inzant79885ba074d46c70035e98a2c4e3095d47b8bb47bb3e1d602caa97ff147d417b

The Rewards for Wholesale Brands from Sales Enablement Software

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 06:36:20 GMT

How do you make a field sales team work effectively?

If you’re a sales leader with team members dedicated to selling and building meaningful relationships, designing a seamless sales process and choosing the right tools to execute it is paramount.

Many sales teams are turning to digital sales enablement solutions to streamline their overall sales process. Taking a collaborative and transparent approach to selling, these tools allow field sales teams to do more with less, using powerful software custom built to drive key functions.

For further clarification, here’s what we mean when we’re talking about sales enablement software.

Sales enablement software is a digital platform providing sales reps with an all inclusive tool that facilitates access to custom ordering interfaces, digital promotional catalogues, pricing & discount capabilities, CRM functions and more.

Long story short, sales enablement tools place the entire sales process into one easy to use application. Even better, any good enablement software will integrate with your back-office software, saving you and your team hours of paperwork.

Does this sound interesting? Here are four reasons your field sales teams can benefit from a sales enablement platform. I’ve come to these benefits based on my daily dealings with wholesale brands, who have implemented a digital sales enablement tool such as ours here at Inzant

1 - Increased Productivity.

When sales materials are stored across a variety of systems, it’s a challenge to quickly move through a sales pitch or seal a deal with a prospect. Sales enablement streamlines the entire sales process, placing all the important information in a single location.

As an all-in-one deal management solution, these tools ensure that time isn’t wasted on sifting through emails or taking multiple trips back-and-forth to a customer to complete the sale.

2 - Personalized Attention

Nobody enjoys a generic pitch. 94% of B2B business owners prefer sales teams that can show specific insights into the problems their company is facing. Demonstrating that you’re invested in a potential client’s needs requires attention to detail and a clear understanding of their business, not canned pitches. A digital sales enablement tool will have your CRM built in, and will allow you to record valuable information about your client for the next interaction.

3 - Reduced Order Errors

Being able to digitally place orders on the spot minimises both the paperwork required for every sale, and the likelihood of an order error. For team leaders, you can also update your stock remotely, ensuring that the key details about your products are up to date.

Traditionally, changes to an item of stock have been a nightmare with hard-cover catalogues. If you have ten reps, that’s ten catalogues that need to be tracked down and adjusted. With a digital enablement system, a few clicks of a button will universally update the stock across all your reps devices. Too easy.

4 - Team Accountability

Have the members of your sales team paid a visit to your clients, shared new contracts, and delivered invoices on time? Sales enablement software provides a birds-eye view of how your sales team is tracking. You will be able to generate reports on-demand, which will instantly give you a clear-picture of how your team is doing. These insights allow you to create quality strategic initiatives for your team.

Is a sales enablement platform for your wholesale business something you would like to know more about?

At Inzant, our mobile sales platform places your entire sales process into one easy to use iPad app. We offer real-time based support from our dedicated customer success team, and make sure the process of setting up the platform in your business is a breeze.

After that, you will have your own dedicated account manager to guide you to success.

If you would like to know more, reach out to me below and I would be more than happy to give you more information about the platform.

Hope this article was helpful.

Damien Britton

Add Damien on LinkedIn here.

Order errors aren’t part of doing business - they’re killing it.

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 00:23:54 GMT

I was recently speaking to a sales manager, and like the many other sales managers I’m lucky enough to deal with, she spoke about the impact that order errors were making on the businesses bottom line.

Her reps - who are time poor in an effort to meet their KPI’s - are prone to rushing through systems that are in place to fulfil orders. At the low end of the functional scale, we see paper-based systems that rely on information about the order being recorded by the rep and transmitted to an admin team who keys it in. This method is prone to mistakes, both from the rep and again from whoever enters the order. Further to this, the orders are usually keyed into an accounting package that is not designed to receive orders - or if it is, the interface is a secondary concern and not optimised to be used by your reps.

The other reality is the reps are using some form of incumbent software such as a CRM that is not specifically designed to take orders in the field. Once again, administrative errors are all too common as the interface isn’t structured to provide a nice flow and opportunities to increase sales for the reps are missed.

In both these cases, order entry is slow and it’s not optimised to increase sales and reduce, and almost eliminate order errors.

As a result, money is being lost and stock is being wasted.

Like any other sales managers, this can be stressful when you’ve got your own KPIs and expectations to meet yourself. Business is hard enough right now, and while order errors are a common pitfall in the wholesale industry, there’s a hidden cost here that’s probably even more damaging than the losses incurred.

So, what’s the loss?

The real price of our order errors.

The loss here is trust . It’s trust with a customer that’s never held a higher premium. Even if the mistake was small, and even if you fixed the error quickly, your customer was inconvenienced.

As a result of the error, they probably couldn’t deliver on their own promise, and the chain of trust diminishment continued. They might have been calm when the honest mistake was made with the order, but when they had no choice but to let their own customer down, losing revenue in the process, that’s when your relationship takes the hit.

Now, I know this is blunt, and it’s obviously the worst-case scenario. So, what’s on the other side of this?

Well, we already know that order errors are all too common in the wholesale space.

How we can use this to our advantage.

It’s your chance to differentiate yourself. What you sell may be a commodity in an overly price-sensitive market, but everything that sits around what you offer is your chance to stand out as a brand.

What if you become the type of business that rarely makes order errors?

What if you become the brand that allows your clients to place orders for stock when they need it, instantly?

What if you become the brand that has an understanding of your clients’ needs and expectation like no other?

Order errors in the wholesale industry are a true lose/lose situation. However, an awareness of this reality is also a massive opportunity for sales managers.

So, what’s the solution here? How do we minimise our order errors while gaining an understanding of our customer like no other?

The Solution - a streamlines sales process.

It all begins with our systems. Firstly, we need to evaluate our entire sales process and question it’s viability. Is room for error built right into what you do?

For wholesalers using cumbersome hard-copy catalogues with a paper-based order fulfilment process, chances are that the margins for error are naturally higher.

If you’ve been able to digitise your sales process, often the chances for error are lower. Still, it’s important you look at your sales process and ensure you’re giving your reps the best tools to shine in the different aspects of their role. Why would you allow your competitors to have better information available to their reps than yours?

If its affects order fulfilment and knowing your customers business, it’s a worthy investment of your time to explore what’s available.

In a highly competitive market you have a responsibility on behalf of your team to stay on the front foot with cutting edge tools to help boost revenue and bolster client relationships.

Only you know how much time you spend generating reports and how helpful those reports are to you to implement strategic goals for your team. Ideally you want powerful reports at your fingertips giving you better insights to steer your team to success.

A tangible way of evaluating your sales process is to map it out in a diagram.

If you don’t already know, here at Inzant we provide a mobile sales platform that places your entire sales process into one easy to use iPad app. Here’s a flow chart of what our clients’ sales process looks like.

You can see it’s straightforward, and the margin for error is slim. We’d say perfect, but nothing in life ever is!

How does your sales process look right now?

If your current sales process feels is cumbersome and prone to consistent order errors, then I’d be happy to have a consultative chat with you.

I hope you’re 2021 is off to a great start, and here’s to making fewer order errors.

It matters more than you know.

Damien Britton

Commercial Advisor | Inzant Australia

e: enquiries@inzant.com.au

m: (02) 4987 6413

The key differences between Salesforce Automation software & CRM

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 22:36:36 GMT

This year has fast-tracked the digitisation of many wholesalers, and as these businesses adjust with important new technology, it’s vital that they invest in the right solution for their needs.

For wholesalers, two key sales systems that must be in place is your CRM, and if innovation is key to the business, a sales force automation software (SFA).

It’s common for both CRM and SFA software to be confused with each other, and while they both act as a linchpin in your overall sales process, they serve two different purposes.

So, what’s the difference between salesforce automation software and CRM?

A simple way to understand the two differences between these technologies is this. CRM is about nurturing existing clients, improving retention and maintaining strong relationships. It’s in place to guide all existing client relationships. On the other hand, SFA software focuses on streamlining the sales process for internal staff. It helps reps place orders out in the field, and managers to organise their staff and track key metrics.

However, SFA software is commonly spoken about in the same realm as CRM and often gets confused for doing the same functions. No doubt the two technologies are close relatives, but CRM is fundamentally different.

For further clarity, here’s a client related scenario that involves CRM. Let’s say that a customer has reached out to let you know that a product you sold them was faulty. To make sure this situation doesn’t happen again, you might choose to log this situation in your CRM, with notes regarding the product, and maybe a suggestion to provide the client with a discount on their next order.

Overall, CRM is a post-sale software that is used to retain and satisfy existing clients, while your SFA software is in place for the overall client on-boarding process. Although it’s becoming more common for CRM providers to integrate SFA in their solutions, it’s still important that we understand the fundamental differences involved.

What are the key benefits of sales force automation software?

Time saved: Overall, the main benefit of a well organised SFA software is that your staff won’t get bogged down with manual paperwork and tedious tasks. On top of this, your team and management will gain more time from the streamlined sales process which will allow them to develop deeper client relationships.

Stronger relationships: Strong relationships in sales might be seen as a given, but it’s never been more important for wholesalers. With competition rising, and your customer’s ability to quickly price-match your products online, the value of strong business relationships has never held a higher premium.

Important metrics on-demand: By implementing a solid SFA software, wholesale managers gain the ability to generate highly valuable sales reports on demand. Once upon a time, these reports took days to put together, now these metrics are available at the touch of a button.

These important sales metrics provide real-time answers to some of the following questions just to name a few.

How does a certain rep’s performance compare to the previous quarter?
Are we on target to hit the sales forecast?
Are there any high-priority targets falling through the gaps?
Is this salesperson focusing on the specific targets set to them?

With information like this, managers can easily determine the progress of the set sales objectives, while guiding the professional development of their team.

Importantly, the businesses progress will be based on clear-cut numbers. Management will be able to determine how realistic their sales targets are, and can make strategic adjustments to their forecasting as they go.

Being able to generate reports on demand is a vital tool for management, but what also counts is the type of report they generate. Business Intelligence (BI) reporting covers a few common but important reporting methods for the sales industry.

If you would like to learn more about the important reports that all sales managers can leverage, you can learn more by clicking here.

Upselling and cross-selling with salesforce automation software

Another key advantage of having a good SFA in place is that your reps will have the tools they need to facilitate easy upselling and cross-selling.

By having access to previous sales trends, your reps can put forward additional products to their clients and provide them further value by recommending similar products that could be of use.

Using a platform like Inzant’s also helps because your reps will be able to easily scroll through and search for thousands of different products all at the touch of their iPad. Importantly, they can then place the order with the client on the spot to make sure orders are being placed in real-time.

Salesforce automation software and team management

We’ve spoken briefly about the vital reports that managers can generate on-demand with SFA software, but we haven’t spoken about the simple efficiencies that the software creates.

No longer do managers need to spend the time filling in spreadsheets, counting sales calls or filling in reports late on a Friday afternoon. As all this data is being recorded by the SFA software, and all a manager needs to do is schedule in a weekly report that gets delivered straight to their email.

With these important numbers up their sleeve, managers can determine which sales territories need more coverage from their team, or which territories perform the best at certain times of the year.

The high-value decisions that can be made based on this data are endless and SFA software gives sales managers the information they need to allocate their resources efficiently.

Importantly, sales managers will also be able to determine which reps in their team need more guidance and coaching - this is what being a good sales manager is all about.

Choosing the right Salesforce Automation software for your wholesale business

Choosing the right SFA for your business begins by establishing the specific needs of your business. Let’s wind things back for a second.

