Field sales software is a phone app, usually part of a CRM, that plans a field salesperson's visits, records their arrival at each shop, clinic or office, and files the report of each visit. It is also called sales force automation (SFA), or a field force app. In India, it is widely used by pharmaceutical companies, consumer goods companies, paint and cement makers and lenders, whose salespeople meet customers in person.
A field salesperson's day is a route. A medical representative, who explains a company's medicines to doctors, may visit 12 clinics and 4 chemists in a day. A consumer goods salesperson may visit 40 shops. Managers need to know that the visits happened, what was discussed and what was ordered. Before these apps, salespeople filled in paper diaries or sent a message at night, and managers could not check them.
The app does four jobs. First, it plans. Each morning, it shows the day's visits in an order that makes sense on the map, based on how often each customer should be visited. Second, it checks in. At each place, the salesperson taps "check in", and the app records the time and the phone's GPS location. If the location is far from the customer's address, the visit is flagged. Third, it records. After the visit, the salesperson fills in a short form, for example which medicines were discussed, which samples were given or what the shop ordered. The app works offline, because many shops and clinics have a weak mobile signal, and sends the data when the signal returns. Fourth, it reports. Managers see every visit on a dashboard.
Say a medical representative in Madurai has 14 visits planned for a Tuesday. At 10:12 a.m., she checks in at a children's clinic, 30 metres from its listed address. She discusses a new cough syrup with the paediatrician, gives 6 sample bottles, and records both in the app. At 1:40 p.m., at a chemist, she records an order for 120 bottles. That order goes to the distributor management system of the local distributor who supplies the chemist. By 7 p.m., she has completed 13 of the 14 visits. Her manager sees that one clinic was closed, and moves that visit to Thursday.
Pharma companies send the visit data to pharma commercial analytics, which compares visits with prescriptions and sales. In consumer goods, the app often also takes a photo of the shop shelf, which shelf image recognition checks for the company's products. Some shops now order without any visit, through a B2B ordering portal.