Why Old Methods Could Be Costing You Open-To-Buy Dollars

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” As well-meaning as this phrase may be, it certainly doesn’t apply to old, traditional systems used by businesses. They could be affecting your sales figures, as unhappy buyers simply take their business elsewhere!

Here are 4 methods that your business may still be using, and how they could be costing you buyers. We’ll show you solutions you can implement to serve your buyers better, and improve your bottom line as a result.

Communicating changes via email or phone

Relying on emails or phone calls to communicate changes and updates in the supply chain can drastically delay your response time, hinder your brand’s reputation with retailers and affect your likelihood of attracting new buyers.

Consumers today expect instant gratification, and buyers in turn have similar demands. Delayed responses will only affect their business, and hurt your working relationship with them.

RepSpark Solution: Make use of an effective CRM tool that makes it easy to view, document, manage and execute communications across management, sales reps, customer services and retail accounts like our Customer Communication Hub. This tool instantly updates any changes in real-time, so everyone is immediately aware. 

Relying on printed catalogs and line sheets

As technology has evolved, so have the needs of your buyers. Nowadays, buyers want the ability to zoom in on product details, play around with assortments, and assemble a display on their computer for visual merchandising possibilities. A printed catalog just can’t do that.

RepSpark Solution: Try trading in your printed catalogs for digital ones, that will not only save you time but also makes it easier to catch the attention of future prospects. 
With our Digital Catalog and Whiteboard, you’ll be able to easily curate customer-specific catalogs which include real-time, live inventory for buyers to plan out their orders. In addition, sales representatives and buyers can even see what product customization can look like immediately, instead of waiting on designers to mock-up the requests. And now, buyers can even place their orders directly from the Digital Catalog.

Outdated customer service systems

The frustrations of chasing down orders and finding out when they may arrive is a headache for anyone - especially your buyer. Communicating these status checks and updates via customer service interactions runs the risk of miscommunication, order and shipment errors, and confusing buyers with ongoing updates.

RepSpark Solution: To eliminate these frustrating back and forth interactions and ensure order accuracy, we offer tools that give buyers on-demand answers, and decrease customer service hours required to serve them.
Order Status and Reporting allows your retailers to easily check their order status and product performance. Invoices and Package Tracking let buyers view, email and print invoices with product images, giving them 24/7 access to package tracking and live product information.

Showcasing the entire line to the buyer

Buyers want to be able to pick out products that fit their target market, but printed catalogs do a poor job at catering to these unique needs. Failing to comprehensively showcase the line in a way that serves buyers doesn’t represent your brand well, and can cause missed sales.

RepSpark Solution: Knowing your customer and what drives their sales goes far in driving your own. So it’s important to utilise a tool that can help you know your customer better. 
With our Meeting Prep for Intelligent Selling tool, your team can pull key account information instantly and help buyers maximize their product assortment while enhancing their gross margins. Our Product Segmentation tool can also help your team create curated product assortments to make every retailer’s merchandise unique. 

As technology and the demands of consumers continue to evolve, changing your practices to suit them will ensure a unique experience for existing and potential buyers, which will be sure to garner new business deals.

Interested in learning new tricks to close more deals with retailers? Schedule a free demo with us today.