A Q&A with Santa, and Fleet Manager Mrs Claus, of North Pole Inc
As a business with a sales fleet, your priorities lie with hitting those sales targets and ensuring your team is as productive as possible.
Keeping a close eye on all your reps activities out on the road, is vital to ensure you build the most efficient workforce and keep costs down.
Vehicle tracking is the next step towards increasing your team's productivity and seeing a significant rise in your number of appointments. Only when you fully understand how your team is performing, can you take action to boost efficiency and stay ahead of your competition.
So, why would you use vehicle tracking for your sales fleet?
Keep track of your reps productivity
Vehicle tracking allows you to see exactly how many potential clients were visited, stops made and time spent behind the wheel. You can identify whether too much or too little time was spent with a prospect. Too much time with one customer leaves less time with another potential sale, too little time may mean a missed opportunity.
The vehicle tracking device will also show you where reps may be taking inefficient routes, meaning more time wasted, increased wages and higher fuel costs. By identifying the best routes for every driver, you can drastically improve your number of appointments per rep and slash unnecessary costs spent on fuel and salaries.
Determine accurate mileage
Inevitably, you will come across sales reps using their vehicles for personal use. When the split between business and private use isn't always clear, it can be difficult to keep track of mileage expenses. This lack of clarity can mean you end up paying for a rep that's taking a trip to the shop or dropping off the dry cleaning.
When reps come to claim back their mileage expenses, are you confident you're paying for business use only? To ensure you're keeping expenses to a minimum, our tracking devices are fitted with a business/private button. Your staff can push this button and alert the system every time private journeys are taken. This gives you an accurate report of the exact number of miles you should reimburse and cuts precious time spent on admin.
Lower insurance premiums
The price you pay for insurance is determined by the risk you present to the insurer. When you lower that risk, your premiums are reduced. With vehicle tracking, your company vehicles are monitored 24/7, giving you the power to fight against vehicle theft.
If a vehicle is stolen, your vehicle tracking system will notify you immediately. Since the device identifies the exact whereabouts of each vehicle, you are more likely to recover your stolen property. This is crucial from an insurer's point of view which is why they will reward you and bring the price of your insurance down.
Insurers are equally aware that your reps' behaviour will be significantly improved, resulting in better driving habits and fewer accident claims. This reduces risk to the insurer and businesses have reported saving thousands of pounds every year in insurance costs.
Reduce employee turnover
Sales employees will come and go; it's the nature of the business. With vehicle tracking you will have a better understanding of who is cut out for the job and who isn't. This allows you to hold on to your very best salesforce and identify those who simply aren't performing. You can boost employee morale and further establish your company culture by creating incentives for top performers. This helps create friendly competition between colleagues and maintain high levels of productivity.
There are plenty of reasons why sales employees would leave your company, and when you least expect it, your top performer could be walking straight out the front door. Whether it's not getting enough miles to make enough money, lack of home time, outside sales is not what they expected, or they don't like the way they were dispatched.
Vehicle tracking will keep your drivers happy by connecting drivers with the right jobs, identifying the best routes, and reducing paperwork. This all contributes towards drivers who no longer need to deal with poor maps and bad directions to enjoy the open road. With better route planning they spend less time staying late trying to navigate the roads, and more time spent at home. A happy workforce means your drivers stay loyal to your business for longer.
When reps head out on the roads, without vehicle tracking it's almost impossible to follow their every move. For sales managers, being aware of your staff's behaviour is the crucial deal breaker for improving the overall output of your team. The bottom line: when you put the tools in place to achieve maximum output, you can undoubtedly surpass your sales expectations.