Who this guide is for
Sales directors, business owners and operations leads at companies whose reps spend the week on the road — distribution, industrial supplies, agriculture, consumer goods, manufacturing. Teams whose day is visits, phone calls and WhatsApp, not a desk and two monitors. If that's you, see also our pages by industry.
Where the time goes today
Follow a field rep for a day and the pattern is familiar:
- Before visits: digging through the ERP for a client's balance and recent orders — or skipping it.
- Between visits: calling or messaging the office. "What's the stock of this?" "How much does that client owe?" Someone at the office stops what they're doing to look it up.
- After visits: CRM notes, visit reports and follow-up emails, usually postponed to the evening or the end of the week.
- End of the week: a sales report for the manager, built by hand from exports.
None of that is selling. It's also exactly the kind of work an assistant connected to your systems does well.
What AI can do, before, during and after
Before the visit
A briefing in a minute: what the client owes and whether it's overdue, what they've bought and how that compares with last year, what's open, what happened last time. See pre-visit briefings and the pre-visit briefing in 60 seconds.
During the day
Answers on the spot, by voice, while driving: stock, prices, what a client bought, what's overdue. No call to the office, no app to open. See asking your ERP and WhatsApp.
After the visit
A spoken recap becomes a dated note on the right deal or company. A follow-up email is drafted for approval. On Cegid PHC, an order dictated in the car becomes a draft invoice after a yes. A photo of a business card becomes a contact. See visit reports, voice orders and business cards to CRM.
For managers
Sales reports that arrive on schedule by email or WhatsApp; the pipeline by stage; questions like "how did each rep do this month?" answered in seconds. See sales reports and emily for sales directors.
For finance
Overdue debts flagged before they age, reminders drafted for approval, a clear view of who owes what. See collections and overdue invoices and proactive alerts.
What to look for in a tool
| Criterion | Why it matters | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Works where reps already are | Adoption lives or dies here | Can a rep use it from the car without opening a new app? |
| Connected to your ERP | Answers from your data, not the internet | Which ERPs and versions? How is it connected? |
| Reliable numbers | One invented figure destroys trust | What happens when the data isn't there? |
| Human approval | Control over what goes out | What can it do without a person's yes? |
| Access control | Margins and other companies stay private | Can access be limited per person, company and topic? |
| Language | Conversation has to feel natural | Does it speak European Portuguese and Spanish? |
| Data protection | GDPR is not optional | Is there a DPA? Is your data used for training? |
How to run a pilot
- Pick three to five reps — a mix of enthusiasts and sceptics. Sceptics make the best testers.
- Choose three jobs to improve, for example the pre-visit briefing, the visit recap and the weekly report.
- Connect the ERP and calendars first. With emily that takes days, not months, and it's done once for the whole team.
- Run it for four weeks with a fifteen-minute check-in each week.
- Measure outcomes, not logins: visits with a same-day note, questions answered without calling the office, time spent on reports, overdue invoices chased earlier. Our ROI calculator gives you a starting estimate for the time.
- Decide — expand, adjust or stop — with the numbers in front of you.
Common mistakes
- Treating it as a website chatbot. The value is inside the team, on the road, not on your homepage.
- Forcing a new app. Every extra app competes with WhatsApp — and loses.
- Skipping the ERP connection. An assistant that doesn't know your numbers is a nicer search engine.
- No rules for approval. Decide up front what needs a person's yes. With emily, anything that leaves the conversation already does.
- Measuring usage instead of outcomes. A rep who asks one question a day and never calls the office again is a success.
Where emily fits
emily was built for exactly this: an assistant reps call on WhatsApp, by phone or in the browser, connected to Cegid PHC and Ahora ERP, with a CRM included, fluent in European Portuguese, Spanish and English, and with a person's approval before anything goes out. See pricing or book a demo to see it with your own data.