Summer's here! Well not technically, but it always feels like it once we hit June. To celebrate (with what is definitely not just a coincidence) we launched call, text, and email tracking to Outfield this week. As you may already know, Outfield was originally designed to help field teams and as a result we focused mainly on field touchpoints such as check-ins and meetings. Now that we have expanded to a [performance-based CRM](https://www.outfieldapp.com), it was time to expand the types of touchpoints you can track to include phone calls, text messages, and emails.

### Phone Calls

Similar to check-ins, you can now log phone calls using either the web or mobile Outfield apps. You can also attach images, record duration, and complete forms to gather any custom data you would like to track & analyze. Unlike check-ins, phone calls have a field for the call result which can be one of the following values: answered, did not answer, left a voicemail, left a message with someone else, or invalid phone number.

![phone-call-tracking](https://9307172.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/9307172/phone-call-tracking.png)

You can then analyze call results over time in your productivity analytics charts and gain insight into the effectiveness of your program.  

### Text Messages

Texts are also now trackable within Outfield. However, that's only one side of the coin. The other side is what you do with that data. As you'll see later in this post when automations are discussed, you can easily trigger custom actions based on sent or received texts (or any other type of activity). For example, when you receive a text from a customer that contains a certain keyword, you can configure the system to automatically send a text or email response based on that keyword, or trigger a task for the relevant rep to follow up.

![text-message-tracking](https://9307172.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/9307172/text-message-tracking.png)

### Emails

The final new activity type that we have launched is emails. Like other touchpoints, these can be created manually during or after they happen, or they can be created automatically. 

![email-tracking](https://9307172.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/9307172/email-tracking.png)

With the addition of phone calls, text messages, and email activity to Outfield, you can now capture the complete picture of your touchpoint activity as you manage your accounts and leads. These new activity types not only apply to your accounts, but also to your team performance. We have incorporated each of these into your customizable performance system so you can weight the value of a phone call, text, email, call duration, and more. You can also set corresponding goals and build these into custom competitions for your team to boost results within an environment of friendly competition. However, more activity types does not mean more time spent logging data. Read on to see how to automate activity tracking and use that data to trigger important business functions.

### Automations

Instead of manually logging all your calls, texts, and emails, it's easy to integrate Outfield out of the box with your call and email platforms as well as 4000+ other business apps. For example, you can automatically log calls made via Zoom or RingCentral to the corresponding account in Outfield and include a link to the recording of the call. Similarly, you can automatically log sent and received emails occurring in Gmail or Outlook to the corresponding account in Outfield.

Automated logging is just the kickoff. The real excitement starts when you start using this data to automatically trigger other actions that are useful for your business. Here are just a few ideas focused on calls and emails to help spark your imagination and extrapolate to check-ins, tasks, deals, and other Outfield CRM functions.  

-   Automatically send auto-responder messages to prospects and customers who display specified behaviors. For example, send a promotional offer to any account that stagnates in your deal pipeline or any contact that visits your pricing page.
-   Notify management when discovery calls are too short or too long so you can ensure your team is hitting that sweet spot every time.
-   Automatically send a followup email when a custom form field is answered a certain way by one of your reps. For example, if they visited a prospect and reported that they left a product sample, auto send a followup email with additional product info or other details to progress the lead.
-   If one of your reps hits their touchpoint goal, sales quota, or even breaks a team record, then automatically send them their reward and custom congrats.

To learn more, check out our [integrations page](https://www.outfieldapp.com/integrations) and our [Zapier page](https://zapier.com/apps/outfield/integrations). 

### Other Notable Highlights

-   The activity filter on account pages and team member pages has been upgraded on the Outfield web app to include all the relevant options found elsewhere in the app, such as by form, activity type, date range, etc.
-   "Deal created" has been added to the customizable performance system and is now independent of "Deal progressed stage"
-   You can now set actions in the performance system to zero points as opposed to the previous 0.1 minimum. 
-   The team member filter in analytics on the Outfield web app has been improved to support filtering by multiple team members at once.

We launched call and email tracking to Outfield to help you better manage your customer touchpoints both in the field and in office.

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Call, Text, & Email Tracking - Jun 3 Feature Update

Letter To Shareholder’s Update #1

May 22, 2022

Hello there Outfield investors and prospective investors. This is the first of many reports you’ll receive from us. In our efforts to be completely transparent, you can expect to hear from us at least once a month; sometimes more often. Also, over the course of our relationship together, feel free to reach out direct with any questions you may have.

As a Founder and CEO of Outfield, I’m truly excited about where we’re going within the marketplace, but before I dive into that, let’s review the last few months.

