Second Reason Why Salesman Surrenders is Hidden in Expense Reconciliation

This is the second blog in our series Why Salesman Surrenders. 

One thing always leaves me wondering. Every brand spends substantial amounts of money in hiring, training and encouraging their salesmen. The innate motive therein is to ensure their salesmen engage the brand’s retail channel partners, extract bigger sales out of existing and new outlets, among other things. 

But when it comes to really motivate their salesmen, they take the leeway, without thinking about what their salesmen truly want. Take for example the travel and dearness allowance. A critical part which not many salesmen talk about and those who do are barely heard. 

Every day, a field salesman travels miles to ensure the beat is covered in minimal time. He either takes public transport or his own conveyance, collecting bills on the go. At the end of the day, he sends them all to his manager- in person or in a picture over message. The next day, the same cycle repeats where he spends money from his own pocket, collects the bills and shares with his manager. 

It’ll be a mistake to think the cycle stops there. 

The manager’s hassle with the bills and passing it all to the finance team is yet another story, making the case all the more worse. While the process advances, the salesman keeps shelling money from his own pocket to ensure the business runs as smoothly as possible. 

It would be days, or even a whole week before the salesman receives a settlement of his expenses. Not to mention the hassles he goes through daily- collecting, calculating, circulating and managing bills, spending his precious productive hours. 

Read More: Introducing FieldAssist Travel and Dearness Allowance

Imagine his surprise when he learns his fellow salesman working for another company has his bills settled the very next day, and on occasions, the same day. He doesn’t even have to manage the bills. He can simply record it in the app by taking a picture, and his manager can approve it with just a click. Their finance team can settle it almost immediately by simply looking at the tallied, approved bill and reimbursing in a flash of a second. All with a transparent, automated Expense Management feature within their sales app. 

The salesman would be justified in surrendering sooner or later, won’t you agree?

In a twist of the tale, what if his brand had this simple and swift 3-step expense settlement process? 

• Where all that a salesman has to do is place his claim by choosing the travel date, travel type, and type of calculation i.e. actual billing or kilometres travelled; or simply upload the photo and submit. And just like that, it’s automatically sent to his manager. 
• The manager gets to see all the expenses from the entire team in an expense report, edit the amounts where required, and approve it. All with just one click, instead of wading through emails or physical bills.
• The finance team, saved from having to look through piles of physical bills, tally and recalculate the amount or dive through approvals, can quickly settle the amount for each expense. All they have to do is put actual reimbursed values against the ones approved by managers.

Incredibly simple, isn’t it?

Modern-day management backed by intelligent technology ensures an easier journey for all, including salesmen. Why make it complicated and challenging? 

You must connect with our success enablers for all the tested ways to keep your salesmen motivated and productive. Get in touch. 

Stay tuned for more reasons why the salesman surrenders. If you know one, we would love to hear.

Meanwhile watch the story of growth, grit & being authentic