Jan/Feb 2005

Field engineers are becoming recognised as an unexploited sales asset, according to research by Idesta Solutions, a mobile workforce solutions supplier.

The organisation claims to have surveyed 3,000 companies using field service staff, and says that 79 per cent of them found that customers were more likely to respond positively to a sales pitch by a field engineer than to one made through a "cold call".

According to managing director Andrew Tillman: "As a nation, we are becoming hard-faced to approaches by cold-calling sales reps, and in most cases loathe fast-talking pitches."

On the other hand, he says, "when we welcome an electrician, a gas fitter or even a digital TV dish installer into our homes, we readily converse about everything that is important to us." He adds: "The relaxed atmosphere of these conversations leads to the client freely giving out important sales information to the engineer."

In a bid to help users take advantage of this resource, Idesta has built extra capabilities into its software, so that, for instance, user-companies can configure a sales survey, and instantly distribute it to all their mobile workers. Engineers can then gather the information and communicate it back to head office. The engineer simply asks some pre-set marketing-lead questions.

• Idesta was formerly linked to telematics specialist Minorplanet, at which Tillman was a leading light for many years. Minorplanet sold off it interest in the company last year, and Tillman moved to Idesta last summer.