**REVIEW**

Since January we’ve returned Outfield to profitability for the first time in 2 solid years. January – April of this year, a 40% profit margin (cash accounting) has been generated.  In the black is where we feel most comfortable in terms of sustainability and, quite frankly, has been our mode of operation as a bootstrapped start-up for most of our company’s existence.

If you’re wondering how we achieved this after 2 years of burning through about 40k a month in cash, I’ll point to the two main drivers:

**Labor**

Labor makes up a large percentage of our company’s total operating costs. About 65%-70% to be exact. Since December, we have shaved headcount in our cost centers along with positions where we haven’t seen a clear ROI. 

**Hiring of Key Positions**

We removed customer retention and growth responsibilities from our Account Executive department and created an Account Management department to handle these functions. Separation, specialization, and focus has contributed to the growth of our current customer base in terms of overall spend.

**Revenue**

As we speak about revenue, please be aware that sometimes we speak in terms of Cash Accounting. In other instances, we may speak on an Accrual Accounting basis.

January through April, Outfield has generated 675k (cash accounting) in revenue. That puts us on pace to generate at least 2m in revenue for this calendar year. Over 100% growth year over year. This is assuming that our cash position stays the same. Growth capital can significantly change our revenue projections.

**MOVING FORWARD**

**Sales**

We are currently seeking out talent that will expand the headcount of our sales organization. Adding sales people diversifies and expands our sales capabilities while insulating us from the instability of any potential sales rep churn. We believe we can achieve a 4x-5x ROI across all sales orgs.

**Marketing**

Marketing spend as a percentage of total costs is expected to increase month over month in order to generate more prospective customers. More specifically, our focus will be on Google Ads and potentially other digital ad platforms

**Product Roadmap**

As many of you may be aware, Outfield is positioning its platform in the marketplace as “the gamified CRM”. We are taking a more modern approach to driving CRM adoption and proper utilization to boost our customer’s sales rep performance.

Over the next few months we will be releasing a ground breaking expansion to our League Play™ tech. This next phase of League Play™ won’t be just about leaderboards and goal setting, it will include fantasy sports type matchups among sales reps – local and global matchups.

Local: Users of the same company will compete with each other in weekly head to head matchups.

Global: Users of Outfield will find themselves competing with individuals across other companies in weekly head to head matchups. And eventually, this will morph into companies competing against other companies.

As I mentioned, we are excited about our approach to leveraging game theory to drive sales rep performance. With the millennial generation getting ready to dominate the workforce, we believe this is the perfect time for introducing a new approach to CRM.

**KEY TAKE AWAYS**

1.  Outfield is now profitable again.
2.  We are focused on expanding our sales and marketing capabilities
3.  We are set to introduce more ground breaking tech to the CRM space.

Austin Rolling

CEO @ Outfield

austin@outfieldapp.com

An update on relevant business events for current and prospective investors

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Letter To Shareholder’s Update #1

The glory days of thinking up a simple password like BusyBee3 and using it for all your services are sadly over. These days that 8 character password can be cracked with brute force in a [matter of minutes](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-an-8-character-password-could-be-cracked-in-less-than-an-hour/). But creating a strong password is just the tip of the cyber iceberg. The entire cyberg can be a bit overwhelming, so rather than cover every detail let's focus on the first few steps that every CRM user can take to raise their security game from rookie to rising star. But let's see if we can do it in a way that actually makes things both more secure as well as less work for you. As they say, "knowing more is doing less."

### Use Strong Passwords

Back to the tip of the iceberg: strong passwords. This one is fortunately pretty simple. It's all about length. Well mostly. In general, each additional character you add to your passwords will create the biggest difference in terms of its strength...much more so than say using a number instead of a letter. For example, a 16 character, letters-only password is [8 million times harder to guess](https://blog.1password.com/how-long-should-my-passwords-be/) than a 12 character password. On the other hand, a 12 character password with numbers is only 8 times harder to crack than a 12 character letters-only password. Long story short: it's better to think of a password as a passphrase...and if you can also add just a little extra complexity then it will help fend off any dictionary-based cracks. So a strong passphrase that is relatively easy to remember might be something like RaisingUpFor3Bang!It'sGood. This 26 character passphrase checks all the boxes: 1) it's long, 2) it has just a bit of complexity, 3) it's relatively easy to remember. 

### Don't Re-use Passwords

Now you might be thinking, "Nah man. I don't want to be typing a book on my phone just to sign in...and now you're telling me I'm going to need to remember dozens of long passphrases? I'm going to stick with BusyBee3 bro." Well, I have good news for you. This problem was solved over a decade ago, and its solution is a password manager app.