Remember, CRM is great if you need to manage a large client base, improve retention and process a high amount of customer data. But the focus now is on SFA software.

SFA software serves the purpose of streamlining your entire sales process. It allows your reps to make sales easily, automates the ordering process, and gives management the important numbers they need.

Some common challenges that might lead a business leader to look into an SFA software are when the sales team is constantly asking for more support, or complaining about a cumbersome sales process. Also, the business might be experiencing growing pains and not coping with a high sales volume. Another key issue is generally around the efficiency of the sales team. Sometimes reps might be caught out on the road all day or seeing clients in a geographically wasteful order.

Doing your due diligence

When you’re evaluating your provider, it’s important you choose a supplier that can work closely with your business. The role that a good SFA software plays in your business is fundamental, and it becomes the core of your entire sales process.

With this in mind, it’s important you work with a provider that you know can deliver the amount of support and ongoing training to make sure you get the most out of the software, and to make sure that the rollout of the software is successful.

Be aware of using companies that have a base of operation offshore – relative to their other markets, Australia is not that big to them This is evident in the level of support they actually deliver VS what’s promised. Also, be aware of paying a yearly subscription – ask yourself why am I being locked in for a year? If service levels are met there would be no reason to go elsewhere.

Importantly, you need to be able to count on your provider to quickly fix any issues that arise. If your SFA software becomes the backbone of your entire sales process, lengthy downtimes or problems can become costly.

So, to make sure you choose the right solution for your business here’s a due diligence checklist to tick off when picking the right software provider.

Due Diligence checklist:

Does this SFA software provider have a diverse software in terms of features?
Are there strong customer support channels in place?
Response times for customer support – if your deciding on software that functions as a core system for your business – downtime can mean your whole operation is affected while you wait for the issue to be fixed with no local resources to be called upon
What does the customer success program look like – is there one?
Do I have a dedicated customer success manager?
What are the enablement resources – what are they like – can I be a power user or use the resources to train my staff to be a product expert
Is this supplier's geographic location relevant to me – consider phone support across different time zones

Summary

Earlier in this article, we determined that SFA software is a tool that streamlines your entire sales process, and is in place to serve sales reps and managers. We also determined that while a CRM is similar, it’s focused on managing existing client relationships and information.

We also discussed the importance of SFA software, and the key benefits it has within your business. A good SFA software will increase sales, save time for both reps and managers, and provide the business with important data that can be used to fuel high-value decisions.

Lastly, we discussed the importance of doing your due diligence when choosing the right SFA software provider. It’s important that your provider has a standard of support that ensures you get the most out of your software while addressing any issues or questions quickly.

Want to learn more?

Would you like to learn more about Inzant’s SFA software solution? We work exclusively with wholesale providers and provide a SFA platform that is suited to your exact business.

We’re based here in Australia, and provide real human support to all of our clients.

You can email me directly at enquiries@inzant.com.au or call me personally on (02) 4987 6413. I'm happy to talk about your business and how our software can streamline your sales process anytime.

Damien Britton - Commercial Advisor | Inzant Australia

Why nailing your CRM as a wholesaler has never been important

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 03:27:33 GMT

How well does your sales team manage their CRM? Are they planning their sales pipeline in advance? Do they know what customer to call and when?

Your companies CRM system has never been more important. The easiest way for your team to improve sales is to keep their CRM organised.

The name says it all. Customer. Relationship. Management. Without it, your sales team is tackling their meetings blind, undifferentiated to the competition, with price their only counter to an objection.

It’s common knowledge that when we build real relationships with our customers, they become loyal and less price-sensitive. With better customer relationships, your sales team is positioned as a helpful customer experience manager, instead of your average sales rep.

However, it’s common to see a sales team neglect their CRM, despite it directly benefiting their own results. So, firstly we’ll break down some barriers that might be holding back your sales team from using your CRM, then clarify two key ways you can generate more engagement in your CRM from your sales team.

The barriers to using your CRM

Usability/Knowledge:

Often, your sales team simply might not know how to use your CRM system. It might be too complicated, or learning how to use it isn’t part of their onboarding process and training. If your sales team isn’t actively engaging with your CRM, it might be worth going through how to use your specific CRM system once again.

Time:

Often an issue with busy sales reps, they simply don’t have the time to upkeep the CRM. When you’re on the road, managing a CRM can seem like paperwork. However, this is only the case when you’re using an outdated, clunky system.

Using your CRM should be easy, and something that can be done on the fly.

Complacency:

Once again, a common issue with busy reps. ‘When the sales are good, why bother?’ I guarantee plenty of busy reps were caught out by the epidemic we’re all facing. When sales slow down, a well-curated, insightful CRM becomes a lifeline.

Generating engagement from your sales team

The first step to creating more engagement in your CRM system is actively sitting down with your team, uncovering the barriers they are having with upkeeping your CRM and wiping them out.

The barriers might involve some of the issues we mentioned above, or they might be more individual to your business. However, once you and the team have discussed their barriers, and you actively alleviate their barriers, then the responsibility is placed back on your team.

The next step is to clearly articulate why your CRM system is in place. Does your team know that the CRM isn’t there to track them, or to only benefit the business? They might, they might not.

As a sales manager, it’s important that you make sure your team understand that the CRM is in place for their own benefit and is a helpful tool for their job.

A great way to get your team using your CRM is to create a challenge. It can be over the course of a month or more. The aim can be to write down one personal note about each customer they meet. It could be a thoughtful question for the next meeting or a great time to call them back, right when they will need what you have to offer.

It might seem a bit staged at first, but once your reps feel the relationship-building based on their insightful and empathetic questions, their buy-in to the CRM system will improve.

Naturally, their sales should increase too. Which is always handy...

Conclusion:

It’s a tough market out there. However, using our CRM system to our advantage can be the difference between your team hitting and exceeding their targets, or missing them altogether.

It’s important that we air out and eliminate the barriers your team has around using their CRM, then actively share how and why it’s in place for their own gain, not yours or the businesses.

How is your CRM working? If it’s clunky, hard to use and not working for you, then we have a great CRM solution for you . We work with wholesale businesses to streamline their entire sales process, and our easy to use, clean CRM system is just the tip of the iceberg with how we can simplify your sales process and drive productivity.

Five important tips for wholesale distributors

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 05:14:27 GMT

Running a wholesale distribution business is no walk in the park. However, some people work much harder than others, often unnecessarily.

It’s said that the key to any great business lies within its systems, and this rings true especially for the wholesale distribution industry.

In this article, we dive into five important tips that will help you succeed in the wholesale distribution industry. Each of these five tips can be used alone, however, considering all five and using them in synergy with each other is where you will see the best results.

Tip One: Differentiate on customer service, not price

Competing on price is simply a race to the bottom. If we continue to cut our prices and kill our profit margin, how can your business grow?

The alternative is to compete with customer service.

Now, we’re not naive enough to ignore the price sensitivity amongst the wholesale industry - how you price your products will always be important. However, price alone can’t be the only way to generate consistent sales, can it?

Switching our mindset to compete on customer service is an important paradigm shift for any wholesale distribution business leader.

This means strategically planning how your reps will go the extra mile for your clients.

It means breaking down your entire sales process, and objectively evaluating whether or not your reps are offering a win/win solution every time they interact with a customer.

It means innovating your eCommerce capabilities, making your products easier to access and readily available online.

Lastly, it means turning your reps into educators and guides, instead of commission-hungry, target stressed salespeople.

How your business differentiates itself with customer service is up to you, and it’s not an overnight process. However, we can guarantee long-term it’s a better strategy than competing on price alone.

Tip Two: Have a solid B2B eCommerce system in place

We touched on this in tip one - having a well presented, easy to use eCommerce option available is a must for any wholesale distribution business in 2020.

Implementing an eCommerce solution was a major pivot for many of our clients throughout COVID-19, and the businesses that had their eCommerce system in place prior had a major competitive advantage in their industry early on.

By having an eCommerce solution in place, not only are you competing in the B2B space, but you can open up your business to B2C consumers as well.

Sales reps will always hold an important role in your wholesale distribution business, however, there is no doubt in the increasingly online nature the wholesale distribution industry is heading towards.

Your in-person sales will always be an important part of your businesses revenue, but why not reinforce this with a consistent eCommerce solution that works on autopilot to generate even more sales?

Tip Three: Control your inventory

We have already discussed the importance of differentiating your business on customer service instead of price, and keeping a close eye on your inventory could have easily fit into that category.

However, given the importance of inventory in a wholesale distribution business, it’s getting its own write-up!

Managing your stock effectively avoids the situation of missing out on sales while you wait for the stock to be delivered. On the other hand, it also means managing your customers’ expectations properly and avoiding them having to wait longer than they expected for their order.

When a customer doesn’t receive an order on time - or it’s wrong to begin with - you have directly affected their ability to make money and keep their own customers happy. This is a massive issue. In the ultra-competitive wholesale distribution space, it can often be the difference between a repeat and referring customer or a once-off buyer that speaks poorly of your business.

While mistakes are inevitable and happen even to the best wholesale distribution businesses, having a sales rep app in a place like Inzant significantly reduces wrong orders and the likelihood of disgruntled customers.

Tip Four: Optimise your CRM

Your CRM (customer relationship management software) is one of the most important systems within a wholesale distribution business. You might have one in place already, but a good CRM system is more than a list of names and numbers.

The best CRM systems will prompt your reps when to call each of your clients based on when they’re most likely to need your stock.

On top of this, important information and notes on customer preferences or requirements can be stored to ensure your reps build long-term relationships.

Another benefit of a good CRM system in your wholesale business is the ability for your sales reps that are on the road every day to optimise their schedules geographically. This means meeting clients in an order that avoids them wasting more time driving than they need to, and the ability to complete more meetings on a daily basis.

Tip Five: Empower your sales reps with the right tools

A good tradesman doesn’t blame his tools, but a good sales rep will…

The wholesale landscape has never been more competitive, and as our world continually adapts to the implications of COVID-19, it doesn’t look like things will be getting easier anytime soon.

With this in mind, it’s vital we empower our sales reps with the tools they need to make their job easier.

Are your sales reps still using a manual paper system to present and take orders? Are they using a second rate sales rep app that makes their life harder than it does easier?

At Inzant , we offer an easy to use iPad app that allows reps to present stock, gather important information about inventory, place orders and even manage their CRM all within one place.

The point here isn’t to plug our app. It’s to inform you that easy to use - and easy to set up - software is available. Using a sales rep app like Inzant’s will save your reps hours each week, and give them the best chance of making more sales.

Conclusion:

In summary, we’ve covered five important wholesale distribution tips. The five tips are…

Differentiate on customer service, not price
Ensure you have a strong eCommerce solution in place
Control your inventory
Optimise your CRM
Empower your reps

If you think your wholesale distribution business could benefit from a mobile sales platform such as Inzant’s, we’re happy to speak with you anytime over the phone to provide you with a free demo. Simply click here for more information.

How a mobile sales app will grow your wholesale business.

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 05:04:26 GMT

It’s been a tough start to 2020 for most wholesale businesses, well, most businesses in general for that matter.

The impact of the global pandemic has forced many organisations to pivot their entire business-model and make drastic changes to keep the lights on.

For wholesale businesses, keeping sales reps productive and ensuring a steady stream of sales has been a massive challenge.

However, while our economy isn’t running on all cylinders, now is a great time to evaluate the productivity of our systems and make important improvements to our business.

