Time to admit: is this your Sales Rep?

Picture your sales rep in the customer’s shop. He has this season’s product catalogue and some tangible samples to present and the retailer has agreed to give them some time today. It’s the ideal scenario for a profitable sales call, right?

This is right, however the rep has some serious hurdles to overcome at this stage. Firstly, does the rep know what the account status is? Is the account overdue or on hold? How can the rep ascertain this information? Did they receive their last order in full? He attempts to call head office… there’s no one available to take the call and check the system for him. He could send an email to head office… there’s no internet connection available, it fails. He continues, undeterred, starting the sales call blind.

“I’d like to order the same as I did last time, please,” the buyer exclaims.

“Certainly,” replied the rep, fishing out a faded order form, subject to 6 weeks travel in the back of his car. How professional.

The reps starts a new order..

… and begins to copy over the items to the form. The customer looks bored, the rep senses this and agrees to write it out later today after this call, in a bid to not irritate the buyer. He draws out a few samples from a new collection and begins his spiel. The pages for this collection in the catalogue have been printed off more recently than this season’s catalogue and slotted in and the marketing department used different paper this time but the rep hopes the buyer won’t notice this.

“We could potentially be interested in this collection, as we have some extra in the 2016 budget” the buyer suggests, “but for now, have you got some information you could leave with me to go through with the business owner?”

“I’ve actually run out of the printed PDFs head office gave me, it’s been such a popular concept. I can arrange to have one posted to you from head office,” he says scrawling a reminder on the back of his hand – very slick.

Meanwhile …

… the rep starts to paw over copies of previous orders to try and identify any items that the customer has stopped ordering to try and kick start some re-stocking of certain items. It’s difficult to concentrate as the buyer is rapping his knuckles on the table and obviously pushing to end the call. The rep loses his nerve and asks if there is anything else he can help the customer with today.

“That’s all thanks” he smiles, somewhat pleased he can get back to his untidy stock room.

“I’ll pop a copy of this order in with the new collection PDF that we post you. See you in about 5 weeks.”

Is this your rep? Or does your sales team use iPad ordering, using a totally up to date digital and interactive catalogue, with offline access to account status, customer specific pricing, and stock levels? Does your rep know whether this account is on hold or not? With PixSell iPad ordering, your rep can work through sales reports with the customer to identify upselling opportunities on top of their usual buying profile.

Four days later, the buyer receives an A4 envelope in the post with the order confirmation and the printed PDF in it. He files the confirmation and drops the PDF in the shredder as he walks past it. Turns out, one of your competitors had dropped in an hour after your rep and emailed a copy of their marketing material to the customer that day from his PixSell iPad app. Their marketing department had just updated their digital iPad based catalogue in line with their branding and it impressed the buyer. Your customer has decided to allocate some of their budget to your competitor’s products.

For more information on how PixSell iPad ordering can transform your field sales team and increase order value and reduce order turnaround, contact Aspin on 01794 500 200 or email info@aspin.co.uk

Guest post by Aspin Management Systems, a trusted partner of Tech4T