Partner visit management: dealer visits with KPIs

Partner visit management can turn dealer visits into comparable data, provided you define the KPIs before the first visit. The Manufacturing Cloud feature plans visits with tasks, each task carries KPIs with an expected value, and reps record the actual values on their phone. The back office then compares expected and actual across all dealers instead of reading visit reports. Trailhead documents the process well. It does not document the licence for the reps or whether the app works offline, so those two points belong in the quote. With few dealers and no fixed checklist, a simple visit report object does the job.

What does partner visit management do?

Partner visit management plans and records visits to dealers, distributors and suppliers. The Trailhead module1 describes three parts:

• Visits. A visit has a location, special instructions and an assigned field rep. Recurring visits follow a template. Ad hoc visits handle urgent issues, in the Trailhead example a reported fault in one model.
• Tasks. Each visit has tasks that give it a purpose, such as reviewing quarterly targets, checking warranty renewals or auditing inventory.
• KPIs. Tasks carry metrics such as spare parts count, scrap percentage or safety training dates. Formats are boolean, percentage, decimal, integer, date and time, and text.

On the product page2 Salesforce adds that visits show location, priority, estimated visit time and previous visit history, and that admins build visit pages from components called Visit Overview, Visit Actions and Visit Task List.

A visit runs from plan to KPI

The unit on creating and executing visits3 shows the steps in the back office:

1. 01

   Tasks

   Create generic tasks and mark reusable ones as task definitions.

2. 02

   Context

   Link a task to a distributor account, a product, an order or a sales agreement.

3. 03

   Assessment indicator definitions

   Define what is measured and in which data type.

4. 04

   Generic visit KPIs

   Store the expected value per task.

5. 05

   Action plan templates

   Bundle tasks and metrics for recurring visits. Ad hoc visits do not need one.

6. 06

   Visit

   Enter location, account and priority, optionally assign a rep.

The rep opens the Partner Visits app from the App Launcher, sees scheduled visits, taps Get Directions and works through the tasks. For each task the app shows context, metrics and expected values. The rep enters values, adds notes and uploads screenshots. When all metrics of a task are captured, the task completes, and when all tasks are done, the visit completes. If a mandatory task cannot be done, the rep abandons the visit and has to give a reason.

The first unit also shows tasks linked to customer records, for example a warranty term on a warranty renewal task or an asset on a damage inspection. That is useful for dealers who handle warranty claims: the rep sees the open warranty terms while standing in the workshop.

Switching it on is easy, licence and offline are open

The feature has its own setting. In the IndustriesManufacturingSettings metadata4 it is enablePartnerVisitManagement, available since API version 56.0, next to enablePartnerLeadManagement and enablePartnerPerformanceManagement. All default to off. So “we have Manufacturing Cloud” does not mean visits are running.

Two points are not documented in the sources I checked:

• Licence. Trailhead links a help article on permission sets for partner visit management, but the units name no permission set and no licence. The pricing page5 lists “Visit Management” in its feature list without showing per edition where it is included. Whether internal reps need a Manufacturing Cloud licence and whether dealer staff can execute visits on a portal licence: ask Salesforce.
• Offline. The units speak of “their mobile app” and the Partner Visits app. The pricing page lists “Full Offline Mobile Functionality” in the same feature list, again without per edition availability, and says nothing about the visit app in particular. Dealer workshops and warehouses often have poor reception. Ask Salesforce whether visits, tasks and KPI capture work offline, and test it in a basement before rollout.

How I would treat both points in the licence plan is described in Salesforce licences: does everyone need a full one?.

Worked example: 60 dealers, quarterly, five KPIs

Assume a manufacturer of agricultural machinery has 60 dealers and six area sales managers. Each dealer is visited once a quarter. The visit checks five KPIs: spare parts stock of the 20 fast movers, number of trained mechanics, demo machines on site, open warranty claims older than 30 days and the share of the quarterly target reached.

That gives 240 visits and 1,200 KPI values per year, each with an expected value. After one year the head of sales can see which dealers miss the spare parts target every quarter and which area manager never records the training dates. Today that information sits in Word documents or emails, if it exists at all.

Three things decide whether it works:

1. KPIs before the visit. Five KPIs with clear definitions, agreed with sales management. “Spare parts stock” needs a list of parts and a counting rule.
2. Expected values per dealer. A small dealer and a flagship dealer should not have the same target. Someone has to maintain the expected values, ideally once a year.
3. One action plan template. All quarterly visits use the same template, so values are comparable. Special topics go in ad hoc visits.

Abandoned visits produce data too. Because the app asks for a reason when a rep ends a visit early, after a year you can see whether mandatory tasks fail for lack of time, a missing contact at the dealer or an unclear KPI. Set the reasons up as a picklist, not as free text, or you cannot report on them.

If the shared KPIs cannot be agreed, the feature collects data that nobody compares. Then the problem is a management question in sales, and no software solves it.

When is a simple visit report enough?

With few dealers, rare visits or no fixed checklist. A custom object with date, dealer, rep, three picklists and a notes field, or standard Salesforce events with a short page layout, covers that.

The chapter on the dealer and partner channel shows how visits sit next to rebates, portals and ship and debit. Whether to buy or build such a feature is part of my make-or-buy and licence forecasts.

Write down KPIs with expected values, then pilot one region

1. KPIs. Write down five KPIs with definition, data type and expected value per dealer group.
2. Licence and offline. Get both confirmed in writing for reps and, if planned, dealer staff.
3. Pilot. One region, one quarter, one template.
4. Review. After the quarter, check which KPIs were filled and which led to a decision.

I review the pilot with the head of sales. KPIs that did not lead to a decision after one quarter come out of the template before it goes to all regions.

Sources5

1. 1Trailhead module (opens in a new tab)trailhead.salesforce.com
2. 2product page (opens in a new tab)salesforce.com
3. 3unit on creating and executing visits (opens in a new tab)trailhead.salesforce.com
4. 4IndustriesManufacturingSettings metadata (opens in a new tab)developer.salesforce.com
5. 5pricing page (opens in a new tab)salesforce.com