Implementing Sustainable Merchandising

In the factory-to-customer cycle, merchandising is one of the most wasteful processes. From the fuel consumed by field reps to the amount of paper used in traditional audits and surveys, on top of promotional and seasonal displays, it is easy to see why merchandising is considered “eco-unfriendly”.

 

A field merchandising app can make a world of difference when it comes to sustainability. By adopting a field merchandising app, CPG and FMCG businesses can expect the following:

• Virtually eliminate the use of paper in in-store activities such as planogram checks, audits, surveys, and orders, among others. A state-of-the-art field merchandising app will also allow for instant access to the data collected, slashing the time and cost spent on data entry.
• Considerable savings in rep travel time and fuel thanks to the route optimization functions of field merchandising apps that automatically calculate the shortest store rounds.
• A cross-platform field merchandising app will allow reps to use the mobile devices they already own, eliminating the need to purchase new equipment.

As you can see, in an economy that demands sometimes significant cost cuts in order to achieve lean business operations, a field merchandising app can be invaluable not only when it comes to budget savings but also in reducing the environmental impact of merchandising activities.

VisitBasis Field Merchandising App is a complete mobile data collection solution designed to build, schedule and monitor field team activities in real time. It provides tools for all types of field merchandising activities, including planogram checks, audits, inspections, surveys, POS asset management, training, sampling and product demonstrations, among others.

See for yourself how VisitBasis can help with your organization’s sustainability efforts: sign up today!

 

Removing Sales Rep Objection to New Mobile Technologies

People in general are resistant to change. When implementing new business technologies, the field sales department tends to be the last one to cave in to the pressure of senior management, IT, or even HR, to change existing processes.

The most important reason for that is that no one wants to disrupt sales cycles (and risk jeopardizing revenues) even if it means that there will be a significant process improvement, despite the transition period.

After all, why should a sales rep go through the trouble of adjusting to a new process if it only means more bureaucracy and less customer-facing time? In order to remove manager and rep objection while implementing a field sales management app, it is critical to choose a solution that offers features that make a difference, such as the following:

• Tangible improvements – Some field sales management apps offer advanced tools such as route optimization – where a rep can calculate the shortest route for the day, easy access to sales literature, among others.
• More selling, less office work – A state-of-the-art field sales management app means full sales process automation, meaning that the rep should be able to virtually eliminate the extra time needed to fill out reports, provide customer summaries, etc.
• Cross-platform interface – This means that the rep will be able to work on his/her own mobile device, whether he/she prefers Apple or Android, smartphone or tablet. The field sales management app should work seamlessly across all of them, also reducing training time.

VisitBasis Field Sales Management App provides sales reps with all the information and tools they need to sell and managers with the opportunity to improve mentoring through monitoring of sales rep activity and sales team performance analysis. Watch the below video on some of VisitBasis most recent features:

Register today to get free access to VisitBasis Field Sales Management App at www.visitbasis.com. VisitBasis Mobile App for Field Sales Reps is available for free download on Google Play and App Store.

The Role of Field Marketing in Selling to Millennials

Retailers are facing many challenges these days. Added to the conservative consumer purchase behaviors of the past few years, millennials are bringing disruptive trends to retail, including a move towards online shopping.

Therefore it is more important than ever for field marketing to promote and ensure brand and category consistency across retailers, as well as target surveys and promotions accordingly.

Implementing a field marketing app can mean the difference between make and break when it comes to retail sales: By automating field marketing teams, enabling reps to collect store visit information on their mobile devices, management has real-time access to what is going on in the field, leading to increased consistency and faster decision-making.

A field marketing app for retail execution will also eliminate errors due to paperwork and data transcription, and can even increase the number of daily store visits with tools such as route optimization.

State-of-the-art field marketing apps are fast to deploy and easy to use. Field marketing apps allow companies to plan, monitor, control and analyze field marketing events in a new, innovative way, making store visits more effective, eventually coming closer to the millennial way of thinking. 

VisitBasis is a complete field marketing app that offers unique features for CPG and FMCG companies, merchandising agencies, and sales and marketing organizations alike. 

Want to see a field marketing app in action? Watch the below video and schedule a live demo today!

Learn more about VisitBasis Field Marketing App and sign up for a free trial.

Why Empowering Merchandising Teams is the Best Way to Improve Planogram Compliance

Maintaining planogram compliance is an ongoing challenge that most, if not all, retail professionals such as merchandising, brand, and category managers face on an everyday basis.

In order to maximize product and category profitability, it is mandatory to have a sustainable planogram compliance process in place since the investment made in launching a product can completely be undone by poor sales at the retail channel.

When it comes to dealing with planograms, it is key to enable better communication between all the retail channel stockholders – from the merchandising/category professional who develops the planogram, to the retailer and the field rep who will be verifying the POG at the point-of-sale.