A major change many wholesale businesses are actioning right now is updating their manual, paperwork intensive and prone to errors sales cycle, to a mobile sales app that’s easy use, saves reps time, and helps them generate more sales.

When our sales system is at full-throttle, making a change to a mobile sales app might seem daunting, but with the business slowed down, now is the perfect time to make this vital upgrade to your sales workflow.

Below we’ve outlined the three key benefits of incorporating a mobile sales app into your sales cycle.

A comprehensive digital catalogue

Traditionally, wholesale reps have had to haul around massive product catalogues. These files make for a clunky sales process that doesn’t give your client the full perspective of the products you have available.

By using a mobile sales app , your reps have the ability to present your entire product range to their clients at the touch of a button. Also, your reps can quickly search for different products by category or name.

Presenting your stock on a mobile sales app not only looks professional, but it gives your reps the chance to showcase products your client otherwise never would have found in a big clunky folder.

Instant sales

Another benefit of incorporating a mobile sales app into your business is your reps being able to make sales on the spot. Firstly, we spoke about how a mobile sales app works as a beautiful online catalogue. Well, once the client has chosen the products they want to buy, your rep can now make sales on the spot.

With the touch of a button, your rep is able to place an order that’s instantly sent back to home base. This is great for wholesale businesses because orders are generated and fulfilled in real-time. No more waiting around for the rep to come back to the office, or having to spend hours doing tedious filing and paperwork.

With any good mobile sales app, there will also be an easy to use CRM available. For example, we have an in-built CRM available in our mobile sales app . Why?

We want to place the entire sales process into one easy to use app. So, this means organising your reps day by what client they need to see next, who is closest to their location and having the ability to leave notes for each client on when to call them back.

Integration with back-office software

Lastly, one of the major benefits of incorporating a mobile sales app into your process is having it integrate with your back office software. A good mobile sales app will integrate with your accounting, fulfilment and reporting software.

This benefit isn’t for your reps, it’s for the businesses leaders. Having the entire sales process integrated with your back-office software is a huge timesaver when it comes to the paperwork at the end of the day. In a recent interview , we asked Farren Ostilly, Director of Chempharm - a wholesale front-end goods supplier to pharmacies - why he incorporated a mobile sales app into his business. His answer was simple. “I got it for myself”.

Farren spoke in detail about how the platform helped his reps, but above all, he spoke about how much time it saved him each and every day.

Conclusion

Overall, we’ve only touched on the benefits of running a good mobile sales app in your business. Having a comprehensive digital catalogue on hand, the ability to process orders instantly, and then having this all integrate with your back-end software is just the beginning.

The real benefits of using a mobile sales app come once you’re using the platform every day, and breezing by the usual roadblocks of paperwork, stock availability or even just hauling around a huge file.

At Inzant, we’ve developed a mobile sales app that is specifically for the wholesale industry. It covers everything we have mentioned in this article and more.

If incorporating a mobile sales app into your business is something you’re thinking about, then feel free to reach out here for a free demo call . We’ll talk about our app and how it will help your business specifically with no obligations at all.

We hope you’re getting through this tough period alright, here’s to the other side.

Five ways a sales rep app will help your team sell more efficiently.

Fri, 22 May 2020 04:57:32 GMT

Maintaining consistent cash flow is vital for wholesale businesses. Sales reps need all the support they can get, and giving your reps a tool that will help them manage their workflow in one place is a great place to start.

For context, we’re talking about Inzant’s App - we offer an iPad app that centralises every aspect of your sales reps workflow.

Now, the point here isn’t to plug our product. The point is to illustrate why safeguarding your business against a tricky economic period ahead, begins with a well-designed sales rep app that increases productivity.

In our last post, we discussed the clear-cut benefits that come from using a sales rep app in favour of the traditional paper sales system. If you still need convincing around the idea of transitioning away from a manual sales system, maybe that article here is a great place to start.

We won’t beat around the bush. The five benefits are…

Reps can make sales anywhere, anytime
Paperwork is reduced in your business
Your entire product range is presented beautifully and easy to search through
A solid sales rep app will integrate with your back-office software
Your reps CRM will work for your reps, not against them

If you want a more detailed rationale and analysis of each benefit, then read on. Otherwise, feel free to contact us here for more information on how Inzant can work with your business.

Sales on the go:

Firstly, a sales rep app such as Inzant’s empowers your reps to make sales anywhere, anytime. By having every product on offer, all the information around stock availability and even the ability to make orders in one place, your reps can approach any client meeting with full confidence.

No paperwork:

Secondly, digitising your sales process comes with the massive benefit of wiping out the majority of paperwork in your business. Your reps will be free from hours of paperwork each week, and on top of this, you won’t need to fork out so much on stationery and paperwork each week. It’s a true case of saving money and time.

Digital catalogue:

Of all our clients that use our app, by far the main benefit we keep hearing about is having every single product available with a few taps of the screen. Gone are the days of sales reps hauling around oversized files, then tediously searching an index for a certain product.

Some of Inzant’s users have thousands of products available and having every single one neatly categorized and searchable is a huge time-saver. Another benefit of the digital catalogue is clients being able to find new products that are useful to them, that they otherwise never would have found in a massive file.

Integration with back-office software:

For the business leaders out there, this one is for you. A good sales rep app such as Inzant’s will integrate with your key back-office software. By this, we mean every order linking with your MYOB account , XERO account or another accounting platform. Also, this can mean your fulfilment software such as Dear Inventory or an external CRM or Reporting platform like PowerBI.

A well organised CRM:

Lastly, an easy to use CRM is incorporated within the app. Not only can your sales reps display stock and place orders, but they can also organise their days for success. Our CRM allows your reps to book in meetings or calls that will best suit each client, ensuring they service clients at times when they need your products the most.

This also means that none of your clients will get missed. Lastly, your reps can organise their day by the location of each client, saving them time on the road and petrol.

CONCLUSION:

The benefits of empowering your sales reps with a tool that handles their entire workflow in one place are clear. Not only will you give them the ability to make more sales, but above all, you’ll drive productivity in your business and save hours each week.

If Inzant is a tool that would be useful within your wholesale business, then feel free to reach out to us here for a free call to discuss how Inzant would work in your business specifically.

Lately, due to the implications of COVID-19, we’ve also been helping wholesale businesses by building them robust eCommerce stores and custom client order portals. If this sounds like something your business needs, then feel free to reach out here too.

The cost of paper in your wholesale business

Tue, 12 May 2020 04:50:12 GMT

Does your wholesale business still use paper to fulfil orders? If so, this means that your sales process is manual.

For years, manually handling orders was the norm, and businesses grew and thrived.

In a manual system, sales reps present the stock out of a folder that contains every product, then writes the order into a sales slip, which is then processed manually into the computer back at HQ.

It’s a process that’s still followed by many businesses today. Handling the sales process manually doesn’t mean that you’re set up for failure, in fact, many business leaders in the wholesale space still swear by the manual process.

However, as technology has developed, so has the way in which we can handle our entire sales process.

Nowadays, the most productive wholesale businesses use a mobile sales system that allows them to present stock, place orders and even handle their CRM all within one easy to use tool.

If you’re a business operator that’s still using a manual sales method, here’s a business case for implementing a mobile sales platform.

TIME COST

On average, using a mobile sales platform such as Inzant saves your reps 1 - 2 hours per week. They save this time because they’re not held back by the amount of paperwork that comes with a manual system.

An extra two hours per week for your rep will mean more sales, and more overall fulfilment in their role knowing that they’re contributing and hopefully meeting their targets.

In addition, having every product presented neatly within an easy to use iPad app, allows your reps to professionally present stock anywhere, anytime - no more large product files and documents to haul around.

A good mobile sales platform also has the capability to integrate with a number of your existing programs, for example, your accounting software. This means that each sale will be accounted for on your books, saving you hours of tedious paperwork at the end of the day.

FINANCIAL COST

A recent study by Forest Ethics highlighted that as Australians, we consume on average $220 per year of paper individually. If we work in a paper-oriented business, we can expect this figure to be more.

While this study accounted for domestic paper use as well, we can comfortably assume that the average employee would be using at least $150 per year of paper. That’s being conservative.

You might assume that a manual system allows you to avoid paying for an online sales platform to begin with. However, your paper and stationery costs will still be substantial.

Could this spend be better utilised on a mobile sales platform?

Lastly, a mobile sales platform greatly reduces human error in your business, minimising ordering and accounting mistakes.

THE ALTERNATIVE:

At Inzant, we provide an easy to use mobile sales system that eliminates paperwork, saves your reps time and optimises your entire sales cycle.

Based on an iPad, Inzant allows reps to easily present every item you stock, place an order instantly, organise their own CRM, and manage their entire workflow in one place.

While making more sales is a symptom of using our platform, the most common customer feedback we get is always about how much time the platform saves both reps and business owners.

Working closely with your business, we make the setup process seamless, teach you how to maximise the benefits of the platform in your business and provide support and guidance whenever it’s needed.

If you think it’s time for your business to step away from its manual sales process, feel free to reach out to us here for a complimentary call about how we can help you specifically.

Our aim is to help wholesale businesses grow through streamlining their entire sales process, and we’d love to help you out too.

How to market your wholesale business over the next 12 months

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 03:10:28 GMT

Like most businesses, operators in the wholesale industry face a tough twelve months ahead.

Most of us are scratching our heads, working out how to survive. We all want to keep our staff employed and support our families through this difficult period.

However, while the implications of the global pandemic are creating further pressure on our business, we need to remain pro-active with the decisions we make.

Business is tough, but this is our new playing field and everyone is in the same arena - how we adapt to the changes within our industry matters now more than ever.

At Inzant, we work with hundreds of wholesale businesses and have a front-row seat to the changes they’ve made over the last eight weeks.

All the major changes have stemmed from how they market the business. We’re not talking about the blog posts they’ve shared or the letter from their CEO they emailed out - we’re talking about the drastic changes they’ve made to their service, price-point and place in the market.

You may have already made changes around the following marketing fundamentals out of necessity, but below we’ve broken down these important marketing pillars so any business leader in the wholesale industry can take action.

The Four Ps

A term first coined by marketer Jerome McCarthy in 1960, the Four Ps is a timeless marketing foundation that’s stood the test of time.

You have probably heard about the Four Ps, but let this serve as a timely reminder.

To give you an idea of each stage, we’ve broken down the adjustments well-known brands and institutions have made recently that relate to each P.

P1 - Product

Our product (or service) is the most important part of our business. If it doesn’t solve a customers problem while going above and beyond, then even the best promotional material will be pointless.

Over the last six weeks, how we deliver our products, and overall service has had to change drastically. And while we might have done a good job of digitising our business on the fly, we need to ask ourselves - is what we do still remarkable?

Everyone is online now, so we need to think about how we can differentiate ourselves within this new online market.

A great example is Dominoes . Their business model is inherently immune to the implications of COVID-19, being a takeaway business. However, instead of being complacent, they went the extra mile and implemented a contactless delivery system .

The move has been widely praised by consumers and attracted a whole new market along the way. Once again, the success here came from the marketing initiative of changing their product, or in Dominoes case, their service.

In the wholesale industry, this means implementing an online store that’s not only there to keep you going, but an online store that provides a seamless customer experience. Maybe it even means implementing a contactless delivery system of your own?

P2 - Price

It seems obvious. Lower your price and you’ll make more sales. However, the leavers we can pull with our price involve more than offering a discount.

It’s implementing payment plans for your clients - think Afterpay - and actively looking for ways that you can save your customers money, without leaving yourself short.

Uber Eats demonstrated a great price-related marketing tactic by wiping their delivery fee until the end of June - saving money for consumers while promoting further demand for their clients.

