests in visibility, but it is important not to forget about good, old fashioned, person-to-person networking. Meeting face-to-face can be the best way to engage your local audience before developing a connection through social media. One effective way to do this is to have your business host networking events. While your product or business will not be the center of attention, each connection people make at your event will color their picture of your business and make them more likely to engage with your company.

In order to maintain top-of-mind awareness with your local audience, as well as increasing visibility across the globe, a strong online presence is key. Similar to hosting local networking events, field marketing managers can continue their networking efforts online. Links are the pivotal ingredient here, and leaving a link to your page alongside an insightful comment on a blog relevant to your company's topic area can do more than generate views on your webpage. A well-written comment can be the start of an online cycle in which other bloggers will refer to your site in the hopes that you will comment on and refer to theirs. Building this web of communication among sites throughout your specialty area adds to your company's online reputation, establishing your business's presence at the center of your topic area while broadening your audience and virtual network.

Optimizing your webpage for search engines (SEO) is another way to drive traffic to your site by appearing at the top of search engine results pages. One easy first step in SEO is to add unique titles to each page on your website. Adding keywords to these titles will attract the attention of search engines. Regularly adding fresh content will help search engine crawlers find your site, so more active websites are more likely to appear at the top of results pages. While working to improve SEO for your retail merchandising company, remember that it is an ongoing process, not a one-time effort. Developing a regular webpage process that takes SEO into account is crucial to consistently increasing online visibility.

Social networking activity can help boost your company's SEO, too, as search engines pick up your posts and profiles on social media platforms as well as your traditional web site. As with local networking events, your social media presence does not always have to be product-based. Prompting interesting discussion on Facebook or retweeting relevant insight from other professionals will bring people to your business as a source of expertise. That gives your business and your product credibility while keeping your company at the top of your audience's mind. Be sure to check your profile settings and make sure your content is sharable, which is a great way to turn quality posts into new followers and viewers.

An integrated personal and online approach can boost visibility for your business better than any specialized effort. It is important to remember that no matter what your strategy, a valuable asset is connection with an individual. Making sure to promote individual interaction can help multiply your efforts, as a happy, engaged customer can share your content and website with hundreds of people with a simple click.

Frank Brogie

Frank Brogie is a Boston based freelance blogger with a passion for leadership. He is currently a regular contributor to several on-line and print publications, and is developing deep expertise in mobile sales technologies and best practices. In addition to driving inbound marketing for Salespod, Frank is an avid sports enthusiast, self-proclaimed foodie and music junkie.

Last week we updated a few features in Salespod, and we are looking forward to seeing you put them into action!

Photo Tagging

Tagging photos will allow reps to attach tags onto the photos they take, allowing back-office users to filter the photo gallery by tags. Retail merchandisers will find this especially useful, as they will be able to sort through the many photos they take by specific criteria: e.g. position in store, position on shelf, brand, etc.

How does it work?

After taking a photo, reps can write comments on the photo, marking tags using hash tags (#). Later, when filtering in the photo gallery, Salespod will recognize the words marked with hash tags and allow users to sort photos by those keywords.

Improved "Additional Filter" Section

We have also improved the look and feel of the "Additional Filters" section of the Salespod web app. In addition to the aesthetic update, users will be able to filter the photo gallery by tags in this area, with all filtered criteria visible beneath the filter control.

 

Downloading Photos

After hearing numerous requests for an option to download pictures from the photo gallery with all of the information attached, we have enabled an easy to use download capability to Salespod. Above the photo gallery there are two links leading to a printer friendly view of the gallery. One opens the printer friendly view directly, and another provides a url link that can be copied and pasted to email.

In the printer friendly view, photos are displayed with the information regarding which representative took the photo, the client location, date & time, geo stamp, note, and attached tags. These images can then be easily copied and pasted into PowerPoint, Word, or email. This useful feature will help companies who work with different principals and need to send photo reports of accomplished work.

Electronic Signature

The electronic signature feature allows reps to collect signatures from their clients on sales documents.

How does it work?

After filling a purchase order, users simply have to press the "Tap to Sign" button. Then, clients may sign the box with an electronic stylus or their finger. The signature is permanently attached to the document and will be visible in the Salespod web app and on the printed document.

While remote sales teams bring unique benefits to the table, managing reps remotely also has its own set of challenges, making the role of the field marketing manager especially important. The distance between managers and sales reps in a remote relationship can lead to communication problems, both under-communication due to distraction or over-trust, or over-communication in an effort to compensate for the distance. Mangers have to work harder to establish relationships with their salespeople to find out what motivates them and how to better keep them engaged. In addition, it is often more expensive to train a team remotely than it would be at a central location.

Successfully hurdling these challenges can lead to an extremely valuable relationship with a productive sales team. Here are a few best practices to keep in mind that should help field management with a remote sales force.

Think about the ways field reps on a remote team work differently from those working in a traditional setting, and keep these considerations in mind when making hiring decisions. Remote salespeople must be able to work within an agile field sales framework, thinking on their feet and responding in real time to changing customer and market demands. Remote sales team members must have strong closing skills and be dependable for follow through, because their work is much more independent. Because they have a different relationship with their location, remote reps should be proficient in territory and time management. Perhaps most importantly, self-motivation and independence are crucial attributes in remote salespeople. While these are important characteristics for any type of salesperson, they are critical for those working remotely.

