Post Link: Wholesale Sales Needs Wholesale Change

Wholesale Sales Needs Wholesale Change

The world of wholesale sales and distribution is not without its challenges. Overhead is high,sales processes are disorganized, and sales reps may lack the training and the information theyneed to make more sales in a hyper-competitive marketplace. There’s light at the end of thetunnel, however. Because with every challenge comes opportunities.

Those opportunities lie in change--a constant in our modern lives. The business and technologycommunities have made enormous progress with new devices, software, and innovative ideasthat connect people and goods with more speed and efficiency than ever before. So why is itthat, amidst this rapid transformation, wholesale sales and distribution systems have lagged?

While wholesale enterprises have made some strides in their back-end order processing anddistribution processes with the widespread adoption of ERP systems like SAP and NetSuite,remnants of an analog world still cling to the pivotal front-end process of capturing andsubmitting an order. If you’re in wholesale sales, these daily annoyances are only too familiar:the carbon paper order forms littering your car and desk, the fax machine you’re stillinexplicably punching numbers into, and data entry tasks that no sales rep in the 21st Centuryshould have to deal with.

As the world continues to press forward, it’s time for the wholesale industry to join in. Let’s takea closer look at the wholesale environment and the biggest opportunities for transformativechange.

Streamlining the Order Writing and Submission Process

Today, the process of writing and submitting an order can range from lightning-fast to dreadfullyslow. Your business’s reliance on paper is an accurate determinant of where you land on thisspectrum.

Even in 2015--a time when we can talk to our phones, wear computers, and print 3D objects--aGoogle search for “sales form triplicate” yields a depressing number of search results.

Think about the steps a typical order must go through before being shipped out to your retailer.The rep might take an order on scratch paper and then transfer it later to the official paper orderform. Once they have the form, they’ll have to wait until they can get to a fax machine in orderto send it out for fulfillment. An order confirmation may then be faxed or emailed to the retailer.

That’s three duplications of effort and four opportunities for errors in transfer (i.e. an inability toread poor handwriting or a smudged fax). Not to mention the fact that the entire processprobably started with a sales presentation using a clunky (likely outdated) paper catalog.

You may be employing a variation of this process. Maybe your reps have to enter orderinformation into an excel sheet before emailing it, or they’re re-entering it into your ERP system.Just remember, for every additional step it takes to process that order, you’re losing money.

So what’s the alternative?

There’s a huge opportunity for wholesalers to automate this order writing process. Sales ordermanagement solutions give reps the ability to carry a digital catalog on mobile devices, accesscustomer order history and payment information, write orders, and instantly sync them with theirback office for fulfillment. They can also email quick notifications to your customers, send themsuggested orders or proposals for confirmation, and arrange for electronic payment.

All of this saves time and resources, eliminates the errors innate to your current paper-basedprocesses, and ultimately makes your reps more productive. Imagine having your distributorready to ship an order within fifteen minutes of the order being written. Shipping faster meansshorter cancellation windows and faster cash flow.

Adding Value Through Customer Service

Relationship selling is as relevant as ever in the B2B environment. The role of sales reps,however, is transforming as technology advances, and there’s a huge opportunity fordifferentiation.

While sales reps once functioned as more of an order capturing point, mobile order writing toolsstore valuable customer intelligence that empowers sales reps to provide a customer-focused,insight-led experience to retailers. Sales reps can add value to their retailers by:

Showing up to store visits prepared with past order history●

Respecting their time (i.e. no longer wasting valuable minutes on filling out paper order forms●

or fumbling through catalogs)

Providing insights on the competition●

Making sure shelves are always stocked by sending and processing quick reorders●

Helping with assortment planning●

Suggesting popular products that have sold well with other retailers●

In addition to the advice your sales reps are providing on the front lines, your business also hasthe opportunity to improve your customers’ experience by:

Redirecting staff resources once dedicated to data entry tasks to providing more proactive,●

rather than reactive customer serviceVastly improving order accuracy●

Reducing backorders (order writing software can provide real time access to inventory●

information, allowing reps to manage retailers’ expectations)Shipping product faster by reducing order submission delays●

Providing 24/7 Omnichannel Availability

While sales reps are still a crucial part of any wholesale business, there’s another piece of thepuzzle that’s likely missing in your business: an omnichannel strategy.

Although B2B sales are still about relationship management, more and more B2B buyers wantthe option of making purchases through other channels like B2B eCommerce websites andmobile apps.

Not only should your sales reps be able to place and check orders any time, your buyers shouldalso be able to make purchases from their web browsers, tablets, and smartphones. Thisprovides retailers with the modern purchase experience that they’ve grown accustomed to intheir consumer lives, and gives you yet another revenue channel.

The omnichannel trend isn’t just rhetoric at this point; it’s reality. The B2B eCommerce market isset to double its B2C counterpart over the next five years, projected to reach a value of $6.7Trillion by 2020. Global players like Amazon and Alibaba are leading the B2B eCommercebandwagon, and wholesalers need to take notice.

The Bottom Line

It’s time for wholesalers to prioritize technology. Companies willing to invest in technologies thatimprove efficiency and grow sales will remain competitive as the stragglers get left behind.

Spend time looking at how you can leverage technology to improve order processing, customerservice, and your retailer’s buying experience. You will gain your customers’ loyalty andincrease your profits in the process. By exploring order management and B2B eCommercesoftware solutions that are easy to implement and use in the field, wholesalers will finally beready to step into the future.

Are there other parts of the wholesale sales and order management process that you think

need improvement? Have you made changes in your own business that have yielded greatresults? We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments.

Post originally located at: www.handshake.com/blog/wholesale-sales-needs-wholesale-change

Handshake | Sales Order Management and B2B eCommerce Solutions - www.handshake.com© Copyright 2015 Handshake Corp.