P3 - Place

Place is where our wholesale brand makes itself visible to our customers. It’s obvious, we now need to be online.

If your customer can’t engage with your business online, make purchases and have their order fulfilled, then you’re going to find the next twelve months harder than it needs to be.

As we mentioned earlier, it’s one thing to have your business operational online, it’s another to provide a remarkable service like no other.

Our schools are a great example of adjusting their place - going from teaching at physical locations, to now being fully online.

P4 - Promotion

What do you notice here? Promotion is the last step in this chain. You can’t create messaging that will break through the noise and grow your sales if you haven’t nailed the first three Ps.

There’s no doubt here that promotion is vital to any business, but without a product or service that excels, at a price-point that matches your customers’ expectation, in a place they can easily access it, investment on promotion is money down the drain.

Lastly, when it comes to creating your promotional material, think about your customers’ problems and share the stories that show them how you can help.

So, what’s next?

The beauty of framing our marketing around the four Ps is that anyone within the business can have an impact on each of the Ps.

While marketing knowledge and guidance is helpful, everyone has the power to make what we do better ( P roduct). We can all make judgments about our price point ( P rice), and we can all see where we need to place the business so our customers can find us to begin with ( P lace). Without a doubt, once we have nailed the first the Ps, the stories and messages we share are easy to find and will make an impact ( P romotion).

It’s up to you as a business leader to evaluate how well you address each of the Four Ps in our current market.

Making the required changes in these areas will go a long way to helping your business maintain its position over the next twelve months, and maybe even grow.

It’s important to remember that the market won’t be this way forever. It’s hard to look long-term while our backside is on fire, but making these important changes to your brand now will only put you in a better position for growth long-term.

Our thoughts are with everyone that’s doing it tough here at Inzant. Let’s all look out for each other!

The long-term value of your eCommerce store

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 03:00:22 GMT

What a year 2020 has been. Every single business owner in the wholesale industry has faced a rapid period of change.

For wholesale businesses with a pre-existing eCommerce solution in place, the transition has been much easier. Sales reps have been able to place orders for their clients remotely, or their clients have simply placed the order for themselves.

As a result, the financial impact on the business has been minimised.

But what about the businesses that don’t have an eCommerce solution in place? Can they still survive? The answer varies between businesses and is dependent on the industry that they’re operating in.

However, the door is still open for strong financial returns by investing in their eCommerce solution, even while our economy is in hibernation.

Cost Reductions of B2B eCommerce

While the value of in-person consultations with your clients will always hold true, establishing an easy to use and well-designed eCommerce system will reduce a number of operational costs.

By establishing an eCommerce solution for your business, you can expect to save money in the following areas.

1 - INCORRECT ORDERS AND RETURNS

Naturally, the deliberate and calculated action of your customer placing the order themselves will reduce the number of incorrect orders that come in, minimising the financial and time costs associated with incorrect orders and refunds.

2 - DATA-ENTRY

When it comes to data-entry, the main cost is your time. A solid eCommerce solution will automatically integrate with your accounting software and overall fulfilment process, wiping out the majority of required paperwork in your business.

3 - GENERAL STATIONERY

When sales are made online, or via an app, the costs of stationery, paper and print brochures will be significantly reduced within your business. Often, the cost of this alone justifies having a solid B2B eCommerce solution.

ROI Potenial of B2B eCommerce

Now, let’s look at how a solid eCommerce solution will generate more income for your business. The obvious one here is the money raised from online sales - but when we look deeper we uncover a few more reasons to get excited.

1 - THE VALUE OF MORE TIME IN YOUR BUSINESS

The role of your online store isn’t to make your field salespeople redundant - it’s to give you and your staff more time to focus on productive tasks.

Your field sales reps can nurture larger clients that place big orders, while your customers that place small orders can simply do so anytime online. Your admin team won’t be bogged down in pointless paperwork and can focus on creating processes and systems that drive further productivity. Importantly, management and owners can focus on revenue-building activities for the business, instead of running around putting out fires.

2 - THE LIFETIME VALUE OF NEW CLIENTS OR RE-ENGAGED CLIENTS

When people have the capability of finding your business and making orders on their own accord, your business opens the door to new repeat customers that otherwise wouldn’t have found you.

If your online store is SEO optimised, people will organically find your business in the search engine when they look up a particular item you stock. Once a person makes a purchase for the first time, generally, they’ll be repeat customers for years to come.

Also, having your products easily accessible online might wake up a few dormant customers as they utilise the easy to use online alternative to get their stock.

3 - MORE DIVERSE ORDERS

Another benefit of an online store is having your customers finding products they often miss when they browse through your catalogue in-person. Being able to search for products by category online will give your customer the chance to find new products that they can sell, which in turn generates new revenue for the business.

A solid eCommerce solution is a long-term investment.

Right now, the need to revamp or establish your online store might seem like an untimely and forced expense as you adjust your business model to operate online.

However, rushing to establish a cheap online store or simply refusing to offer an eCommerce solution altogether is going to be far more costly in the long-run.

It’s common knowledge that the wholesale industry is continually becoming digitised. Having an eCommerce system in place for your business is no longer a competitive advantage - it’s a minimum requirement to compete altogether.

On face value, a solid eCommerce system not only saves you time and money but gives your business the flexibility it needs to operate in the current online climate. More importantly, it will be a foundation of your businesses success for years to come.

As the industry negates the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the capability of a businesses eCommerce system will play a major role in how a business will look in a few months time.

WE ARE HERE TO HELP

Inzant is a sales app that allows wholesale reps to generate online orders and facilitate mobile sales. On top of this, we create custom online order portals for your clients so they can place orders themselfs and build e-commerce stores.

Feel free to reach out if your wholesale business needs help with its online sales capability.

Team Inzant.

The wholesaler's guide to physical & financial survival.

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 02:47:53 GMT

With Australia once again seeing wide-spread lockdowns due to COVID-19, we have taken the time update this article we wrote last year. The purpose of this article is to help wholesalers navigate the obstacles they're facing right now, based on what we've learned from the many wholesale brands we deal with. We hope this helps.

While it’s important to remember that the challenge we all face right now is a health issue first, we can't deny the emotional impact that these lockdowns are having - sales roles have never been harder, while at the same time, the urgency of performing has arguably never been greater.

Sales are the oxygen of any business, and while the health and safety of our community is our main priority, we must also work hard to ensure the longevity of our businesses and the jobs within them.

In this article, we’ll break down the actionable measures our clients in the wholesale industry have been taking to keep themselves healthy and financially stable while negating the challenges COVID-19 keeps throwing at us.

Hopefully, we can share a new angle or idea that could help your wholesale business right now. Before we go ahead, the advice below isn’t meant to be used in making final decisions for your business. The purpose of this article is to give you a few ideas that might guide you through this period.

Staff separation & minimising in-person contact. It's now commonplace in how we do business, so embrace it.

As a wholesale business, fulfilling orders is simply a task that can’t be carried out online. People need to be in your warehouse, handling orders and shipments. However, if one person in your workforce becomes ill with the coronavirus, this can completely shut down your business as all staff will need to go into isolation.

On the other hand, your staff probably need the work to pay their bills and you need them to keep the business going altogether.

One solution we’re seeing our clients implement is internal isolation within their warehouse. Firstly, any admin, or sales staff that don’t need to be on-premises have been shifted to home-based work.

From here, people that need to be in the warehouse are then segregated to their own individual section, with a process in place to limit or completely eliminate contact with staff from another section. If you can minimise the contact between your staff, you’re creating a safer working environment for your staff and limiting the odds of team isolation within your business.

Another solution is to operate with only one person in the warehouse at any given time (if possible). If you follow this method, the person working the shift will need to disinfect any working surfaces that they use. However, we acknowledge that for the majority of businesses, this might not be a possible option given the size of their operation.

And while these measures may seem limiting and hard to implement, our most successful clients have seen this as an opportunity to streamline their business model by removing a number of formerly redundant tasks and process. In some cases, they have found a more profitable way of operating with a new and improved lean business model.

Wholesale specific hygiene practises

This section is for your sales staff. If they’re not already operating completely online (more on this below) and are still meeting clients in person, then you need to consider the various points of exposure they will encounter.

Are they using a hand-held device to process sales? Now is the time to ensure that they are the only ones touching the device with routine disinfection, especially if other people will use that device on another shift.

For example, a big feature of our App is the ability for a rep to let their customer place the orders on the device themselves - for now, this is a no-go! Make sure your sales rep is the only person handling your sales device.

And while in-person meetings are vital, it's important we question how necessary they really are and the potential agenda if the meeting if it does need to go ahead.

Rapid digitisation of the wholesale business model

How has your business adjusted to the new digital landscape? For a wholesale business to be viable, their ability to have stock presented online and easily accessible to their clients has never been more important.

Having your sales reps being able to generate orders via an online meeting or a call is paramount.

Depending on your industry, the importance of your online capabilities might be the difference between your supplier providing essential products or being out of stock. How we respond to this crisis as wholesale businesses has never mattered more to the wider community.

Another important move our clients are making is serving the B2C market. With common household items being out of stock, and people looking to rapidly launch their own business, having the general public being able to access and buy your products online opens up a new revenue stream.

If your business needs help creating a custom order portal for your clients or an e-commerce store we can help you out.

Transparent communication between staff & customers

Transparent communication between you and your staff, customers and stakeholders is imperative as we enter further uncertainty.

Hard decisions will inevitably need to be made, but we can make things easier for ourselves with caring transparency.

This means regularly checking in with your staff to make sure they’re doing okay, and answering any pressing questions that they may have.

It means openly sharing the status of the business, and the rationale behind the major decisions you may need to act on.

This also means that now is the time to deepen your relationships with your customer. We’re all in this together, and working on mutual problems together to create a ‘win/win’ outcome is crucial. It's also a great opportunity.

While things are tough now, how you act in the face of these challenges will have a lasting impact on your business as we adjust to our new normal.

Summary

In summary, it’s important to remember that the challenge we face right now is first and foremost a health issue. It’s about keeping people safe and doing our part to keep case numbers down. Secondly, it’s about keeping the lights on and as many people employed as you can.

Separating your staff if they still need to work on-site is an important measure, so is carefully considering the points of contact that need to be regularly sanitised. And as we've seen in recent times, getting slack with this because cases are low is dangerous.

Once we know that we’re doing everything we can as a wholesale business to keep everyone safe, then we can work hard on digitising our business model. It’s important for cash-flow now and will become a massive strength of your business once order is restored.

Lastly, clear communication with empathy for the person we’re talking to has never been in higher demand. Let’s work together on this one and come out the other side with newfound strengths, and lessons that last us a lifetime.

We’d love to hear how your wholesale business is adapting in the comments below.

About Inzant

Inzant provide a mobile sales platform that allows wholesale reps to generate online orders and facilitate mobile sales. On top of this, we create custom online order portals for your clients so they can place orders themselves and build e-commerce stores.

Feel free to reach out to us below if your wholesale business needs help with its online sales capability.

Why online ordering for sales reps in the Pharmaceutical Industry is vital.

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 03:52:23 GMT

The Situation

With the unfortunate outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) putting our pharmacies under immense pressure, it’s important that your reps reach out to all your clients periodically.

However, with so many pharmacies requiring urgent products, reps across Australia are finding it tough to reach everyone in person, let alone fulfil their orders.

The need for our pharmacies to be well-stocked has never been more important. In this article, we detail how the best reps are using online ordering to handle the sudden increase in demand.

