Save up to 25% of your field force costs
There are fundamental questions that companies may want to address to achieve an increase in the efficiency of their field team.
- Where should they call?
- How many people are needed?
- Who should cover each call?
- When should the call be made?
CACI can help companies answer these questions and achieve significant improvements in efficiency. These improvements are not just limited to teams in the FMCG world. For many B2B sales teams, where call patterns are less routine and predictable, it is unrealistic to expect sales personnel to adhere to static call schedules, and it is also difficult to make accurate predictions of travel times. However, B2B organisations can still benefit from ensuring that field territories are structured around the road network - in fact, given the rather more unpredictable nature of B2B, and the fact that they often have to go from one side of their territory to another, it could be argued that an inefficient territory structure penalises B2B companies just as much, if not more, than FMCG companies. So, whatever you sell, as long as you want to do more calls, less driving, have balanced territories or save planning time, our experts can help.
Where should they call?
It is important to be sure that your reps are spending time with the customers that offer the biggest opportunity.
CACI offers a combination of catchment models and market potential data to rank stores. Contact strategies can be applied to ensure that the highest sales uplift is achieved at the lowest cost. CACI also works with data providers in B2B to identify areas of high potential, and in the creation of business universe and opportunity lists for prospecting.
How many people do they need?
Field personnel spend time calling and driving. Most companies know how much time they need to spend in-call, but do not know how much time is needed between calls.
Driving accounts for an average of 40% of a field person's day. It is crucial to know how much driving our field team need to do to identify the required headcount - getting this wrong, even by a small degree, will mean too many or too few people.
CACI's InSite FieldForce software can identify exactly how much driving your team need to do to get around your customers, which will give you an accurate headcount - no wasted money, no missed opportunities.
Who should cover each call?
In essence, there are two ways to create a new territory structure - planning or optimising.
Territory planning involves looking at maps, whether they be hard-copy or using basic mapping software, and making manual, subjective allocations of calls to field personnel. This approach offers no certainty in achieving the most efficient territory structure.
Territory optimisation involves using the automated algorithm within InSite FieldForce to make efficient, objective allocations of calls so that planning time is cut by 70% and the driving of the field team can be cut by up to 30%. This approach reduces CO2 emissions and fuel bills, and will flex workload to account for the different amounts of driving in different parts of the country.
When should the call be made?
CallSmart, CACI's call scheduling software, will automatically create efficient call schedules in a fraction of the time it would take to do manually, drastically reducing time spent planning and driving, freeing up time for your field people.