Password manager apps will both simplify your life by greatly reducing the number of passwords you need to memorize (down to as little as one), as well as take your security game up a notch by making it dirt simple to use strong + unique passwords across every service you use. And when you sign in to a service from your phone, you may not even need to type anything since you can authenticate into your password manager with your fingerprint or face and then it will automatically enter your username and password for you...and even press the sign in button. There are many great password managers these days such as [1Password](https://1password.com) and [LastPass](https://www.lastpass.com). They also integrate seamlessly into your web browser and mobile devices.

### Two Factor Authentication

This brings us to [two factor authentication](https://authy.com/what-is-2fa/) (2FA), which is also referred to as multi factor authentication (MFA). Again, I know what you might be thinking, "Hold up Bro Jackson. I need to be good at passwords and something else?" Well, yes and no. I say yes because 2FA does add a second step after you enter your password where you then enter a special one-time code generated from somewhere else. But I say no because if you use a quality password manager, it will enter this one-time code for you so you don't need physically perform any extra steps. This type of two factor authentication is technically called a software-generated time-based, one-time passcode ([TOTP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-based_one-time_password)) and is currently the preferred method for 2FA over the other types such as SMS text message or "secret questions" like when you sign in somewhere and then it asks you what city were you born in.

Let's make this a bit more concrete and see how you can easily enable & use 2FA in Outfield's CRM. First, you can enable 2FA at the bottom of [My Preferences](https://run.outfieldapp.com/web/settings) in the Outfield web app by clicking the Enable Two Factor Authentication button.

![enable two factor authentication](https://9307172.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/9307172/enable%20two%20factor%20authentication.png)

It will then generate a special code for you that you can scan as a QR code using your password manager (or an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator).

![scan 2FA QR code](https://9307172.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/9307172/scan%202FA%20QR%20code.png)

Last step, confirm your current password and enter the current generated code from your password manager (or authenticator app) and click the Confirm & Enable button.

![confirm 2FA verification code](https://9307172.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/9307172/confirm%202FA%20verification%20code.png)

That's all there is to it. Now whenever you sign in to the Outfield web or mobile apps it will ask you to enter a one-time code generated from your password manager (or authenticator app) after entering your regular username and password. Again, if you use a quality password manager, it will enter it for you. 

![CRM two factor authentication](https://9307172.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/9307172/CRM%20two%20factor%20authentication.jpg)

### Additional Tips & Resources

Between using strong passwords, unique passwords, password manager apps, and two factor authentication you should be well on your way to leveling up your cybersecurity skills when using CRM or any other service or app. From here, I suggest you have a look at other best practices for security on the internet. Here are a few to get you started:

-   Keep all your apps and device operating systems up to date
-   Use a VPN especially when on public wifi and even avoid public wifi whenever possible
-   Avoid opening suspicious emails
-   Use a secure file sharing & messaging solution
-   Check links before you click
-   Disable bluetooth when you don't need it
-   Make sure important data is backed up regularly and securely 

Here at Outfield, we are constantly working to preserve our industry leading security program and remain current with state of the art security practices. We are committed to inspiring trust and protecting the privacy of our customer’s data so our customers can concentrate on their business. It is this commitment that motivates our decision making every day and our team holds this responsibility in the highest regard. For more on Outfield's security policy, check out our [Security Summary](https://www.outfieldapp.com/security).

How to use CRM more securely and with less work with these industry leading best practices and tips.

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Cybersecurity Best Practices For CRM

Over the last month we have continued to build upon the new [customizable performance and goals system](/goals-customizable-performance-system-nov-29-feature-update). Last month we added the first batch of [new performance system actions](/custom-point-system-actions-dec-27-feature-update) for the diligence category. This month we have added custom performance system actions for the hustle category and upgraded how KPIs are set and tracked.

### Custom Hustle Performance System Actions

Similar to the diligence category, you can now also create your own custom performance point system actions by clicking the button at the bottom of the hustle section within Performance+ ➔ Settings. These custom actions are linked directly to your form fields. For example, if you have a form called "Event form" with a form field called "How many people attended your event?" then you can create a custom action where you award say 3 performance points every time a rep has an event where more than 100 people attended. 

![custom hustle performance system actions](https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/9307172/custom%20hustle%20performance%20system%20actions.png)

Depending on your form field, you can create a condition to trigger the reward using greater than, less than, equal to, contains, or not empty. Now imagine all the new powers that this system can provide. Done? I assume you envisioned how you can now automatically reward your reps for just about anything that is unique to your workflows and strategy. Reward for when they check the box that product samples were given during a visit. Reward for when they document customer feedback in a text field. Reward for anything you need. The performance system is now near-infinitely customizable.