The solution to reaching every pharmacy

If you’re an existing client with Inzant, you may already be using the online ordering to handle the increase in demand.

However, if you’re currently using another system, do you have the capability to take orders with your client over the phone quick and easily which are instantly ready for fulfillment?

Furthermore, does your client have an online portal that allows them to make orders themself?

The ability to take orders over the phone, or have your client simply place the order themself is playing a major role in keeping our pharmacies well-stocked, as we all do our best to contain the outbreak of the coronavirus.

With demand for products such as hand-sanitiser, face masks and general hygiene products through the roof, reps are turning to remote measures to ensure these vital supplies are available to Pharmacies.

The vital role your reps are playing

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, reps generally operated with the mind-set that their role was to ensure consistent orders, revenue and client satisfaction.

Now, they are crucial to keeping Australia’s pharmacies stocked with vital in-demand products that will help protect consumers from the coronavirus, and minimise it’s spread.

For sure, it’s a small role in the scheme of things, but nonetheless an important one. We’ve seen wide-spread panic buying across the nation on items such as face masks, sanitisers and tissues, and reps are now a linchpin in ensuring our pharmacies meet the current demand.

The importance of a well-organised sales system

In times of high-demand, poor systems get found out fast. The output of your reps in the face of the current demand is directly linked to your overall sales system and its efficiency.

Does your current sales system allow your clients to easily place orders themself?

Are your reps able to simply call up your clients and place an order for them instantaneously?

Are your reps keeping up with the current demand?

In times of chaos, we can either buy into the stress or be proactive about our systems and processes to ensure we forge onwards.

The way forward

If you think your reps could be more efficient in helping our pharmacies meet the current demand, Inzant is here to help.

Our easy to use iPad app is custom-built for wholesale reps and will streamline your team’s entire workflow.

The software handles online ordering, mobile sales and presentations, fulfilment and it even integrates with your accounting and finance systems to greatly reduce your paperwork.

If you would like to learn more, feel free to reach out to us below.

In the meantime, you can also click here for a free online demo - it’s a thirty-minute online meeting to walk you through the app and how it can work specifically in your business. Of course, there are no obligations.

Integration between MYOB AccountRight and Inzant

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 03:45:46 GMT

Does your wholesale business utilise MYOB AccountRight Live for its online accounting? Below we detail how your accounting system can seamlessly integrate with your entire sales process.

Inzant is a mobile sales platform designed to streamline the entire process of your sales force. Within one easy to use iPad app, your sales reps can present products, place orders and manage their CRM for optimal productivity.

However, one of the most important features is Inzant’s ability to integrate with your Accounts system. For businesses using MYOB AccountRight Live, this is a game-changer as it eliminates tedious paperwork, allowing you to focus on the work that really matters!

If this sound’s like you, then read on to understand more about how Inzant integrates with MYOB AccountRight.

Your products in MYOB

Using the MYOB AccountRight API, every single item your wholesale business offers is synced between Inzant and MYOB.

Why is this so important?

Having all your products synced with both your sales and your accounting system will eliminate hours of data entry & paperwork in your business.

Businesses that are still using manual data entry for their products are simply falling behind. Having your key product information, media and inventory levels available to the sales team in the significantly improves the sales process, and streamlines your entire sales cycle for everyone involved.

Linking your customers with MYOB AccountRight

When your entire sales system is integrated with your MYOB AccountRight account, the important metrics around your customers are in detail and readily available. This means that you can understand who your highest paying clients are, what items they’re buying regularly, and how you could perhaps provide them with more value.

This is even more valuable for your sales force because using the insights and data from MYOB AccountRight, they can then optimise their interactions based on what clients need the most at any given time.

All of this is done within the same app! (Inzant Sales)

Linking MYOB Invoices into Inzant Sales

After you’ve made the sale, invoices can be pulled out of Inzant and linked to from MYOB. This helps provide the sales team with visibility over what was ordered versus what was invoiced & shipped, as well as if there are any open backorders.

Summary

What we have covered here is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the integration between Inzant and MYOB AccountRight Live .

There are so many more benefits of having your entire sales process directly linked to your accounting software.

And if MYOB isn’t your accounting provider, we also integrate with XERO , Quickbooks , Reckon , Netsuite and more.

See here for all the software the Inzant can integrate with.

Three Killer Educational Resources for People in B2B sales

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 03:39:11 GMT

Working in B2B sales can be rewarding, but to see success we often have to overcome a number of stressors.

These stressors could be internal. For example - having to chase KPI’s that are seemingly out of your reach. Or the stress can come externally - everyone has a life outside of work that can get tricky at times!

As a salesperson in the B2B space, simply securing more sales can alleviate a great portion of stress that comes with the job.

Learning more about the craft of sales is the easiest way forward. In our latest blog, we detail three killer resources that will help

anyone in B2B sales grow their numbers if they apply the knowledge.

B2B Sales Resource One: Seth’s Blog

Seth Godin is known as one of the greatest marketers, leaders and thinkers of our time. His thought’s around marketing and sales dive through surface-level quick-fixes, and break down what it means to truly be a salesperson or a marketer.

Seth has written a daily blog for over a decade, sharing a small bite of wisdom you can action throughout your day. If you enjoy his writing, you can subscribe to the blog and have it sent to your inbox daily.

Here’s one of his best blogs on sales >> How to sell anything to anyone.

B2B Sales Resource Two: Hubspot Sales Blog

Hubspot’s company blog on sales is one of the most comprehensive guides on growing as a salesperson. They regularly share in-depth articles that are well researched, easy to comprehend and most importantly, actionable.

For anyone looking for continual growth as a salesperson, keeping a close tab on Hubspot’s sales blog is a must.

B2B Sales Resource Three: How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

For the readers out there, if you’re in sales and you haven’t come across this timeless classic then be prepared for an eye-opening read full of practical ideas and wisdom you can use in not only your job but your entire life.

Carnegie’s classic is one of the most influential books on human relations ever written and has been cited by many successful people as the book that changed everything for them. Here are a few quotes from Dale Carnegie and his writings from How To Win Friends & Influence People.

“To be interesting, be interested.”

“Why talk about what we want? That is childish. Absurd. Of course, you are interested in what you want. You are eternally interested in it. But no one else is. The rest of us are just like you: we are interested in what we want.”

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

You can buy a copy of this book from most good book stores or Amazon, where you can also download audio versions of the book.

Conclusion

Everyone in B2B sales - no matter how successful - can always learn something new. It’s this mindset of always learning that will help anyone reach any goal or sales target that’s set in front of them.

Do you have a few resources of your own that you regularly go to as someone in B2B sales? If so, feel free to share them in the comments below.

We hope the above resources give that little golden nugget you need to close out this month with a bang.

About Inzant

Inzant is an app for every B2B sales professional. The easy to use program handles your entire workflow in one place, from mobile sales, online ordering, CRM management and even order fulfilment from the warehouse.

The App makes life easy, streamlining your entire sales process while allowing you to generate more sales.

If you would like to learn more, contact us for a free consultation.

Three Important Tips For Field Sales Success

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 03:31:57 GMT

In 2020, most businesses in the wholesale industry utilise a customer relationship management (CRM) program to streamline their workflow, maintain sales and understand their customers.

However, simply ticking the box of having a CRM isn’t enough. The strength of buy-in from employees to a businesses CRM tech can have a massive influence on its success.

A CRM is either something that’s done out of necessity - it’s in the way - or it’s a businesses guiding light, building wealth and in-depth relationships with customers.

Which side of the fence does your business land on? If your CRM system could be better managed, then there might be a few insights ahead for you. If you’re happy with your current CRM system, maybe there’s a few ideas for further productivity ahead.

As always, we write these blogs to help people in wholesale sales and particularly our current clients. If you have any feedback on our tips, or if you have some insights of your own to share, feel free to post them in the comments below.

Ease of integration & use in determining CRM success.

People in sales are often busy, and worried about their next sale. With this in mind, it’s important that any CRM tech in place works with them, not against them.

Any good CRM system is in place to help staff grow the business. It’s not a tracking tool for micro-management that requires staff to tediously input data and information that’s not relevant to their direct success.

How a CRM integrates with the workflow of the people using it will determine its impact on the business. Integration with order fulfilment and an ability to demonstrate which customers to contact and when is an example of CRM that works with employees.

For sure, every CRM will involve manual data entry at some point. However, actively minimising the amount of manual data entry involved, while automating workflow is an absolute priority when considering the strength and impact your CRM needs to have on your business goals.

Often a clear viewing of who to call and when, along with a few handy bits of information from the last interaction with a client is all that’s needed for a CRM to be successful.

Taking action on numbers & data

A great CRM provides you with actionable insights based on numbers and data. This is important because as a business, you can step away from important decisions that are based on emotion and make rational decisions based on clear-cut numbers.

This might mean knowing that a certain customer would benefit from placing a larger order based on their high order frequency. Or, it might even highlight customers that have been severely under prioritised based on their location.

Any good CRM system will present the important numbers to you live with simplicity. Are you capitalizing on the rich data your CRM can provide?

Workflow

Lastly, solid CRM tech provides the most productive workflow to all employees. This means that salespeople can follow the right leads at the right time. It also means that employees can reach out to existing customers when they’re needed the most, strengthening the relationship.

When everyone within an organisation is carrying out their day with a conscientious effort for productivity, a company's growth and success compounds quickly.

As we mentioned earlier, often solid CRM tech integrates with a number of other important functions of a salesperson's day-to-day tasks. When a CRM links with order fulfilment, and even presenting stock, it becomes a salesperson's dashboard for success.

A CRM that helps people at an individual level will always foster more buy-in across the board.

Conclusion:

How do you see the success of your own CRM system after reading this article? Is it integrating with a number of other important but often tedious tasks? Does your CRM tech regularly provide you with valuable insights based on real numbers? And lastly, does your CRM tech dictate your workflow so it’s always productive and simple to manage?

Everyone’s answer to these questions will vary, however, continually assessing your CRM tech’s ability to drive success in your business is vital.

By the way, we do CRM!...

At Inzant, we provide wholesale professionals an app that makes life easy by generating more sales. Our simple to use App has its own in built CRM system, along with facilitating mobile sales, fulfilment, online ordering and much more.

If you’re a wholesale professional and you want to go to the next level this year with your growth, you can start by booking yourself in for a free online demo by clicking here . This way we can show you how the app will directly benefit yourself, with no obligations.

Five Important Tips For Field Sales Success

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 03:21:27 GMT

By now, most of us are back in the office. For those of us in field sales - which is many of our clients here at Inzant - we thought it might be handy to put together five tips that will help you generate more sales this year.

Are they groundbreaking insights? No. They’re not your silver bullet - but what these insights are is a set of actionable ideas that we can never hear enough of.

We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below.

Tip one: An in-depth knowledge of what you’re selling

In field sales - generally - the items being sold are mundane. To say that an intense passion for your product is vital is often inauthentic, and can drive personal narratives around your job that can become detrimental.

Now, we’re not discounting passion in your job - but in field sales, it’s generally going to be a passion for helping people out, or growing your business or the company you work for and not the product itself.

As a salesperson, it’s not your job to merely make money. You’re an informant to the customer, helping them make a buying decision that will benefit all parties. Knowing all the intricate details about the products you offer is highly advantageous.

Demonstrating genuine knowledge will help your clients trust you when it comes to making further purchases.

I’m sure you know the ins-and-outs of what you offer, but how in-depth? Using your downtime to learn the specs, benefits and features of your products will always help you convey further value down the line.

Tip two: Seeing the sales-cycle as a never-ending process

Making a sale isn’t the end of the sales cycle. Every good salesperson knows the importance of following up with the client and regularly checking in with no agenda.

