Optimised Call Scheduling: Giving Field Sales People the Freedom To Sell

Your field sales people are exactly that – sales people. So why are they unnecessarily organising their own call schedules? It’s time for them to focus on what they do best – and technology holds the answer.

Think about how valuable field sales reps are to your organisation. Certainly, the best talent can bear significant fruit, and the more customers you put them in front of, the more sales you’re going to make.

So, when your field sales reps’ time is so valuable, why would you have them spend precious time planning their own call schedules, when they could be selling?

Manual route planning by field sales reps is far from efficient, and ultimately results in:

• More time spent routing than selling
• Higher mileage bills and carbon emissions
• Disconnects between corporate and personal goals
• Missed call and revenue opportunities

Experienced Reps Versus An Algorithm

There’s no doubt that field sales teams are extremely expensive to run. To make a positive return on this investment, you need to ensure your reps are driving less, and crucially, selling more. And it’s important to recognise that the skills that make great field sales people don’t necessarily make expert call schedulers and route planners. It simply shouldn’t be part of their job role.

Consider the number of variables: visits and drivetimes, worktime legislation, overnight stops, visit restrictions, decision maker availability, other events, the rurality of certain areas – the list can be endless.

The level of information required to make a quick and accurate set of route calculations is far beyond any human (more than 3.6 million for a day consisting of only ten calls).

The Right Software Can Reduce Time Spent Driving By Up to 20%

So, no matter how experienced the field sales person, they will never be able to achieve an optimal sequence of calls on their own, and their priority should always be selling.

A solution such as CACI’s CallSmart has the ability to optimise your team’s daily routes for each territory, and help your field sales reps reduce their mileage and maximise their calls – without taxing their valuable time.

Not only can the right software reduce time spent driving by up to 20%, automatically optimising routes for the whole team across the call cycle, means your company will spend up to 70% less time planning.

Less Driving, Fewer Emissions

Businesses are increasingly challenged to be more efficient in terms of their environmental impact. And the bigger the company, the greater the pressure. Indeed, most annual reports now devote entire sections to sustainability, and many have signed up to climate change goals.

By reducing driving time you’ll save money and also reduce carbon emissions.

But for most field sales teams, driving is an unavoidable activity, and often the only sensible way to travel around the country quickly.

So by reducing driving time, you’ll not only save money, but you’ll also reduce carbon emissions.

The Field Sales Team Planning Solution

While some field sales reps will be confident that they know the best way to schedule their calls, the fact is, it’s an impossibility. Automated software solutions are proven to yield far greater efficiency and greater revenues.

Aside from the fact that it’s impossible to factor in millions of calculations into planning decisions without software, the expense of running a field sales team, combined with inefficient call schedules affecting bottom lines, the case for automated call scheduling has never been greater.

CACI’s CallSmart software removes the guesswork by automatically identifying the most efficient call sequence for field sales reps. Many organisations are already seeing the benefits of CallSmart with 20% average reduction in drive time and fewer miles travelled.