What is Field Service Business

Field sales, also known as outside sales, refer to selling products or services by sales representatives. The activities take place outside the office or in a formal team environment.

The specifics of a field sales force don't actually mean special working hours or an office setting. But, field sales representatives are often meeting with potential clients and enhancing the relationships with existing customers.

A field sales representative should always coordinate their schedule up to the client's needs. They should also be ready to work in places their customers find convenient, e.g., at their office, in the coffee house, or any other area. Field selling also takes place at conferences or industry events.

Field sales representative responsibilities

All sales representatives a field sales rep should build trust with their potential clients, provide help, and ensure their strategy results in future sales.

There are specific duties assigned to these salespeople:

· Conducting face-to-face meetings with clients in the field to offer the company's product or service.

· Enhancing the relationships with current clients by initiating regular meetings with them.

· Educating potential and existing customers about their product by providing demos.

· Constant follow-up with current or previous clients.

· Keeping records of all sales leads and customer accounts.

· Attending conferences or trade shows as a chance to build connections and present the company's product or service to potential clients.

· Keeping a watch on the company's competitors, new products, and market trends to understand customers' specific needs.

· Collaborating with the marketing department to help in brand development.

Field sales vs. inside sales

One should be able to differentiate between field sales and inside sales. The difference between them lies within the following factors:

Working space

While field selling is assumed to be working outside the office, inside sales representatives work in the office environment within a sales team under more direct supervision.

Number of professionals

For companies that combine both sales forms, inside sales reps often surpass field sales representatives. For every field sales professional hired, 10 inside salespeople are brought on board.

Selling

Sales reps working inside spend about 35.2% of their time on selling-related functions than field sales representatives, who spend 38.3% of their time selling.

Communication methods

Inside sales reps use plenty of communication methods, the primary being cold calling. Meanwhile, field sales representatives mostly depend on meetings, making calls and conducting video conferences at times.

Maintenance cost and earnings

Field sales reps should be compensated for their traveling, sometimes housing and food expenses. This is why maintaining an outside sales workforce can be 6 times costlier than an inside sales team.

Tips for building your field sales strategy

To successfully perform a field sales role, the company should focus on finding and growing a sales team, which would develop strong time management and customer service skills. Use these tips to ensure your field sales strategy has the right direction:

Set correct field sales team objectives

An effective sales team combines the group of professionals that meet the company's goals. To get the right one, you should:

• Understand how many sales representatives you'll require to cover the areas within your targeted field.

• Ensure you have enough managers to coach your salespeople.

• Come up with the right balance of field sales reps and managers, depending on your organization's objectives and needs.

Fine-tune your recruiting process

Recognize your ideal candidate's profile by determining what skills, knowledge, and career goals they should possess to ensure strong field sales campaigns. Along with this, be ready to repeat the recruiting process in case the need for future position reopening occurs.

Check your team management capacity.

To make your field sales teamwork, ensure there is the right person at the wheel. Due to disagreements between field and inside sales, your inside sales manager may not be the right individual to control the sales process. It will be reasonable to find a person whose leadership skills and experience in outside sales will help your team achieve your sales objectives.

Create a clear sales compensation plan

Your salespeople should feel motivated and rewarded for their work. Come up with the sales compensation plan to reflect your company's needs and your field sales representatives' expectations. Welcome your team's engagement into incentive plan design ― this will be a sure step towards clarifying your sales processes.

Align your sales and marketing teams

About 75% of marketing leads never convert into a sale. One major reason is a failure to align the sales and marketing departments, which leads to wasted budget and resources. On the opposite, when sales and marketing teams cooperate well, your company increases its marketing and sales cycles as a whole and has all chances to increase its year-over-year revenue by up to 32%. Try and spend time ensuring that both teams pursue the same goals.

Invest in your field sales growth

Don't skimp on-field sales tools and resources. On the one hand, outside selling requires more money allocations. On the other hand, you will spend on your brand's image, which your customers will interact with each time they meet your salespeople. One should try modernizing sales technologies, and efforts will be more likely to pay off.

Analyze field sales performance

If you plan to regularly achieve your sales goals, you should be ready to always analyse your field sales results. By looking at sales rep performance metrics, you will make data-backed decisions and improve your sales effectiveness.

Wrapping up

Field sales, unlike inside sales, won't allow you to reach many customers. Still, this model makes a go-to option for getting to the targeted people with your complex products or services that you'll want to sell at a higher price. By building up a smart field sales team, supporting your sales reps with professional management, and equipping them with modern tools, you may bring your field sales strategy to the top level and enjoy close rate growth.