Following-up shows a client that you care about them more than your next commission check. It’s so easy to overlook this simple act, but you’d be surprised how often a simple follow-up doesn’t happen, especially when things get busy, and management starts to question your numbers.

The catch is that if you’re consistently following up with your clients, chances are they will make another sale sooner than expected, for a larger amount as well. It’s hard to follow up with customers when the dollar value isn’t in the near future, but it’s always worth it in the long-run.

Tip three: A simple workflow

What does a simple workflow for someone in field sales look like? To us, it’s following a CRM that highlights the people who need to buy the most. Once you’re with the client, it’s presenting your stock beautifully, and with ease on an iPad. And then it’s placing the order to be fulfilled instantly.

It’s not running around like a headless chook, carrying heavy product books and wasting time doing paperwork.

Working in sales can be very rewarding, and it can be stressful at the same time. That’s why we emphasised the importance of having a simple workflow that gives you the best chance of making sales with minimal friction.

Quick plug - our app does exactly this. It makes life easy and helps you generate more sales. To our current clients, we’re always here to help make our app software work even better for you. And to anyone reading this that might be interested, you can click here for a free no-obligation demo.

Tip four: Clearly defined targets

Clearly defined targets are paramount to your success in field sales. General and non-specific targets are dangerous for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, you’re directionless. A big juicy target might look good, but it is realistic and clearly defined? Secondly, without clearly defined KPI’s and goals, you can’t measure the progress of your output. Bosses, you won’t know how well your staff are truly doing, and employees, you won’t be able to readily justify your output.

How clear-cut are you numbers for the year ahead? Maybe they need to be further defined.

Tip five: A mindset of continual improvement

How we all work in field sales can become very methodical and process-driven. This isn’t a bad thing! However, it’s important we continually look at our processes to improve them bit by bit.

Kaizen is a Japanese term that refers to ‘change for the better’ and is a philosophy that involves continual improvements (big or small). Kaizen towards a field sales job might mean any of the following, and whatever you can come up with yourself.

Tweaking your sales emails to read better
Ensuring your calendar is well prepared and updated
Gradually learning more about your customers
Learning more about your own company
Becoming a better listener over time

It can be anything. Every aspect of your job and how you go about it can be improved bit by bit.

Continual and incremental improvements over time add up in a big way.

Conclusion

What did you think about our five tips? Hopefully they sparked a few ideas of your own, and maybe help you be just that little bit better in 2020.

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts or recommendations for our next blog. It could be about our app or sales in general.

BI Reporting: What it is and why it matters to your business

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 03:13:51 GMT

In the caption for this blog, I asked how 2019 has been for you from a sales perspective? How did you go answering this? Can you answer the question with confidence?

If not, you don’t need to worry - the world will keep spinning and 2020 is just around the corner. But if it has been a great year, can you tell me this based on real-time numbers? Or are you going by the fat commission checks you’ve received every month? Either way, you’ve done your job I guess…

However, to truly keep yourself on the upwards curve, knowing the important numbers to you and your business in real-time is vital. This is basically what BI reporting is - the important metrics to your growth laid out visually and in real-time.

Now, I know it’s cliche to harp on about knowing your numbers - but I’m not talking about the excel spreadsheet you tinker around with every few months here. If you currently have a great BI reporting system in place, then the following can serve as reinforcement of your system. If you’re operating without a BI reporting system, then the following will hopefully convince you to take action!

Below are three great reasons to get yourself a solid BI reporting system. And if you’re a current client of our’s not using our in-built BI reporting feature give us a call and we’ll take you through it anytime.

One: Better business decisions

Duh...when the important metrics are visually laid out in real-time, you’re able to gain valuable insights that you otherwise might have missed. In sales, this could mean knowing what stock to sell, at the right time, to the right person.

You might uncover that while you’re turning over plenty of stock, you’re not selling it in a way that generates the most profit for you and the business. Or, when you have enough data to look back on - say three years for example - you can predict what item is going to sell like hot-cakes based on historic data.

When the important metrics are instantly accessible, displayed beautifully and in real-time, you’re not only able to gain unique insights that give you an advantage, but you can then take action on them with confidence as well.

Two: Increased productivity

BI Reporting - the system that puts an end to manual reporting. If you’re in sales, the half a day spent putting together a report so your numbers can be displayed, is time that could have spent closing a deal!

But what we mean by increased productivity is knowing what actions you need to take, and what actions can be deleted from your schedule. If BI reporting was given a cheesy catch-phrase, it’s ‘work smarter, not harder’. Knowing what products to sell, or what products not to sell gives you the best chance of using your time productively.

If the numbers around what’s selling - when and who to - are clear in your business, everyone from sales reps, to fulfilment staff and the people in the office can all be on the same page, which is the cornerstone of every productive business.

By now, we know that BI reporting gives you insights that you never would have gathered to make great business decisions, and it’s drives productivity. Now, let’s move onto the most important insight around BI reporting of them all.

Three: Minimise risk, or at least see it coming…

Everybody wants security. In our jobs, relationships and just about anything. As humans, we’re risk-averse and we spend our life either running from risk or going out of our way to avoid it.

BI reporting, when done properly is your businesses shield against risk. For sure, seeing downwards trends in business or sales can be scary - but that’s the deal we sign up for! It’s not always going to be plain sailing, and if we’re watchful, we can recognise these trends and make the required adjustments in our course.

Great BI reporting gives us the chance to make these adjustments well in advance. In other words, we get to sort ourselves out before our back-side is on fire! Being able to analyse the important trends in our business doesn’t’ allow us to live a risk-free life, but it gives us the chance to see these risks and potential problems coming well in advance.

Summary

In summary, the benefits of a great BI reporting system are worthy enough to be a priority for any business, big or small. With proper BI reporting, we gain valuable insights, become more productive as a business, and can see potential risks or problems coming from a long way out.

If you’re a current client, and this blog has inspired you to take your numbers to the next level, then our in-built BI reporting system is simple to use and can do everything we’ve mentioned in this article and more. As always, feel free to get in touch and ask any questions you might have. We’re here to help you grow!

If you’re not a current client of ours but are interested in knowing more about our mobile sales solution for people in wholesale sales, feel free to call us anytime. We can take you through a free no-obligation demo and basically show you exactly how our mobile sales solution will help your business grow specifically.

How a sales rep app will make you sell more efficiently

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 03:07:28 GMT

Are you currently working in wholesale sales? If so, do you have an all-inclusive tool that lets you manage everything from online orders to fulfilment and even your CRM?

Or, you might have a sales app that does some of these functions, but not all of them? Perhaps you have the software handy, but it’s not really worth your time and the program itself creates more hassles than it saves time?

In this article, we’re here to detail what every good wholesale sales rep app should do. The idea is to give you a feel of what the industry standard is so you can determine whether or not you’re giving yourself the best possible chance of making a sale.

Mobile sales

Firstly, your sales rep app should allow you to make sales on the go with the use of an iPad. Gone are the days of bulky product booklets, and manual ordering. Your sales rep software should give you the ability to meet a client, display your products with ease, and make the order on the spot. This leads us to order fulfilment.

Order fulfilment

Not only should your sales rep app make an order on the spot, but it should integrate with your system back at the warehouse, ensuring fulfilment is made quickly as possible. For the managers and owners, the app should also integrate with your accounting software to minimise your bookwork. Happy days...

Wholesale rep CRM

Next is your CRM. Often a sales rep has their CRM separate to their overall sales rep app. For sure there are great CRM options available, but if it can all be done in the one place then you’ll be able to manage your workflow with simplicity. Less bouncing around between apps, better tracking, and less subscription fees for the owners out there, nice!

Having your CRM tied in with your sales rep app software makes life easy. Having all your clients and their details such as last orders, or even notes you made for yourself makes all the difference in your sales output.

A few more important things…

Your sales rep app should be your mother tool. On top of what we’ve mentioned here, features such as B.I reporting , merchandising and integration with well-known productivity apps and accounting software is what you should be expecting as a minimum.

What if we told you we know someone…

Secretly we’ve been talking about ourself here. We provide everything mentioned above here for people in wholesale sales. On top of this, we offer our clients custom web portals so their clients can sign in and make sales themselves, and custom eCommerce and app solutions that help wholesale businesses grow.

Now is a great time of the year - anytime is great though - to consider changing your sales rep software, or to upgrade to a better system. You could be starting off 2020 with a bang, knowing that you have the best sales rep software on your side. Knowing that you have a tool that will make your life in sales easier might just make Christmas lunch taste that little bit better…

Are you a wholesale business looking to grow?

At Inzant, we provide wholesale professionals with a tool that saves time and generates sales. Our easy to use iPad app is changing the game for our clients, and if you would like to learn more about what we do, simply get in touch for a free demo.

How the right sales rep software will make your life easy

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 05:18:05 GMT

Sales reps have a tough gig at times. They’re on the road 24/7, chasing customers to stay above water. Meetings are often allocated a small time-frame, so when that meeting comes, it’s important that both parties walk away satisfied with the transaction.

With constant meetings, comes constant paperwork. For reps, this paperwork can take up a huge amount of time, particularly in the wholesale industry.

On top of this, mistakes are often made when it comes to these orders. Was it the right amount? Or of course, DO WE HAVE THAT ITEM IN BLOODY STOCK!

In this article, we detail how our software here at Inzant will save you hours as a sales rep, and allow you to be far more productive.

You may already be using a software system to handle orders online, as well as software for your CRM. But the question is, are you happy with this software? Is it really making your life easier?

Mobile Orders for sales reps

Inzant’s main feature is our mobile sales system . Often our clients use this feature alone as it’s so powerful to their overall productivity that they don’t even need to look at the other features of our product. Yes, this annoys us…

Anyway, our Mobile Ordering system allows reps to present their products to clients on a simple iPad App. Orders can be logged on the spot and fulfilment back in the warehouse can begin instantly. Our Mobile Ordering system completely eliminates paperwork and those huge files we all used to haul around displaying our products.

For the business owners out there, these orders can be directly integrated with your accounting software to further minimise your bookwork. Yes, you can have a life and run a business…

Our clients love this feature because the reps head into the store, and their customers take over the app and place the orders themselves! Meanwhile, the reps chat away with the store owner or the manager, building an even stronger relationship.

CRM for sales reps

Within Inzant, you can also manage your CRM . Each client and their details will be listed. All the handy information you need to know like their last order and when it was made, along with any other notes you wish to see are all available instantly.

A call-cycle feature is there to help you make a simple, yet highly productive list of who to call and when. This makes sure that you’re seeing your clients periodically like clockwork.

You’re able to meet with the clients that are in need of their next order, making your life easier from a sales perspective - knowing you’re calling or meeting with someone that genuinely needs what you have to offer is always handy!

Does your current system do this? Having a mobile ordering system in the same place as a CRM has been a game-changer for our clients. The time they’ve saved avoiding pointless meetings and paperwork has changed their entire outlook on their job.

Online Ordering solution

Lastly, at Inzant we also offer an Online Ordering solution that integrates with the app - and your accounting software - allowing your clients to handle their own ordering.

This has been massive for our clients that have customers in hard to reach places or so many customers that their reps can’t keep up.

Having an Online Ordering solution that your customer can personally log into and order from is a great way to streamline and automate your business.

Sales reps will always have their place in your business, but having the online option for your customer allows them to make urgent orders when they arise.

Having an online store also opens your business up to a whole new market, allowing the public to become a new sector your business can service.