But not only do these new custom performance system actions apply to awarding performance points, they also apply to the goals system. Continuing with our example above for the form field called "How many people attended your event?", you can now create a goal for your reps such as challenging them to host say 10 events per month with more than 100 people in attendance. Then everyone will be able to view their progress toward this goal, receive notifications as they hit milestones along the way, and see how they are doing compared to their peers. So the goals system is also now totally customizable to your specific needs.

![goal for custom hustle action](https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/9307172/goal%20for%20custom%20hustle%20action.png)

### Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Upgrade

Marking any performance system action as a KPI now enables the following features:

1.  New KPI sections are created on your dashboard allowing you to track their performance at a glance.
2.  You can aggregate all goals created for KPIs and view your combined KPI goal achievement rate in the Goals tab on your Analytics page.
3.  For custom hustle KPIs associated with one of your form fields, it emboldens them at the top of the Market Insights tab on your Analytics page so you can more effectively look for trends compared to other results.

The major upgrade here is in the first item above. Now any performance system action that you mark as a KPI will create a new section for it on your dashboard. For example, the screenshot below for a check-in duration KPI shows how your team is doing this month compared to last month in terms of how much time reps are spending on location. 

![check in per hour duration KPI box](https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/9307172/check%20in%20per%20hour%20duration%20KPI%20box.png)

You can also compare by week and year in addition to month. These KPI sections will also show for any of your custom performance system actions that you mark as KPIs, which means (you guessed it) the third leg of the triple crown of customizability has been won: the dashboard is also now completely customizable to your unique workflows. 🏆

### Other Highlights

-   The [new Outfield branding](/ceo-announces-performance-based-rebrand) is now live on the web and mobile apps. We will be continuing to replace the old logo with the new one in all the less critical locations in the coming weeks.
-   The [Outfield Zapier integration](https://zapier.com/apps/outfield/integrations) is now publicly available on Zapier. Thanks to all who have been providing feedback while it was only privately available. We are now working on making zap templates and other support materials.
-   The Outfield Android app now has a mark all as read button in chat.

We upgraded KPIs, the performance system, & the goals system yet again so now all three can be linked to your form fields for a customizability trifecta.

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KPI Upgrade & More Performance System Actions - Jan 26 Feature Update

Outfield…, a performance-based CRM? Like the rest of our audience, you may be wondering what that means or even why the switch.  

Well, the change-up is a direct result of an honest conversation we had with ourselves around the current state of the CRM space. The market is missing an important attribute. Vendor accountability.  
  
We created this “performance based” category in an effort to be true partners with our customers. That means everything from our business model to operations and even our pricing is revamped to reflect that passion. Imagine a playing field where our customer’s goals become our goals, we both get rewarded.  
  
Since our existence, we have always been forward-thinking and set our eyes on solving new problems. Over the course of our journey, we’ve identified two challenges within the broader CRM space.

**Low CRM Adoption**    
Adoption is arguably the most significant challenge companies are facing. In fact, according to the Miller Heiman Group, 43% of CRM customers use fewer than half of their CRM features. This essentially means a company could be spending a million dollars a year and lose over 500k in value. And from our experience, adoption issues are driven by three leading causes 1) lack of motivation from sales reps 2) lack of training 3) poorly designed user interfaces. We’ve focused our attention on solving for each of these items. After all, what good is a CRM if no one uses it?  
   
**Vendor Misalignment**  
The second major problem is that CRM companies are detached from the outcome of their customer’s goals. The customer eventually feels like they missed the mark because achieving their goals was the main reason they became customers of the CRM. This misalignment in objectives between both parties leaves CRM companies indifferent towards the outcomes of their customers. Meanwhile, the CRM partner still gets paid regardless of whether their customers are successful.

  

### So what if we can change this?

In 2019, we launched LeaguePlay™, an extension that leverages behavioral psychology to drive results. We created a reputation-based platform allowing sales reps to receive credit that will motivate them to use their CRM comprehensively as opposed to not knowing their CRM goals. We not only changed how sales reps viewed our CRM, but also how managers connected with it.    
  
Over the last two years, we gathered our CRM usage data impacted by game mechanics. After interviewing 100 sales managers, we uncovered that 90% of sales managers found that introducing game mechanics to their sales strategy positively impacted sales numbers, revenue, and employee morale.  
[](https://tryout.outfieldapp.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-gamify-your-sales-team)

#### [Check out the rest of the data in our whitepaper.](https://tryout.outfieldapp.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-gamify-your-sales-team)

All this data helped us conclude that this is the best approach to solving the adoption problem, but that didn’t solve the misalignment.  
  
What if your CRM company partnered you with a performance specialist who aligned your company’s sales goals with your team’s CRM usage and was rewarded for not only improving your team’s CRM usage but also for improving your company’s sales goals?  
  
