If you’re a salesperson who’s still taking orders down by hand and processing them later, or accepting orders via email or phone and doing manual placement and processing of those orders, you might be leaving yourself in a bad position compared to your competition.
The Effects of Bad Handwriting
Bad handwriting has always been a source of comedy when it comes to things like doctors writing prescriptions, but for salespeople it can have equally negative impacts. Recall when a pharmacist struggled to know what you were actually prescribed and had to call? Imagine the embarrassment when you have to check back in with a customer to verify what it is they wanted to buy.
Bad handwriting can be more than just a knock on your credibility when this happens, and it doesn’t have to be someone else trying to decipher your handwritten notes. 45 percent of people struggle to read their own handwriting! It can slow down the ability to get orders moving and fulfilled, which can put you at a competitive disadvantage and ultimately cost you future sales.
Why Move From Manual to Digital
Digital solutions are empowering salespeople in ways that can improve your sales volume, reduce errors and ensure your buyers’ satisfaction. But if you’re afraid to leverage these tools because you’re concerned about losing control of the sale, you’re also giving up the ability to streamline your process and help more buyers on a daily basis.
Let’s look at a number of ways you can leverage digital solutions to improve your work and sales at the same time.
Avoiding Data Entry Errors
If you’re still taking orders by hand, or processing them manually at a separate time as the conversation with your buyers, you’re opening the door to making mistakes. We’re human – it happens – but the end result is frustration from your buyers when they realize the item they wanted is not the item that ends up being fulfilled.
One way you can avoid this is entering orders into a digital system and sending a Sales Quote for approval by the buyer – this lets them review everything entered and ensure that it’s accurate, and then accept the order, submitting it for processing it.
Use Digital Systems in Real Time
When you capture and process orders manually, it becomes a two-step process:
- Take the order down while with the customer
- Process the order when you get back to the office
If you’re meeting the customer in person, their “receipt” is probably some sort of carbon copy paper you give them. If you can’t read it, why would they?
Instead, a Mobile App can allow you to build the order into the digital system, and review with the customer while on site. In that way you know everything is captured accurately, and you can combine two steps into one.
A Mobile App can be leveraged similarly while on the phone; you can build and submit an order automatically, or create that same Sales Quote mentioned earlier, but with the added benefit of encouraging them to review and approve the order before the call has even concluded.
Accelerate Order Processing and Fulfillment
Real time entering of orders can also benefit your buyers in another way – their orders will be submitted for processing and fulfillment that much faster. In a world where everything is about speed and efficiency, shaving time off the order cycle is beneficial for both you and your clients.
Taking orders directly into a digital system ensures orders are submitted immediately, without the lag time of having them entered at the end of a business day or the conclusion of a conference. And for you, that means less things to worry about at the end of a business day.
More Time for Customers
With all of the time savings by not having to duplicate efforts, you open up your day for more opportunities to spend time with your buyers, and reaching out to ones you haven’t heard from in awhile.
For Zoey customer Manamed, leveraging a solution like Zoey meant being able to take in 50 percent more orders every day, without needing to expand the sales team. Given many salespeople work on commission, 50 percent more sales without having to do more work is an attractive notion.
Learn How Zoey Can Simplify Your Workday
Zoey’s success team is here to help you realize gains in your daily sales. Click the button below to schedule a conversation to see how we can help you and your business:
