While automotive brands consider whether to keep the traditional franchise model or transition to an agency or hybrid approach, nurturing retailer network management has never been more critical. Indeed, according to PWC’s ‘Car Consumer & Dealer Survey’, there remains a strong appetite for consumers to carry on visiting dealerships, so maintaining this channel is essential. Implementing systems and processes can future-proof organisations, helping them navigate the changes more smoothly. For OEM Head of Sales, the key to success lies in effectively managing interactions with the field team.
What challenges exist for a field team?
As the primary point of contact between your dealer network and the brand, field teams play a crucial role in supporting, training and resolving dealer issues to drive performance. However, do you have a clear grasp of how your field team is performing?
Numerous challenges can arise, such as:
- The field team may not systematically arrange visits, resulting in missed opportunities.
- Communications can be missed due to the use of multiple channels.
- Dealerships may not adhere to brand standards.
- There can be a lack of consistency in customer experience.
- Dealerships may not complete required training, leading to poor knowledge of new products and services.
- Valuable customer feedback might not be captured.
- Time may be wasted on labour-intensive tasks (e.g. manually handling data from disparate sources), instead of focussing on innovative thinking.
- There may be a lack of compliance with regulations.
Although far from exhaustive, this list illustrates the broad responsibilities of the field team and the importance of a centralised approach to managing performance across the network. To empower field teams to perform their best, two specific tools are essential: action planning and visit planning software. When the two tools are used in unison, particularly as part of an integrated business performance management solution, the magic starts to happen!
Must-have network performance tools for managing and empowering field teams
Action Planning Software
Area Managers can create actions for location managers based on KPIs, which in turn the field team can create custom action plans for their dealers. With this full visibility, collaboration is easier and improvement opportunities can be identified and acted upon. Here we explore what features and functionality an effective action planning tool should include and why:
Centralising and streamlining task management offers numerous benefits, including time savings by assigning actions to the appropriate users and automating reminders. It also enhances context by linking actions to KPIs and providing more detailed information through comments and uploads. Additionally, it ensures an auditable record of requested and completed tasks, enables prioritisation of important items and allows sensitive tasks to be marked as confidential.
Armed with this tool your field team have the ability to drive the desired outcomes by taking action on insights. Area Managers also get a clear overview of the field team’s activity on the ground with a central repository giving an auditable trail and boosting accountability. Positive trends in action planning can be identified, for example, a location that has resolved the most actions in a set period, and best practices shared across the network.
Visit Planning Software
A Visit Planning module is essential for Head Office and Area Managers to gain visibility of their field team activities, as well as enforcing consistency in the way that visits are conducted, by way of standardised agendas. Here’s what to look for in a Visit Planning tool:
The benefits of a visit planning tool include significant time savings through downloadable reports, direct calendar notifications and templated visit agendas. Look for a tool that allows you to customise agenda points for each visit and links to action plans for a truly comprehensive and tailored approach. The ability to quickly check the status of actions during meetings also ensures smooth progress, as details van be verified on the spot.
Having a Visit Planning tool ensures there are documented, auditable records of dealer visits. This improved transparency allows the field team and dealers to follow clear actions and assess progress from one meeting to the next. This flow of traceable communications is especially handy when there’s a change in personnel, as well as giving the Area Manager a plotted history of the retailer’s journey with the brand.
A field team equipped with a comprehensive business performance solution, including the tools mentioned above, along with visibility of centralised data, will be better positioned to support dealers to meet your KPIs. As an Area Manager, you can audit this data to ensure you have the right team to effectively manage your valuable dealer network.
Loop covers all aspects of OEM retailer management, replacing offline, manual processes with a software platform that houses KPI reporting, scorecards, actions, field team visits, and retailer audits in one, secure location. To date, Loop has scheduled over 17,500 meetings and assigned more than 215,000 actions for our partners; proving itself to be a solution that drives collaboration and efficiency for optimum impact. To see for yourself, book in for a demo here.
