Beverage Distribution Software

Does your drinks distribution business have sales reps who travel around specific regions, who carry a notepad & pen, and who need to ring in orders like it’s 1999? Maybe the restrictions of your current mobile sales app are holding your reps back from doing what they do best, which is selling drinks, building relationships and winning new business.

What are the main challenges that drinks sales reps face?

Lack of Data in the Field

Different regions of the country may have different demographics in relation to outlet type, drinking habits and alternative product purchasing trends. Each rep could service 50+ outlets, and without the correct information, they may not be able to track customer buying patterns while they’re in the field. A lot of reps still carry note pads, but these can be misplaced and offer little or no insights. Having a lack of data can lead to numerous calls being placed to head office, therefore taking up too much time for both the reps and office staff.

Excessive Time Spent on the Phone

Industry statistics show that the average sales rep who doesn’t use any mobile sales tool spends an average of 91 minutes on the phone every day. Why? They need to ring orders into the head office. They need to make phone calls to ensure that products are in stock and they may need information relating to the offers and promotions that are available to individual customers.

How does this add up?

– 91 minutes per day on the telephone

= 7 ½ hours per week

= 30 hours per month

Every year, a drinks company with 10 reps loses an average of 3,900 hours to phone calls.

This is a massive hindrance to any company that is aiming to win new business or enter new markets. P.S. – You are also paying your office staff to spend time taking these phone calls. Their time could be better spent too.

Paper-Based Sales Environments

A sales rep’s car becomes their home. In it, you can find everything from suits to razors, and food containers to sachets of ketchup. It can be tough to find note pads, customer information and brochure materials. Not only is working in an environment that is dependent on paper somewhat chaotic, it can be littered with errors. Did you know that 29% of all Microsoft Excel documents contain errors? Would you be content to make business decisions on incorrect data? Incorrect data could not only cause internal problems, but could lead to discontent customers.

Gaina’s Solution to Your Challenges! The ORCA Mobile Sales App

ORCA is a mobile app that takes the paper, pens and guesswork out of a rep’s life. ORCA runs off Gaina’s main data management system, Control-IT. The beauty of the relationship between Control-IT and ORCA is that all data feeds into the one, centralised system and is transparent for reps, whether they’re in Down, Devon or Dunfermline.

Access to Data

ORCA not only offers insight for your reps to sell more effectively to your customers, but enables reps to show transactional information to customers that can help them make more strategic purchasing decisions and possibly earn things about their own business that they didn’t know. Having such data in their pocket empowers reps to offer the right promotion & price to the right customer. Data on drinks sales trends is not only useful for engaging with current customers, but creates an overwhelming sense of expertise for potential new customers when your reps are helping you to enter new markets and locations.

Time Saver

ORCA eliminates the need for your reps to be on the phone to make orders or to gain access to customer account or historical sales information. As we previously mentioned, eliminating the necessity for phone calls can save an average of 390 hours of call time per year for a single rep. What could you do with that time? How many more visits could be made to potential new customers? ORCA can afford you the time to gain that business growth that you need.

Digital Ordering

Digital ordering takes away the requirement for your reps to ever use a paper and pen, therefore reducing errors, eliminating the need for costly returns and eradicating the need for data entry in the office. A digitised order-making process gives reps access to visual forecasts and trends while in customer locations. Reports can be generated in seconds that can be sent off to management and directors instantly, therefore reducing the time spent collating such reports on Excel spreadsheets.

Your Current Mobile Sales App

Maybe your company already uses some type of mobile sales device, but are your reps still generating loss-making orders? We’ve dealt with dozens of companies whose reps prioritise volume over value. Perhaps this is due to the organisation itself being lenient in relation to margins. Maybe it’s on account of a lack of awareness of margins for the rep when they’re generating orders.

Reps that we’ve spoken to have claimed that they occasionally prioritise volume over value as their commission is based on the number of cases that they sell, rather than the value of said cases. Sound familiar?

What if you could ensure that all of your reps only make profitable orders? How valuable would that be to your business?

One of ORCA’s Unique Functions is the Profit Indicator

With the Profit Indicator, your reps can check the exact margin of every order. If your sales strategy insists upon an 8% profit margin per order, your rep can adhere to this without having to call the office. You can gift your reps the freedom to operate within margin parameters. Empower them to deliver negotiated deals to customers, within the thresholds determined by management or directors.

Don’t Just Take Our Word For It!

‘ORCA allows me to give the best deal to the customer while ensuring maximum profits for the company!’

John Colclough
Sales Rep, Comans Beverages

You can read more about our products and services on our Blog Website 

Tags: erp software, mobile sales app, ORCA, sales reps

Categorised in: Blog

« Grow And Scale Your Drinks Wholesale Business With ERP Software

Fox Case Study »