  
As salespeople, we are wired to think about our comp plans in terms of base salaries combined with variable pay. And that variable pay is based solely on that our ability to drive results.  
  
So it’s not a stretch to think that CRM vendors should be compensated in a similar fashion. CRM companies profess all day about how they’ll help you increase sales…well prove it!  
  
We can’t expect to help you if adoption is low, and that’s precisely where you begin if you want to make a true impact. Next is to truly understand client goals, agree on KPIs, and once we achieve those goals, we share in the success.

### Here’s how it will work

We will continue to offer the traditional pricing plans where you simply pay for license access. We acknowledge some people are comfortable with this.

  
Example: Traditional Pricing Plan

10 person team x $69.99 x 12 months = $8398.80

However, in the spirit of establishing a win/win relationship and proving our value, we will also offer an alternative pricing plan. One that we believe is much better and that’s the performance-based plan. Suppose the customer opts for the performance-based plan. In that case, the expectation is that licensed access is discounted from standard pricing and combined with variable incentives based on our performance relative to the set goals. The customer will pay out the variable incentives quarterly over the course of the contract. Based on performance, the variable pay would range between $0 - $45 per head.

Example: Base Compensation

10 person team x $50 x 12 months = $6000.

Variable:

If we reached 100% of our goals, the variable compensation would look like this:  
  
10 person team x 45 x 12 = $5400.

Therefore total amount the customer would pay over the course of the year would be:

$6000 + $5400 = $11,400

  
So in comparing the two plans, the traditional model could result in a lower cost to the customer in the end. However, it is less goal oriented and less proactive. The alternative pricing model could result in a higher cost to the customer, but only under the condition that their goals were achieved.  
  
Ultimately, it’s left up to the customer which option they’re most comfortable with. Our guess is that most CRM customers would have a heightened appreciation for a vendor that had a stake in their success.

### What’s next?

Our rebrand was a journey that we were destined to find to embrace our identity and how we saw our ability to generate value in the CRM space. Now, it feels like we have hit a home run. As the performance-based CRM company, Outfield is becoming the leading CRM adoption expert through leveraging game theory and behavioral psychology to drive performance and user adoption.  
  
We are committed to this rebrand and have a lot of changes to come. I am excited to share this news with you all and look forward to your feedback. After all, we wouldn’t have seen the clear need for this change without hearing from you.  
  

* * *

  

### Reimagine CRM usage with Outfield

We believe in what we are doing and invite you to join us on our journey. If you are curious or want to know how to get started, you should sign up for our early backers’ program. Subscribers will be the first to know when we launch our crowdfunding campaign.  
  
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CEO Announces Outfield Performance-Based Rebrand

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CEO Announces Performance-Based Rebrand

Following onto our [previous major release](/goals-customizable-performance-system-nov-29-feature-update), over the last month we have added a couple more enhancements that didn't make it in. 

### New Default Point System Actions 

First up, we have added two new default performance point system actions. The first is for goals completed on time. As the name implies, this action allows you to grant performance points in the diligence category when reps complete their goals by the due date. The second new default is for goals overachieved by 25% or more. This action distributes performance points in the hustle category when, you guessed it, a rep outperforms their goal by a significant margin.  

![goal_completed_default_actions](https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/9307172/goal_completed_default_actions.png)

### Custom Point System Actions

Next, you can now also create your own custom performance point system actions by clicking the button at the bottom of the diligence section. The first type that we launched is for when a specific custom form is completed. For example, if you have a form called "Visit form", you can add a custom action for Visit form: completed where reps will earn say 3 performance points every time they complete that form when submitting a check-in or meeting. This can come in especially useful if you use custom forms to break down your visits into different types with varying degrees of importance, such as with forms for discovery meeting, demo meeting, business proposal meeting, etc.

![custom_performance_point_actions](https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/9307172/custom_performance_point_actions.png)

### Other Highlights 

-   You can now filter deals to show either amounts before tax or after tax. This filter makes it easier to pull the proper number to use in sales rep commission calculations for example.
-   We fixed an edge case issue on the Outfield iOS app relating to completing very long conditional forms.
-   We resolved a minor UI issue on the iOS app when you go from one to zero current goals.

We have released two new default performance system actions for goal completion, as well as new custom actions that you can create and add yourself.

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Custom Performance System Actions - Dec 27 Feature Update

Did you know that the CRM market is estimated to reach [$17.4 billion by 2023](https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/healthcare-crm-market-88873203.html)?

As the customer relationship management (CRM) market continues to snowball, more and more industries are rightfully taking the steps necessary to adopt CRM solutions properly.  
  