After hiring well-qualified team of field reps, it is time to establish and emphasize the concept of team. This is much easier to do with a traditionally located sales team, but in the case of remote reps, field marketing managers must established this with a focused approach. Regular group communication is a key factor in solidifying the team as a unit in your company, which will promote feelings of accountability, pride, and commitment that will increase the quality of work from remote reps. One basic way field managers can develop the team is to hold regular remote  team meetings, where reps can share ideas and strategies and discuss competitive insights. These enterprise collaboration meetings can be question-based, as managers promote discussion and cooperation between team members in an open forum-type environment. Encouraging team spirit in sales works the same way it does in athletics, a field marketing manager who acts as a sports coach gets a competitive and high-energy team as a result.

As important as an emphasis on building the team unit is attention to developing individual reps. It takes extra effort to connect with and engage reps remotely, but this is integral to their motivation and success. Despite the remote aspect of the manager-field rep relationship, field managers should be as active as possible in maintaining a positive presence in the development of remote reps. One way to do this is through short weekly coaching meetings that can identify successes and trouble areas, which can then be used to tailor individual strategies. Staying connected to field reps can be facilitated through Salespod's task oriented software. Salespod's is optimized for agile field sales management, allowing managers to have oversight and control over all field operations; again, much like a sports coach. With Salespod, reps only fill out the minimum portions of data and on their devices they will see only the data back office users have prepared for them and not the complete database they need to dive into. This allows managers to have access to the data required for one-on-one productivity with minimal intrusion onto field reps' regular processes.

Managing a team of remote sales reps can be challenging, but taking the right approach towards developing agile field sales solutions can harness the power of a team of remote reps. Salespod can give managers the tools to be effective coaches, promoting teamwork and collaboration, as well as easy communication of individual data, functions that improve the efficacy of any team!

Frank Brogie

Frank Brogie is a Boston based freelance blogger with a passion for leadership. He is currently a regular contributor to several on-line and print publications, and is developing deep expertise in mobile sales technologies and best practices. In addition to driving inbound marketing for Salespod, Frank is an avid sports enthusiast, self-proclaimed foodie and music junkie.

At the most basic level, small data is much more practical to gather than big data. A focus on small data demands much fewer resources on merchandising companies, while still providing useful information that can help sales reps tailor their approaches. Gathering big data requires expensive technology or manpower to first collect the data, and then sift through it to find the useful trends among other irrelevant information. Instead, using a small data approach to collect quality data in specific areas you already know to be relevant to your marketing plan. This focused approach is a more efficient way to get answers to the questions you know will help your business.

As opposed to big data processes, the technology necessary to gather small data is nowadays accessible to field marketing managers of small retail merchandising companies. Customer relationship management technology is a manageable way for small businesses to connect with and gather information from customers. Using Salespod's customizable forms and surveys, sales reps can collect small structured pieces of data directly from customers in the field, linking customer identity to their activity and purchase history. Field marketing managers can use this directly relevant information to personalize their marketing and sales strategies.

Using CRM to gather small data is an effective way for businesses to take advantage of the mass of market data available while staying direct in their approach and not wasting time and resources. Small data analysis can have a big impact on sales productivity.

Frank Brogie

Frank Brogie is a Boston based freelance blogger with a passion for leadership. He is currently a regular contributor to several on-line and print publications, and is developing deep expertise in mobile sales technologies and best practices. In addition to driving inbound marketing for Salespod, Frank is an avid sports enthusiast, self-proclaimed foodie and music junkie.

It is true that good field sales reps hold themselves accountable for remaining focused and always working the sales plan to the fullest, but regardless of how devoted they are, they are part of a team and can only be successful if all parts of the team are functioning; sales managers need to be accountable as well!

The best field sales managers work hard to remove obstacles from their team's ability to perform. They communicate frequently to understand what issues the team is facing, coach their reps through difficult situations and prepare them with the information and tools they need in order to succeed. Managers that only ask for sales reports and reprimand reps for missing numbers are not contributing to success or developing a winning team. Managers need to be held as accountable for their role in the sales effort as the reps that are executing in the field. Some of the key aspects of a manager's role include:

• Frequent formal and informal communication with the field… Formal communications to reinforce process and structure, and informal communication to develop a real understanding of issues that can be resolved as well as successes that can be shared across the team.
• Positive Coaching… Managers should look for opportunities to improve reps' performance through coaching. Too often, especially with new managers, the tendency is to "coach" by highlighting failures and missed quotas rather than the more effective approach of reviewing, analyzing and discussing opportunities that are in process, and looking for ways to share experience and knowledge with the rep in a way that can be used to achieve a winbeforethe quota period is over.
• Implementing Tools and Processes… Field reps are by nature very independent. They prefer to do things their own way, and on their own terms, and are typically resistant to structure of any kind. One of the most important things a sales manager can do is to implement a proven process for success, along with the tools the rep needs to meet that success. Sales managers need to hold the line when it comes to having reps follow plans and process that have been designed to drive success; at the same time, managers must advocate for lightweight, agile processes that don't get in the way of their rep's performance!

So if you are a sales manager lamenting your ability to hold remote reps accountable for staying focused and executing flawlessly… first, implement Salespod… then take a hard look at how accountable you hold yourself to giving them the oversight, coaching and support they need in order to make their number… and yours!

Frank Brogie

Frank Brogie is a Boston based freelance blogger with a passion for leadership. He is currently a regular contributor to several on-line and print publications, and is developing deep expertise in mobile sales technologies and best practices. In addition to driving inbound marketing for Salespod, Frank is an avid sports enthusiast, self-proclaimed foodie and music junkie.