Traveling salespeople are having a difficult year. However, they have always needed to be equipped, equipped and supported with the best technological solutions to maximize their sales performance, and for the years to come.
Divalto is a management software publisher (CRM & ERP) for ambitious SMEs and mid-cap companies. To best equip field sales force fleets, the solution has a strong argument: its mobile application that allows you to work even without a connection.
In order to better understand the role of a CRM today, how salespeople are dealing with the Covid-19 crisis and how the right tool can really help salespeople, Le Siècle Digital met Christian Dhinaut, CRM Product Director at Divalto.
An exceptional and difficult period for field salespeople
Salespeople in 2020, a complicated job
Some professions are having a hard time at the end of 2020, particularly professionals in tourism, hotels and restaurants and events. But we often forget that traveling salespeople, who are used to hitting the road every day to visit their customers and prospects, are also affected by the crisis.
This is exactly what Christian Dhinaut reminds us: “Right now, salespeople who usually go out into the field are no longer seeing their customers very much. We therefore need to find a way to optimize their time so that they can continue to serve their customers and their company. What do they do in the meantime? Do they call their customers? Are they refining their strategy?
Salespeople who supply businesses subject to the constraints linked to the crisis have often been placed on short-time working and all projects take longer to be validated, if they are not simply abandoned.
On the other hand, CRM equipment projects exploded at the time of the first lockdown. More and more e-commerce is also in demand, with a coupling between CRM & the e-commerce module. Divalto allows for integration with third-party software for this purpose.
The main change since the start of the health situation, again according to the CRM product director, “is that salespeople travel much less and need to be able to work efficiently from home.”
Indeed, it is not difficult to imagine that in the countryside, with a poor connection, it is very difficult to work remotely properly. With Divalto, salespeople can easily work offline and synchronize from time to time. The salesperson then becomes a prescriber.
At the same time, telesales is also gaining in power. In-office salespeople receive orders and enter them into the software.
CRM and ERP go far beyond the use by salespeople
CRM is initially a tool designed for salespeople, but it is also and increasingly used by marketing, which relies on it to implement targeted actions and for up-selling and cross-selling. As the interviewee points out, “indeed, the better we know what consumers are buying, what they buy and what they don’t buy, the better we can push information on products. Analysis helps to understand customers: why someone buys a product, or on the contrary does not buy the product.”
In addition to CRM, Divalto also offers an ERP, allowing client companies to manage the entire supply chain, particularly important for click & collect, which is very popular these days.
Finally, it is essential to not forget to integrate management and direction into the sales processes through CRM. The solution also offers useful dashboards and indicators to give everyone the vision they need.
How to best equip the salesperson to make their life easier?
The best way to support the salesperson in the field
Christian Dhinaut remembers with nostalgia: “Before the pandemic, we communicated a lot about the best way to support the salesperson in the field. Today, inevitably, this is no longer the case. Often, the salesperson in the field is far from the headquarters and does not have all the information. The software is designed to query the management tool and obtain all the necessary data: accounting, stocks, after-sales service, etc.).”
The sales pitch has changed to adapt to the global situation and therefore to the current needs of salespeople. In normal times, the brand has always had a strong value proposition: “You have salespeople in the field who most of the time only have a laptop or paper, they are not equipped with a CRM adapted to the field. We offer you exactly what they need.”
But if this question has not been a priority for several months, it will become so again as soon as the salespeople return to the road as before.
A constantly enriched solution that has proven itself
Divalto's CRM has the particularity of being a customized CRM, even in SaaS. A hundred resellers adapt the software according to the customer's needs. “We must never forget that not all companies have the same expectations depending on their activity, size and objectives.”
One thing is certain, Divalto offers a CRM with a strong business focus. “We have developed a maximum of useful features to make the salesperson's life easier. For example, if the customer cancels the appointment at the last minute, it is possible to see in one click which other customer can be visited in the vicinity, taking into account the last visit of this customer.”
The CRM therefore responds to the problems that arise daily for salespeople.
The quality-file index is one of the latest features added, it allows the salesperson to obtain a clear and precise vision of their CRM. This index calculates the completion rate of a file in the CRM and gives it a score out of 10 for each customer according to the number of information entered: contact, workforce, etc. This recent feature is constantly enriched, in particular recently with the addition of the customer's LinkedIn account for example.
In times of crisis, it is essential to prepare for recovery. This is a key condition for a smooth recovery. Salespeople are not idle as they approach their return to the road, and their companies equip them with the tools they will quickly need. Divalto is there for them.
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