A retail planogram software for compliance checks is an essential component of this equation. It enables office-based professionals, such as category and merchandising managers, to communicate clearly with field reps their views for optimal planograms. Furthermore, it allows for an almost immediate response in case of non-compliance.

Companies looking into implementing a retail planogram software for compliance checks should look for the following software characteristics:

• The ability for the field rep who is performing the planogram compliance check to refer to the original schematics, such as task- (in case of seasonal items) or location-specific attachments.
• Real-time monitoring of field activities and automatic notification of mission-critical retail situations, such as out-of-stocks.
• GPS-stamped data collection in order to avoid fraudulent check-ins.
• Easy-to-use, cross-platform so field reps will be comfortable using the app and increase audit accuracy.

VisitBasis provides CPG and FMCG manufacturers, retailers, and sales and marketing companies a state-of-the-art retail planogram software for compliance checks with all the key elements necessary for an effective empowerment of merchandising teams.

Let us show you how VisitBasis can help your merchandising team: Schedule a demo today!

What Effective Field Force Managers Are Doing – and It’s Not Out of Your Reach

Many small and medium-sized businesses are resistant to technology. With an if-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it approach to daily processes, and a natural “fear” of the unknown, they end up missing out on efficiency and profit-increasing opportunities brought by automation technology.

If your business still relies on spreadsheets and paper-based workflows to manage field teams, chances are you haven’t adopted any field force automation solution.

Field force automation solutions allow field personnel to perform tasks at the customer location on smartphones and tablets – while making it possible for management to monitor field activity from the office – and have been disruptive to the way companies with field teams do business, since they bring numerous benefits and are becoming increasingly affordable to implement.

A state-of-the-art field force automation solution should provide your company the following:

• A free, cross-platform mobile app for your field personnel to install on their existing Apple or Android smartphones or tablets.
• Scheduling and planning of field visits, and calculating the fastest route for each day.
• Customizable forms with different types of answers (text, photo, number, multiple choice, electronic signature), so you can tailor the field tasks to your company needs.
• Visual tracking and monitoring of field activities, with time-stamped and GPS-confirmed data, providing real-time data workflow and automatic synchronization with the office.
• Offline data collection, so your field team members will be able to work even without an Internet connection.
• Instant notification of specific events, such as visiting a certain location or performing a certain task.

VisitBasis is a comprehensive field force automation solution for businesses of all sizes.  VisitBasis allows creating task templates for everything that needs to be checked at the customer locations, providing a budget-friendly and easy-to-use system that helps you take full control of your field force activities.

Ready to try the benefits of field force automation? Sign up today at www.visitbasis.com for a free trial, or book a free online demo to see how it works.

How Software Forever Changed Retail Inspections

Retail inspections used to be a clumsy affair, from the amount of paper that had to be carried around and then stored to the lag time between an auditor performing the inspection at a retail location and a manager actually reading it.

Here are some ways in which retail inspection software revolutionized the industry:

1. Virtual elimination of the use of paper
   Paper forms were the norm in retail inspections. The use of retail inspection software means that auditors fill out forms on their smartphones or tablets.
2. Reduction in errors
   Not only they paper forms had to be carried around, but they also had to be transcribed. Retail inspection software allows managers to create custom electronic forms with selection fields, photos, and signatures, and the data is synchronized automatically. This means that there is less room for misunderstanding questions from a paper form as well as less errors while transcribing the forms into a database.
3. Faster decision-making
   It could take hours, or even days, for an operations manager at a central office to be notified of a potential problem detected during a retail inspection. From the time they left the retail location, inspectors had to log the data into a system – or worse, fax the form to someone who would do that – then the data had to be compiled, analyzed and sent to the appropriate stakeholder. Retail inspection software makes it possible for management to have real-time access to inspection results, and to act almost immediately to correct any issues.
4. Data safety
   Paper forms can get lost or misplaced, and storing data on company equipment and servers has its own security challenges. Most retail inspection software store data on the cloud, meaning that collected data will be safe with the latest security and encryption technologies.

Sign up today at www.visitbasis.com and start building your retail inspection software solution for free. VisitBasis mobile app is free for any number of users and can be downloaded from Google Play and App Store.

Wish You Could Have a Crystal Ball to Predict Sales Results? This Can Help You

Every sales manager gets anxious for the end of the month, when sales results come in and it becomes possible to know whether the organization is on track for the fiscal year, or not.

Sales tracking software makes it possible for managers to monitor day-by-day sales operations, allowing them to visualize every sales call for every rep in any territory. This makes it easier not only to see the numbers as the orders come in, but to spot situations that might prevent successful results and act faster to correct the course.