Many have seen expedited growth in their business because CRM usage has eliminated cross-team friction and enhanced collaboration across sales and marketing. Companies have also found CRMs to be helpful with tracking and managing the interactions reps have with prospects and customers.

CRMs aren't an untapped tactic for pharmaceutical companies. This industry is an intense market, where adhering to protocol and obtaining and maintaining lifetime relationships with physicians, chemists, and stakeholders can be a continuous challenge. This software solution allows pharmaceutical companies to ensure their reps execute stellar sales and marketing campaigns efficiently while adhering to compliance requirements.

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Here are the main perks and benefits pharma reps can get from CRM usage:

8 CRM benefits for Pharma Reps:

-   Automation to boost workflow productivity
-   Dashboards for quick glances at reports
-   Task Management to keep reps organized
-   Activity trackers to capture leads at every touchpoint
-   Enhanced data sets with CRM Integrations
-   Get quick references with mobile device compatibility
-   Plan, optimize, and navigate routes efficiently.
-   Reach more interested customers with relevant messaging

  

  
Let’s take a deeper dive into these essential benefits that make reps more successful. 

**Automation to boost workflow productivity**  

CRM Automations help simplify the tasks and responsibilities of busy reps. All pharma reps have to deal with constantly changing regulations and restrictions with their sales activities. A CRM can automate tasks such as updating industry regulations, creating lead assignments, and updating product details.

[CRM automation](https://explore.outfieldapp.com/crm-integration) is one of the most robust features for pharma CRMs. It allows companies to streamline communication to help reps respond to and manage leads faster, automate scheduling with physicians, and save time from doing repetitive and tedious tasks.

**Dashboards for quick glances at reports  
**At one point or another, pharma reps need to uncover answers to crucial questions like: _How much revenue have I been bringing in? How many new leads have I created? Have I been staying on top of my customer touchpoints?_   These can all be quite tricky to manage. Lucky for you, CRMs have found a way to make this easily accessible. 

With Dashboards and Reporting, reps can simply select the data necessary to create a customized report unique to their concerns. Then, the data can be transformed into powerful visualizations that are easy enough to interpret for the average person but expandable enough to be valuable to even the most skilled analyst. 

**Task and activity tracker to keep reps organized**  

Being a pharma rep can be very challenging. The numerous tasks it takes from turning a prospect into a customer can be complex for anyone to handle. With a CRM's task management feature, users can manage tasks that sync with their calendars to provide timely reminders.  

This even allows managers to help their reps stay more focused on identifying individual clients’ needs and how to deliver their best sales efforts. So by the time your reps meet with their clients, they are more prepared to provide value without wasting time.

Reps can follow the progress of potential clients from prospect to customer. Activity tracking covers every touchpoint: calls, form submissions, document downloads, physical meetings, etc. This feature allows your organization to capture more information about your customers and track the leads that are most likely to convert. 

**Enhanced data sets with CRM Integrations**  

Most high-performing pharma reps use several different software platforms daily to complete basic tasks. Switching back and forth between apps cannot only be tedious but a waste of money. Reps end up spending less time doing what they do best: selling. With [CRM integrations](https://explore.outfieldapp.com/crm-integration), you can connect any business software to ensure your organization runs at its maximum efficiency. Standard CRM integrations include email, calendar, chat functions, and accounting.  

**Get a quick reference with Mobile Device Compatibility**  

To best grow your practice, pharma reps will find it necessary to access information anywhere they are. This means quickly referencing notes before meeting with a physician or viewing clients’ data to track the progress they’ve made. Mobile CRM allows reps to stay on top of their pharmaceutical efforts whether they’re in the office or on the go. 

CRM mobility even contributes to reps' growth by giving them the ability to identify new referral sources. The referral generation tool is how reps can quickly identify the best prospects nearby which, in turn, allows your organization to have the best possible positioning.

**Plan, optimize, and navigate routes efficiently.**  

Here is another time-saving advantage. Who has time to spend planning routes? Reps should be spending less time traveling and more time meeting with clients. Most modern CRMs come with [route planner](https://www.outfieldapp.com/route_planner_app_for_multiple_stops) technology that will create optimized sales routes for you.

This feature is more than for planning, it’s proactive! Route planners can automatically adjust routes along the way to accommodate for cancellations and rescheduling. While on the road, reps can even prospect the area for new leads to add to their route. Need live traffic updates? Yes, a route planner can do that too. 

**Reach more interested customers with relevant messaging  
**Knowing exactly _who_ and _how_ to make a sales pitch can be difficult even for the most skilled rep. It is one of the many challenges pharma reps face daily.

