Web 2.0 technologies are gaining weight in companies’ Internet investments. Blogs, wikis, web services, peer to peer networking, social networks, mash-ups, all those tools are part of the shift towards Web 2.0. By relying on user collaboration, impact on sales force seems sizeable since reps represent a population with high communication and sharing needs.
Usually a rep’s day is split in three parts: preparation, selling, reporting. The first and the third phase are usually accomplished from home (or from the office), the second one is the only real “field” phase.
Sales force have a steady training need, every company strives to train correctly this group that ensures the relationship between the industrial and its clients.
In most industrial companies, working on the field before evolving towards positions involving higher responsibilities is mandatory. Thus, the sales force is often a talent pool from which future decision takers emerge to evolve towards management functions inside the company.