For instance, with a sales tracking software sales managers would be able to tell that a specific sales rep is seeing fewer costumers than desired every day. Or maybe a certain retail location has consistent out-of-stocks for a best-selling product and could place larger orders less frequently, freeing its sales rep to visit other customers. A state-of-the-art sales tracking software with mobile app for field reps may even eliminate in-between-calls or after-hours reporting and free up rep time to call on more customers.

More than a monitoring tool, sales tracking software can therefore become an invaluable instrument in mentoring outside sales reps so that revenue numbers will consistently grow.

VisitBasis is a comprehensive sales tracking software: It improves communication between sales management and the field so outside reps can have all the tools they need to succeed at their fingertips. And there is no need to invest in new hardware since the free VisitBasis mobile app works on most smartphones and tablets.

With VisitBasis Sales Tracking Software field reps are able to:

• Place orders and supply call-related information from wherever they are;
• Calculate the best route for the day, saving time and travel costs;
• Have access to customer and product databases, including the ability of adding new customers.

Try VisitBasis for free! Visit www.visitbasis.com to sign up.

 

The Secret Weapon of Successful Outside Sales Managers

Outside sales management is one of the most stressful positions in any organization. Besides having the managerial responsibilities that any supervisory role entails – including hiring, developing, and overseeing subordinates that sometimes spend weeks in the field – outside sales managers are also accountable for the most important part of any business: revenue generation.

Conciliating these responsibilities while maintaining full oversight of what is going on in a sales territory can be challenging, to say the least. Here is where an outside sales app can mean the difference between make and break: By automating field sales teams, enabling them to collect customer call information on their mobile devices, management has real-time access to what is going on in the field, leading to better mentoring and faster decision-making.

Other benefits of adopting an outside sales app include:

• Mobile ordering with bar code recognition, virtually eliminating off-call reporting activities
• Optimized GPS routing in order to improve the number of sales calls per day
• Call scheduling and planning integrated with Google Calendar
• True online/offline capabilities, so reps are able to work even if they don’t have coverage
• Instant notifications of specific tasks (such as orders) or visits to key accounts

It is very easy and cost-effective to implement an outside sales app: watch the below video on how to get started with VisitBasis.

VisitBasis Outside Sales App can bring to your business all the above benefits and more. Interested? Sign up for a free trial or schedule a demo!

3 Top Reasons Why Mobile Technology has Become a Must-Have in Retail Merchandising

In the past few years, mobile technology has caused a revolution in retail merchandising, to the point it is now indispensable. Here are the top reasons why mobile merchandising has become a must-have in retail:

1. Access to information at the point-of-sale: With mobile merchandising, reps can have immediate access to a multitude of information, from category and product presentation to detailed store data. This means knowing the store manager’s name or accessing the location’s specific planogram without having to go through paperwork or making phone calls. Instead, mobile merchandising apps give instant access to these critical pieces of information with just a couple of taps and swipes.
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2. No more admin people or tasks between reps and management: With a “legacy” merchandising system in place, throughout their workday, field reps collect merchandising information at the POSs, then either file reports online or send their paperwork to a person who will do it. This extra step means that information can get lost or misread, and that a lot of time has passed since the potential detection of a problem and its resolution. Mobile merchandising eliminates the intermediaries between data collection and analysis, so category managers can be on top of what is happening at the points-of-sale.
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3. Quality and precision of information collected: A top-of-the-line mobile merchandising system allows decision makers to design custom forms and request the exact information needed, with little room for guessing or interpretation errors. It is also possible to capture photos and signatures and the data will be GPS- and time-stamped, making sure it was collected at the right place and time.

Want to see a mobile merchandising system in action? Watch the below video and schedule a live demo today!

Learn more about VisitBasis Mobile Merchandising and sign up for a free trial.

How to Take Your Store Audits to the Next Level

Collecting audit information on several retail locations is a monumental task mainly due to the amount of data it generates.

Store audit software help retail businesses streamline the store audit process all the way from scheduling and planning visits to compiling data and generating reports.

More than merely reporting on past situations, though, state-of-the-art store audit software allows retail operations managers to view and act on audit findings in real time. For instance, it is possible to set up the store audit software so a manager will automatically receive a notification if one of the auditors finds an out-of-stock or a safety violation.

VisitBasis web-based checklist templates allow field reps to easily perform customized in-store tasks, spending less time on data collection and minimizing mistakes. All the data collected in the field, including photos, is GPS-confirmed and time-stamped to prevent fraudulent check-ins and reports.

With VisitBasis Store Audit Software, field team managers can easily monitor all field activities in real time using web-based dashboards and reports to identify situations that require their attention and receive automatic notifications of any critical findings.

Watch the below video to see how to set up automatic notifications on VisitBasis:

Interested in learning more about the most cost-effective store audit software in the market? Sign up for a VisitBasis free trial today!