By analyzing customer data and current market conditions, pharma CRMs can identify trends from potential and existing customers, allowing reps to use more tailored messaging to target customers based on qualifying factors like product or service needs. Not only will doing so generate more referrals, but it will also build better customer relationships. 

With features such as note-taking, calls, and email logs, reps can analyze recent customer touchpoints both before and after a meeting to strengthen their customer relationships and have a more robust sales strategy. The last thing you want is the sales team focusing their efforts in places that don’t convert.

**Ready to get started?**

Finding a CRM that meets not only the needs of your reps, but also those of your company can be an expensive and daunting task. [Outfield](https://outfieldapp.com/), a performance-based CRM, not only allows you to try it free for 30 days, but they discover your company's specific CRM needs and tailor an adoption program to meet those needs.

Discusses 8 reasons why pharma sales reps would benefit from the use of CRM software via leveraging customer data to close more deals. 

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How Pharma Sales Reps Can Benefit from a CRM

We've been hinting at this for the past few months, but the wait is over! Over the holiday weekend, we launched some big features which lay the groundwork for our expansion toward performance-based CRM. First up is the goals system.

![goal-tracking-software](https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/9307172/goal-tracking-software.png)

### The New Goals Tracking Section

The new Goals section lives in the Outfield web app within the Performance dropdown in the side nav. You can use goals to set quotas, provide incentives, add custom levels of competition for your team, and more. Goals can be set per individual or as a combined goal aggregated from a group of team members. While goals are set up by one of your team admins on the Outfield web app, the progress is displayed on both the web and mobile apps, and notifications are sent out as progress is made. 

An obvious example of goal setting is a monthly sales quota for one of your sales reps. This is easily accomplished by creating a new individual goal for a team member, as shown in the following screenshot.

![add-goals](https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/9307172/add-goals.png)

Goals can be set up on a recurring basis (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) or on a one-time basis to be completed by any date. Goals can be tied to many different things such as sales, touchpoints, forms, tasks, calendar events, or any other item in your performance system, which brings us to the next big feature we released.

### The New Performance System

One of the leading feature requests we've received was the ability to customize the point system in League Play. Inspired by such requests, we have built a customizable performance system to allow you to do that and more. The new Performance System section also lives in the Outfield web app within the Performance dropdown in the side nav area.

![performance-system-settings-section](https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/9307172/performance-system-settings-section.png)

First, you can create a performance role for each type of team member you have, for example, SDRs, account executives, field marking reps, etc. We recommend making this role distinction for team members with differing performance criteria; for example, field marketing reps primarily visit accounts whereas account executives primarily close deals. However, oftentimes teams just have a single role and the default All Reps role will do the trick.

Next, you can weigh your performance system for each role to match up with their minimum cadence, KPIs, and other important workflows. In other words, actions that are more important should be set to get more performance points. Then over time, you will be able to see who is succeeding within your strategy, which brings us to the final big feature we released.

### Goals Analytics

At Outfield, we have always put a lot of effort into allowing you to easily gain insight from your team's data, particularly in our Analytics section of the Outfield web app. Here you will now find a new tab for Goals.

![goals-analytics](https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/9307172/goals-analytics.png)

You'll see two sub-tabs within Goals analytics: Minimum Cadence and Goals. Minimum Cadence can be used as a check to see if your team is adopting your system, i.e. who is at least showing up and giving it a go. On the other hand, goals can be used to see who on your team is performing at a high level and dominating. 

The chart at the top of each of these sections shows this data at a team level as percentage achieved and the table below each chart can be used to dive into the details. For example, you can click any table cell with a positive number in the far right two columns to see exactly who achieved or fell short each period. You can also click any table cell with a goal name to see performance data for any particular goal as shown in the following screenshot.

![goal-history-tracking](https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/9307172/goal-history-tracking.jpg)

Reach out to our [support team](https://www.outfieldapp.com/support) any time if you would like to learn more about these new features or have any other questions. As mentioned at the beginning of this post, these features are just the beginning for big upcoming enhancements to [League Play™️](https://www.outfieldapp.com/sales_gamification_app), performance-based CRM, and more in the coming months. "Getcha popcorn ready!" － T.O.

Oh, and here are a few highlights from other recent enhancements & fixes:

-   Deals advanced search has been enhanced on the Outfield web app to include restricting by deal created on date, close date, or added to stage on date.
-   Account search on the Outfield iOS app now includes postal code in the results, so you can effectively search by postal code. 
-   Team Activity filtering on the Outfield iOS app had a few edge case bugs that have been resolved.

Outfield just launched goals and a customizable performance system. Set quotas, provide incentives, add custom levels of competition, and more.

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Goals & Customizable Performance System - Nov 29 Feature Update

CRM seems like the new buzzword for small and large companies. They advocate that it helps them capitalize on their most valuable assets, customer, and potential leads.