Conclusion

For sales reps, knowing that you can easily present your products, and make orders instantly with no paperwork is vital.

On top of this, integrating a well-thought-out, but simple to use CRM can help make your workflow move like clockwork as you service the clients that need what you have to offer the most.

Thankfully, this all possible, and we have many clients now that have made life easier for themselves.

Do you think you can be doing things better as a sales rep? Is so, feel free to reach out to us for a free online demo by clicking here. We’ll simply show you how our app works, how it could save you hours and increase your productivity.

Are you a wholesale business looking to grow?

At Inzant, we provide wholesale professionals with a tool that helps generate sales and save time. Our easy to use iPad app is changing the game for our clients, and if you would like to learn more about what we do, simply get in touch below for a free demo.

Three Factors of a Successful Trade Promotion

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 05:09:02 GMT

In the B2B wholesale space, the brands that are most successful execute strong trade promotions. Using unique and highly valuable offers, these brands are able to stand out in a market place that just keeps getting louder and more competitive.

Brands that execute strong trade promotions aren’t simply lowering their prices or increasing the frequency of their promotions.

They know that this only devalues their product, reduces profits and hurts the longevity of their brand.

Having helped hundreds of wholesale businesses grow with our software, we’ve been able to highlight the aspects of the most successful trade promotions. Below are the three most important fundamentals that you need to consider in order to make your next trade promotion a success.

Trade Promotion Fundamental One: A genuinely valuable offer

Before you say ‘I know this stupid’, this is often one of the most overlooked aspects of a strong trade promotion. Here’s a short story to get you thinking...

The boss has told you to run a trade promotion this month to help you make more sales. You look at what items you can still make a profit on at a discounted rate, then you go out looking for a customer to ‘cash-in’ on your trade promotion.

Now look, I know that story wasn’t exactly up there with something JK Rowling could have scribbled out, but it will do the job for the point we’re trying to make. This trade promotion is doomed from the very beginning.

Here's why.

It’s doomed because it’s not about helping the customer - it’s about making money. The person in this story has created a promotion that suits the business, instead of the customer. Trade promotions that are based around simply making money are destined for heartache. Worse, they devalue your brand, annoy your customer and lower your profits anyway.

So, how do we fix this issue with our next trade promotion? We create an offer that our customer will really want. This seems simple, but it involves looking at our numbers, listening to the market, and being prepared to provide more value than we take - not the other way around.

If you give more than you take, your trade promotion will be successful. Simply bundling up the crap that’s not moving in your warehouse and interrupting your customer with an urgent deal isn’t going to do your bottom line any favours.

The best deals are great for both parties. A great read after this article on the subject is this one here by Brent Beshore on Forbes. Brent speaks about the fundamentals of a great deal.

Trade Promotion Fundamental Two: Ease of interaction & user experience

The next fundamental of a successful trade promotion lies within our ability to present the promotion in a way that our customer can easily take action and capitalise on our strong and well thought out offer. It needs to be friction-free.

This means making sure that there are no barriers to the customer taking you up on your offer.

Creating a friction-free trade promotion has many different aspects to consider, so below is a list of key considerations to get you thinking about your own trade promotion and how easy it is to access for your customer.

Ensuring all email links to the trade promotion are in working order
Ensuring all copy surrounding the trade promotion is simple and easy to understand
Transparency of all terms and conditions.
Do you have an online portal that allows your customer to purchase stock themselves?
Is the trade promotion advertised across all available mediums?
If the trade promotion online-based, is all the necessary information present for the customer?

These are only a handful of the considerations that are required when launching your trade promotion. Once you have a strong offer, the success of your trade promotion now lies in how easily your customer can interact and act on the promotion itself. It’s always worth the time it takes to get this stuff right, and having a solid CRM is always a great start.

Trade Promotion Fundamental Three: Divergence

Lastly, divergent trade promotions win. In marketing, divergence simply refers to creating a promotion that’s different and unique. Reducing your price, offering a two-for-one, or any other cliche special isn’t divergent, and it won’t help your trade promotion breakthrough - especially if your promotion is online-based.

In order to create a divergent campaign, presenting your trade promotion with an original point of difference is a must. It’s hard for us to say what this might be exactly for your business, and from here it’s up to you to think outside the box.

Remember, the first fundamental of successful trade promotions are strong and relevant offers. Providing that you already have a strong offer, to create divergence perhaps you can look at the way you market the offer?

You could use humour, or maybe you could reach out to your customer in a different way than usual.

Conclusion

Throughout this article, we have covered the three fundamentals of successful trade promotions for B2B wholesale brands. Based on our knowledge of working with hundreds of businesses in this space, and seeing what trade promotions have worked and what hasn't, the following three fundamentals were found.

Firstly, a genuinely valuable offer is vital for any trade promotions success. Simply slapping together a discount on something you’re not sure your customer actually needs won’t cut it.

Secondly, we need to ensure that our customer can easily access our trade promotion when it goes live. This means clearly articulating the value, terms and conditions - while making sure there are no roadblocks in your customer’s journey to the checkout. Think friction-free.

Thirdly, we spoke about divergence - which simply means to be different and unique with how you present your trade promotion. Doing the same thing as everyone else won’t help you break through the noise, and without a doubt, the businesses that take the time to come up with original ideas around their trade promotions always see better results.

Are you a wholesale business looking to grow?

How to be an Indispensable Wholesale Professional

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 06:42:46 GMT

In Seth's Godin's book Linchpin, Seth describes a Linchpin as somebody ‘who simply cannot be replaced because their role is just far too unique and valuable.'

Being indispensable means that the value you bring to your organisation can't be easily matched by the next person that walks through the door.

However, being indispensable isn’t about building processes and systems that no one else can understand. It's about doing the work that people think 'isn't in their job description' with generosity and enthusiasm.

As a sales pro, you're most likely someone who lives and dies (not literally I hope) by your numbers.

Living out your working life this way is tricky. You become your numbers, and too often organisations look at the wrong figures as a determinant of success.

Looking deeper into Seth Godin's idea about becoming a Linchpin, we uncover a more enjoyable way to go about our work.

When we work for more than the numbers, suddenly the numbers take care of themselves. We become far more secure in our job and confident of the value we offer on a daily basis.

Below are five of the most effective ways you can stand-out as a sales rep, and make yourself indispensable.

Understand why you’re important

There’s no doubt that advancements in technology are taking the place of jobs that were once important.

Often we hear that the importance of the salesperson is diminishing and salespeople are buying into this narrative too easily.

However, in B2B sales, we often deal with high-value items or orders that carry a significant sum - enough for someone to want to know all the information they can get, even when it’s not their own money.

It’s perceived that the online universe has given us all the information we need to make most decisions, and certainly it has to a degree, but at the end of the day, decision-makers are still starved of the information they need.

A strong, informative online presence is only part of the salesperson's tool-kit. The ability to answer questions with clarity and solve people’s problems in real-time is the sales person’s true strength.

So, what can we make from all of this?

SALESPEOPLE! Your job is important. You have the chance to genuinely help people out if you only you believe in your ability to do so. People still want a face to face interaction to make their buying decisions.

To say that your job is being swallowed up in a vortex of online apps is nothing more than a limiting belief.

So, our first actionable take-away on your path to becoming an indispensable sales-pro is to first understand the importance of your role and to know that you’re making a positive contribution.

The value you bring to the table is completely up to you.

Set your goals

How many times have you heard someone say this? Probably too often.

At the moment you either set goals, or you don't. If you do currently set goals, and you have full confidence that the goals you set are allowing you to perform at your best, then scroll down our next point on relationships.

However, if you think that goal setting is something you could improve on, then read on my friend.

Firstly, let’s talk about why we set goals. Without a goal, we’re aimless. We might be working hard, but what are we working towards?

You might be of the opinion that hard-work, day-in-day-out is the secret to success, and to a degree it is. But without a clear carrot in front of us - a worthwhile goal - our hard work lacks the fuel it needs for persistence.

We’ve all heard of the cliches around goal setting. The best of them all being SMART goals . Cliche yes, but specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based goals are a fantastic place for people to start if they struggle with goal setting.

But assuming we all know how to set goals, what keeps us on track with them? How do we stick to our goals and make sure they become a reality.

The answer is simple, but tricky in reality.

We need to simply state goals that we genuinely want to achieve.

For us in sales, we very quickly turn to sales figure oriented goals. ‘I want to make 30 more sales than last month’, or ‘I’m going to bring in $$$$$ worth of extra revenue this quarter’.

Are these the goals that deep-down we all want to achieve?

Or are they goals that look good to our peers when we talk about them?

Generally, money-based goals, unless they’re related to lifting us out of poverty aren’t strong enough to keep us engaged for the distance.

The indispensable sales rep doesn’t set goals that are about personal gain. Instead, they create goals and metrics to aim for that involve contribution.

The goal might be to ‘call 30 existing customers for a check-in to see if there’s anything you can do for them every week’

When our goal becomes focused on contribution, it’s something that keeps us motivated daily, with the sense of pressure involved with money-related goals non-existent. Magically, goals like these end up putting more money in our pockets anyway.

Enjoy building real relationships

As a sales pro, I’m sure you speak to new people on a daily basis, along with a number of people you deal with regularly.

Each interaction you make is either strengthening or weakening that relationship. So, let’s take a look at how to build real relationships.

Sales Consultant Andrew Nisbet talks about the importance of following the customer, not the sale in a recent article.

What Andrew means by this is that in order to see success in sales, we need to think of the customer first, before we think about ourselves.

The indispensable sales rep knows that in order to make a sale, they need to listen. They need to listen to what the customer needs, and what problems they need to be solved.

Too often we see people in sales who go straight for the jugular. Before they even know the prospect and what they need, they're talking about features and prices and how they can cut the ‘best deal possible’.

This might result in a few sales, but it won’t translate into long-standing relationships that are based on mutual value. Sales is a two-way street, people will only pay what they think your product is worth.

The indispensable sales rep is someone that takes pride in their relationships, and genuinely enjoys this part of their job. You don’t need to be a loud, over-confident extrovert - you simply need to be able to listen and be willing to build a real relationship first before you sell.

Be willing to learn

Simplicity is always the easiest way forward, and I’m hoping this article helps you remember what’s important. The next stage in becoming indispensable is to simply be willing to learn.

However, being willing to learn is about more than simply reading this article or the odd book.

Being willing to learn is an approach you can take into every aspect of your life. It’s about learning how to do a better job of what we’ve spoken about here. It’s about working out how you can improve your workflow to be more productive, or how to conduct yourself day-to-day.

If we’re not continually looking to learn, then we’re not progressing. Continual progression is one of the biggest factors of individual and business success.

A willingness to learn doesn’t mean that you need to go back to university or pay for an expensive course. It’s simply about letting go of the belief that you know everything and replacing it with a desire to learn new ways of doing your job.

A great way to start is by simply spending five minutes at the end of each day thinking about what you could have done better, and what challenged you.

From here, you’ll often uncover a number of helpful things you could do some light-reading on, or discuss with someone you trust.

If you’re not willing to learn and continually improve the way you go about your work, are you any different to anyone else?

Organisation

Our last point of becoming someone that’s indispensable is being organised. The benefits of being organised go far beyond rolling up to work on time or having a calendar to track our work.

For sure, we’ll feel in control and confident in our work, but people often underestimate the value in prioritising each and every task they do.

To look into this further, understanding the Pareto Principle is important.

The Pareto Principle is an observation stating that 20% of our input results in 80% of our results.

Originally the term referred to Italy’s population, stating that 80% of the country's wealth was held by 20% of the population.

