More, or less time to make a sale?
26 August 2010
Everyone can use a Guided Selling system. One of our customers recently said: if you can read, you can use Guided Selling to produce a quotation (customer case Velopa). Whether you leave this activity to your secretary or to your product specialist, that correct quotation will get done. Say you choose to have your sales rep take care of your quotations. Previously, your sales reps had a colleague put together quotations, but you find it more logical to have your sales rep produce a quotation, as he knows the exact sales process inside-out anyway. That is an understandable choice. But how does the sales person feel about this? There is a chance that he or she is worried whether this will cost more time.
Spending more time?
Not all sales reps are used to producing quotations themselves. After an appointment outside the office, they leave the data for a quotation on a colleague’s desk, who then finishes the quotation. If you ask a sales rep to produce a quotation using a Guided Selling system, the question of whether this will cost more time than previously may come up. But is this insecurity realistic?
Time saving!
A sales person who has never produced quotations is now asked by his manager to start. That means that he will need more time: because this is something he previously did not do. But on the other hand, quotation software saves time. In this way, the colleague who used to take care of quotations can do other things. But the sales rep also saves time…
No more dependency
Now a sales rep can produce a quotation independently, he spends less time waiting. He is no longer dependent on the ‘quotation producer’ and his schedule. Also, knowledge is immediately available. While the ‘quotation producer’ previously had to gather information from various sources – his own knowledge, knowledge available from product specialists, from old quotations – the sales rep has the information immediately at his fingertips. The knowledge has been entered into the sales configurator and that saves a lot of tracking down information.
Mistakes
But recording knowledge in this way does not only save time. It also precludes mistakes. If knowledge is saved correctly once and is maintained properly, mistakes are no longer possible. And mistakes were often a thorn in the sales rep’s side, and were easily made. Mistakes are made through:
- Miscommunication/expectations that originate between sales rep and quotation producer
- Use of existing quotations, and copy and paste function
- Inexperience
- Pressure of time
- Non-current information
- ….
What if these mistakes could be prevented? Wouldn’t that save a lot of time? Here we encounter the element of time again. How much time does it cost to correct quotations? Or, worse, the quotation has already been sent out. How much effort will it cost to make it clear to a customer that the product he wants can’t be manufactured? Not to mention a faulty order that has already gone into production…
If a quotation system does not only save time, but also prevents costs, don’t you think that you can convince your sales reps? How do our customers tackle this? Read more here.
Judith Steinmeier is Communication Manager at Sofon - supplier of sales support software. As Judith has a lot of contact with clients, she has a clear insight into how companies that deliver customer-specific products and services can realize improvements within their sales and quotation process.
Comments
No entries