Well, it is a business software solution that helps companies track and nurture their relationships with prospects and customers. But companies have been managing customer relationships before the software existed, so why are they so excited to spend their money on a CRM? 

Gartner's Vice President, Joanne Correia, [noted](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2014-02-12-gartner-says-crm-will-be-at-the-heart-of-digital-initiatives-for-years-to-come), "CRM will be at the heart of digital initiatives in the coming years. This is one technology area that will get funding because digital business is critical for companies to remain competitive."

No worries, no one here will twist your arm and make you jump on the digital bandwagon. There are tons of articles on the importance of a CRM, but we wanted to provide you with a fresh perspective for you to weigh the pros and the cons. Here are seven reasons you should be against getting a CRM.

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### **Business growth should be slow and steady.**

If you are okay with staying the same size, that's cool, but for those who want steady business growth, utilizing a CRM would benefit you in ways you couldn't even imagine. CRMs help your business remain competitive by automating and integrating processes like email, accounting, data organization, and more. It seems like it would make the most sense for you to use a CRM in your business strategy if you would like to expand your ROI.

### Not having Pipeline Visibility isn't a deal-breaker

It's truly not a deal-breaker, but who doesn't like being able to see the future? Well, kind of, anyway. Having a clear vision of the pipeline allows you and your business to see a possible uptick in leads and chances that you all will have at new conversions, which can save you time and money. Keeping you more informed on your current and future productivity, how products and services are performing, and assist in lead generation and conversions.

### Tracking Conversions is Overrated

Do you like conversions? I think we all do! Managing the contact information of those who are interested in your business is critical. Keeping consumers educated and engaged is one of the best ways to maintain your number of conversions and continue to grow them. Seeing your potential consumers' habits, behaviors, and interests is integral to converting them from simple leads to repeat customers. Without a CRM, you are likely to not keep up with potential consumer contact information and lose out on tons of revenue.

### Automations are irrelevant

Time is money, and money is time. Saving both of those is crucial for almost any business. If you prefer to waste a lot of those, you can stop reading, but if not, we're here to inform you that you need automation for your business. Using a CRM will speed up sending follow-up messages, organizing data, and email campaigns. These are just a few of the ways that automation can help you. If you're interested to find out more, check out this [post](https://explore.outfieldapp.com/crm-integration) for more details. 

### Lack of Communication is not an issue. 

Communication is key in life and business. Reaching out to leads and customers is a must to grow business, and having that process integrated into one platform will only make it easier for you to succeed. People forget things all the time, so dropping the ball on communication is something most businesses cannot afford to do. 

If you expect your business to grow, you do not want your team to spend unnecessary time getting the most recent and accurate information on their leads. Implementing a CRM will help your team connect with their coworkers and get timely updates and reminders on essential daily tasks.

### Being Data Driven is just not your thing.

Analytics! Fun for some and not so much for others; it can look like a blur of raw data if you don't know what you're looking at. It's so necessary, though! Outfield does its best to provide an understandable, user-friendly look at your analytics. This CRM analyzes market trends and the behavior of those you're selling and want to sell to. With this data in hand, you can make decisions based on how your potential and current customers behave and what steps you should take to market to them.

### You enjoy having unmotivated and underperforming reps.

Having unmotivated reps can lead to poor performance. A CRM can be the sale coaching software you need to turn your low-performing sales reps into selling machines. This feature doesn't come with all CRMs. You ensure you are choosing a performance-based CRM. One that will be intelligent and intuitive enough to instill friendly competition and intrinsic motivator to progress them to their goals. 

Okay, okay, okay…I think you get the point. Well, at least I hope you know going without a CRM is probably the worst idea ever. Your need for a CRM is, without a doubt, based on your ability to effectively manage your leads and customers with relevant information at the right time. 

CRM usage can increase productivity and revenue, but if yours isn't working for you or your team simply hates the idea of one, then it is time for you to consider a performance-based CRM.

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### A PERFORMANCE-BASED CRM?

YES! [Outfield's](https://outfieldapp.com) performance-based CRM motivates your team to perform at their best and progress them beyond industry standards. 

This CRM offers a suite of features to benefit your entire company. In addition to performance boosters, you can enjoy features such as route planners, customizable forms, territory mapping, inventory and order management, live chat, 3000+ integrations, and more, all on a gamified platform.

Ready to gamify your team? Check out {{cta('b3100284-5afd-4d0d-9cb8-475522f7a567')}}, TODAY.

Discusses seven reasons businesses choose to have CRM solutions to capitalize on their most valuable assets, customer, and potential leads. 

CRM Playbook