So, what can we take away from Pareto’s principle as a sales-rep on a journey to being indispensable? We can learn and understand what 20% of the tasks we do each day are responsible for 80% of our results.

Tedious tasks that don’t contribute to our results are inevitable, but being organised with clearly prioritised tasks allows us to focus on what’s important.

When we can easily track our workflow and view the results of each action we become pretty damn productive. We learn that we spend so much time on busywork, and not productive work.

The indispensable sales-rep know’s how to spend their time wisely, and doesn’t get caught up in meaningless unnecessary work.

How organised are you? We know a tool that will help ...

Conclusion

Throughout this article we have looked at five ways you can become an indispensable sales-professional that stands out from the rest.

In summary, these are the five points.

Understand the importance of your job as a salesperson
Set-goals (goals that you’ll actually want to achieve)
Enjoy building real relationships
Be willing to learn - drop the belief you know everything
Organise to save time and be more productive

We hope that you took away some helpful insights from this article. What do you think about our five ways to become an indispensable sales pro? We would love to hear your thoughts on the topic. Maybe you have a great idea we missed?

Our aim is to use this blog as a way to help salespeople - particularly professionals in the wholesale industry - thrive.

Ethical Up-selling - How to generate more sales from existing customers.

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 01:01:48 GMT

As a wholesale professional, ensuring a healthy stream of sales is vital to your success. Without sales, a business loses the oxygen it needs to survive ($cash$).

Sounds like a lot of pressure, it's as if the business depends on you, and you only. However a responsibility that's this strong doesn't need to be a burden, it can be a blessing instead. We all know a clear way to generate more sales is through up-selling, but so many people avoid asking the question like it's dodgy, or even a bit cheeky to ask for more from your existing clients.

However, we often avoid asking for that very thought alone. If this is how we see up-selling, we're looking through the wrong lens, and inevitably that's why they don't see up-selling as a valuable act.

Below we've outlined five key ways you can improve your up-sell game. Importantly, these five key tips will help you up-sell in a way that you can be proud of while strengthening your relationships with existing clients.

Even if you take one or two of these tips away, I'm sure you'll see a positive result.

1: Listen

We repeat this throughout our blog consistently. The importance of truly listening to your customer is the number one way to boost your success as a wholesale professional. When you listen carefully to your customer's problems, you have the chance to help them as a professional, recommending your products knowing exactly how they will help, and the problem you're solving.

2: Nurture the relationship

Between sales calls and meeting with a customer, make sure you reach out to them at least once in between. Ask them questions about themselves, the business and how what you sold them is going. When you speak with clients in a way that has no agenda - or dollar value tied to the conversation - you're showing the customer you actually care.

3: Go easy on the sales-spiel

If you've had the courage to work out how you can provide more value to the customer, and they say no, don't fight the objection like a used car salesman. An initial sale and up-sell are two different sales situations, and they require two different approaches. Every connection you have with a client is either strengthening the relationship or devalue it.

Make your move on the up-sell, but don't fight for it too hard if the customer isn't on board.

4: Don't clutter your customers' warehouse

If you try and up-sell with clutter, discounted goods, junk and things a customer doesn't need, you're once again weakening the relationship. The chance to up-sell to a customer is the chance to transfer more value to them, not offer them last years' product at a discounted price. Once again, this is the difference between a salesperson and a professional.

5: Invest in your sales platform

Yeah yeah, I know, we're plugging our platform here, but forget about us for a second, think about yourself. Do you have an easy to use sales system that helps you generate more sales, save time on paperwork and present your point of value beautifully?

I'm sure we can agree that having a system like this is a sure-fire way to increase your success? If you'd like to learn more about our platform, you can organise a free, no-obligation demo below.

Up-selling is a sure-fire way to build on your existing customer relationships and grow your sales income. Hopefully, the tips above have got you thinking about how you can up-sell with more purpose, confidence and clarity.

If you've taken the time to read this, we appreciate your time. We'd love to hear your feedback in the comments.

5 Key Insights for B2B Sales Success

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 01:01:48 GMT

Sales success in the B2B world isn't easy to come by. Competition is fierce, and your customer always seems to have a relationship with another supplier in your field. With that being said, there's no point dwelling on what your competition is doing (better or worse), or how hard your job has become. At the end of the day, you have full control over your sales results; hopefully, this article gives you a few insights on how you can help drive more sales.

Here are some reasons to make blogging part of your regular routine.

One: Know your customer

It's obvious, but how well do you know your customer?

I'm not talking about the people you dealt with today, I'm talking about the people you seek to serve at large.

What's the exact problem that your product or service solves? Who is it for? So often, we see sales reps casting their net far and wide, hoping to catch something by chance. From what I know and have seen, the sales reps that are the most successful are the ones that serve a clear and specific audience. They know their customer's exact pain points, and how to relieve their tension on the spot. They're shooting fish in a barrel, instead of throwing a line out to the ocean.

Two: Know your brand, product & systems

A clear understanding of what your brand stands for and the people you work with is paramount. Knowing your brand is more than knowing what the logo means. Understanding your brand in its entirety means knowing why the systems and processes you have in place exist. It means knowing the ins and outs of your product or service, and how you deliver on what you promise.

Clarity around why you do what you do - the process that makes your living possible - is a sure-fire way to deliver on what you promise.

Three: Ask, then ask again.

It's an age-old quote, 'the smallest dog barks the loudest'. Instead of bombarding your prospects with information, features and specs, ask them questions. Questions about their problems, the results they want to achieve, and where they want to go with their business. This allows you to build the rapport necessary to form a real relationship.

Four: Be the expert, not the salesperson.

Closely tied in with the last point, it's important that you see yourself as an expert looking to help, rather than someone trying to make a quick buck. When you're asking questions and providing advice that's genuinely in the best interest of your customer, you feel great about your work. Rather than selling, you're contributing to someone who needs what you have to offer. It's an infectious feeling that knocks the fear out of picking up the phone or making a new connection.

Five: Develop real relationships.

Lastly, build and nurture your relationships. If you put in the time and effort to provide more value than you ask for, over time, you'll have a network of clients that rely on you to help them out. When you're doing the extras, building friendships and going the extra mile for your clients, suddenly your job doesn't seem so hard. Rather than being an annoying salesperson, you're a friend of your clients and the business side of things handles itself.

As we mentioned earlier, B2B sales isn't an easy task to master, but that's only if you're not willing to truly help someone out. Your responsibility as a salesperson is to help people out and solve problems, not make them. I hope some of the above steps here have been helpful, I'm sure if you even focused on one, it would change the way your day looks.

Conclusion:

At Inzant, we help wholesale professionals save time and generate sales with our easy to use iPad platform. No more manual process and poor presentations. If you think you could be doing things better, send us a message below and we can organise a free, no-obligation demo for you to see how we help first-hand.

How B2B Wholesalers are Growing by Using Sales Apps.

dan@roadmapdigital.com.au (Dan Kovac) — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 01:01:48 GMT

Online sales apps have provided wholesale professionals the opportunity to streamline their roles, eliminating the majority of their paperwork. This helps you be far more organised in your day to day tasks. Programs like Inzant Sales are changing the game for wholesale professionals. If you're still doing your work manually, the good news is that you can easily find more time and overall sales.

So, what is the Inzant Sales platform used for?

As a wholesaler, you are often dealing directly with retail chains, stores and distributors. Often your reps will need to present stock, manage orders on the spot, or organise an online portal so your customers can order stock themselves.

Our platform here at Inzant allows your sales team to handle the above tasks with ease, all on a modern, professional iPad app. With a tool like this, your sales reps will be well organised, ready to present professionally at any moment, and well on top of their CRM management.

The platform and your customer experience

It's clear that a well-designed platform is an important tool for improving your overall operation, but what is the exact value on offer?

It's clear that brands and particularly the larger companies are now placing a high value on service, support and a solid overall sales experience. Without an emphasis on these areas, your business is left to fight on price in a race to the bottom.

It's also clear that brands are now favouring self-service when possible. The convenience of accessing a personal sales portal is a big tick for brands that often need urgent orders, or simply want to save time. The role of the modern-day sales rep isn't entirely face to face anymore - that's not to say your position is a dying art, sales reps simply need to be crafty now so more than ever. Listening to what your customer wants has never been more important.

A mobile sales force.

Mobility for the modern sales rep is important to their success. If your sales rep can't easily present your stock or take orders on the spot, they're losing sales. Having to go back to the office and send information is a killer of conversion rates.

Reps that are on the road need to be armed and ready to present. And it's more than just being ready to present - it's about being ready to upsell, take orders instantly, check inventory levels and simply do the work that drives revenue, not the work that takes time.

The power of a solid CRM

You might have a CRM in place, but is it truly effective? Is it easily accessible? Does it set up your days as a sales rep for success? Within our platform is an easy to follow CRM that will allow you to follow up on every prospect or existing client. Setting aside the reminder to call a client or a prospect is essential, and when you bring up a personal question that you noted down from the previous call, the person you're speaking with will know you truly care.

Sales is about creating great relationships!

Why you should consider a platform like ours?

This one is easy. Our platform grows your business and saves your reps an enormous amount of time. It's been awesome to see the results our clients have been getting, and we would love to pass on these results to your wholesale business as well.

If you would like to know more information about our sales platform, send us a message below so we can give you a free online demo. It's a simple online meeting to show you exactly how our program will help your business.

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The Rewards for Wholesale Brands from Sales Enablement Software

How do you make a field sales team work effectively?

Order errors aren’t part of doing business - they’re killing it.

I was recently speaking to a sales manager, and like the many other sales managers I’m lucky enough to deal with, she spoke about the impact that order errors were making on the businesses bottom line.

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The real price of our order errors.

How we can use this to our advantage.

The Solution - a streamlines sales process.

How does your sales process look right now?

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The key differences between Salesforce Automation software & CRM

This year has fast-tracked the digitisation of many wholesalers, and as these businesses adjust with important new technology, it’s vital that they invest in the right solution for their needs.

So, what’s the difference between salesforce automation software and CRM?

What are the key benefits of sales force automation software?

Upselling and cross-selling with salesforce automation software

Salesforce automation software and team management

Choosing the right Salesforce Automation software for your wholesale business

Doing your due diligence

Due Diligence checklist:

Summary

Want to learn more?

Why nailing your CRM as a wholesaler has never been important

The barriers to using your CRM

Generating engagement from your sales team

Conclusion:

Five important tips for wholesale distributors

How a mobile sales app will grow your wholesale business.

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Five ways a sales rep app will help your team sell more efficiently.

The cost of paper in your wholesale business

How to market your wholesale business over the next 12 months

The long-term value of your eCommerce store

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The wholesaler's guide to physical & financial survival.

Staff separation & minimising in-person contact. It's now commonplace in how we do business, so embrace it.

Wholesale specific hygiene practises

Rapid digitisation of the wholesale business model

Transparent communication between staff & customers

Summary

About Inzant

Why online ordering for sales reps in the Pharmaceutical Industry is vital.

Integration between MYOB AccountRight and Inzant

Three Killer Educational Resources for People in B2B sales

Three Important Tips For Field Sales Success

Five Important Tips For Field Sales Success

BI Reporting: What it is and why it matters to your business

How a sales rep app will make you sell more efficiently

Are you a wholesale business looking to grow?

How the right sales rep software will make your life easy

Three Factors of a Successful Trade Promotion

How to be an Indispensable Wholesale Professional

Ethical Up-selling - How to generate more sales from existing customers.

5 Key Insights for B2B Sales Success

How B2B Wholesalers are Growing by Using Sales Apps.