I need to keep better tabs on what my outside sales people are doing daily. I know several on this board are in outside sales.

Using Salesforce is probably my first reaction and that's an option. I don't know what else there is available. Right now we have weekly calls with them and mostly getting Covid this or Covid that. I tried to do this or that and I called so and so Wednesday, etc.

I want to see who's actually working before I decide who's staying or leaving and quite frankly it's time to get into 2021 when it come to managing this area. Probably 75% of their pay is in the form of SALARY not commission. So there are lots of issues with the way we have this setup. However, at the end of the day, the rest of us put in a lot of work. Reality says the reps are practically on salary thus... I want to see that same level of effort.

If some of y'all don't mind tell me what you do to report back what you are doing.

Here are my thoughts, some of which you didn’t ask for. I’ve been in outside sales for 19 years. We use an app that’s written specifically for our company so, telling you the name of it would be useless. I’ve always been of the opinion that my sales numbers speak for themselves as to whether or not I’m working. The covid excuse only goes so far.

I'm in outside sales working remotely and we use Salesforce. It is an easy way to show effort/activity for those that are staying on top of their accounts, but I can see how it could be "gamed" by someone just looking to imitate activity. I spoke with a friend from one of my past jobs today and he said they had switched over to Microsoft Dynamics and that it was much more robust than Salesforce. I have no specifics but it sounded like more roles than just the sales team were using it and it has a lot more data points than SF had for them.

This. 10 yrs of experience here. My company manages to death "activity" in sales force to drive productivity in sales. It's miserable and the culture is the worse its ever been.

Cut what you know is the dead weight. It'll be a wake up call to the b players and your a players will keep trucking.

Edit: this answer is extreme but sounds like your being taken advantage of and that wouldn't sit we with me.

Flip it from 75% salary to 75% commission and you'll find out who's hustling real quick.

CRM is a big brother tool that most reps either outright loathe or don’t take seriously.

A lot of these systems are clunky. For example when I type in Nissan, it shows me EVERYTHING on the entire planet regarding Nissan.
From a plant in Tennessee to a dealership body shop in Paris France.

This^^^

And tell them you will figure it both ways for 60-90 days and pay them based on which ever pays the most. Make it clear that at the end of trial period it goes to the new plan regardless.

This type of response is what I was looking for thank you guys. I just want to be fair and if someone is actually trying but there are roadblocks everywhere due to the Rona... I can live with that. I am willing to help someone figure that out under that scenario.

Luckily outside sales are not super critical to maintaining our current revenue. We are always looking to grow and that is what this is all about. This question isn't coming from a knee jerk reaction to sales being down. Rather this is a not enough new business scenario. Granted the targets are pretty aggressive. No reason to get into all that here I only mention it because it helps to understand this is far from perfect and would be different if I was the only voice. What I really want to know is who's putting in what effort and what tools do I have to be able to track and or monitor that effort.

Thanks guys.

Surprise go with them a day or 2. $ will talk if there bringing in goods you’ll see it

^^^ ride alongside

You can also track one metric and weed out the BS. New opportunities created and are they closed? If they close what's the timeline?

I don't like sales force but it's good for the company. If the reps are using it like they should, there should be some institutional knowledge that gets stored there. That way if one does leave, we aren't starting from ground zero ( which we've done before)

Most highly successful business development people that have worked for me were on a heavily incentivized commission structure. We created annual directives, saturation plans, and specific industry/platform together and tracked them. I went on trips/meetings with them and saw how they managed their business. Time management is critical. If they are spending time flying across the country for a meeting in CA then to NC back to AZ the next day for example to collect airmiles and look busy will not last long. Same thing for local territory, windshield time vs face time is something I looked at. My sales cycle is very long (3-5 years) and large ticket items. I had to manage differently. It would be easy to "hide" with that long of a sales cycle.

If you have to manage their daily activities then you have the wrong people in those positions. The Fortune 500 company I work for (15 years) was moving in that direction when I left. (Weekly calls, all activities uploaded to sales force, etc, etc. it got to the point I was spending 10-12 hours per week logging information and attending conference calls. I ALWAYS met my quotas but it became increasingly more difficult because I didn’t have the time to actually see customers.

5/2 was my goal everyday. 5 cold calls and 2 scheduled meetings. It did me well when I was a territory rep. Once I stepped up to regional, as in North and South America those numbers became impossible lol. For 5 years I didn’t have a customer within a 7 hour drive but I was industry specific and could be relatively efficient if I planned travel correctly.

I would do a couple things. Set monthly visit numbers that are achievable in today’s COVID environment, ride along with your reps regularly and fire anyone who’s dead weight. Again if you have to implement something to get them to do their job then you have the wrong person.

I will say I’ve had good results picking up new customers over the past 6 months because sales people are not actively calling on their customers. I’ve picked up several decent sized contracts that would have been a lot more difficult 12-18 months ago. I’ve even made a couple cold calls and the number one reaction is “we haven’t seen a salesperson in months”.

This statement could not be more true.

Been managing outside sales for a long time. Got to pull them off the Tit to see who is really hungry.

Let me say this as someone on the buying side of what you guys are talking about.... We have quite a few sales people that call on us. I don't call them unless I need something. I've had a couple that have said, "we can't come visit because of our company policy on Covid." That's bull crap and those salesmen have been penalized by me by no longer buying from their company. If a client calls and needs an on site visit, you need to go see them.

I’m outside sales as a manufacturers rep, and it is difficult getting in doors of some of the bigger corporate companies. I’m trying to get in front of the key players any way I can even if that means meeting them for breakfast, lunch, etc. We have had some of our guys even show up at closing time with a case of beer in the parking lot. There are ways to make calls, but I will admit it isn’t what it used to be or should be.

As Fur said, any of my customers that need me I go ASAP. Drove to a customers today who requested catalogs yesterday, he said I could ship them but me delivering was an excuse to get in front of a distributor and a contractor.

I would start small with weekly sales call reports, anyone they can’t get in front of they should be calling or emailing

PM sent

Don't think I could do it

Covid has made many sales folks lazier. I like to handle things laid back low pressure on my end. It’s been working. I’m here for my customers 24/7. They know that. My numbers show if I been working or not