VARStreet- VARs Sales Management Software

Ecommerce not only provides your customers with the convenience to shop online but a whole lot of benefits and opportunities to your business.

Here are 5 ways in which an eCommerce store is beneficial for your VAR business.

1. Retain existing customers

Today, customers not only prefer to shop online but also demand it. With an increase in competition and so many VARs competing for the same customers, it is important to have an eCommerce site.  

When customers have the convenience to log in to their accounts and access their order history, tracking information and place an order from anywhere, anytime, they are less likely to shift their vendors.

2. Makes selling easy for sales representatives

Ecommerce not only helps your customers access products anywhere and anytime, but it also does the same for your sales representatives. Sales representatives can address customer queries on multiple devices and reply to them swiftly.

It also improves the sales team’s visibility into customers’ orders and pricing. Sales reps can easily look up products on their phone to answer customer queries. They are not dependent on inside sales reps to get product prices and information.

3. Acquire new customers

Ecommerce not only helps you retain old customers but also drive new customers to your business. With an increase in internet searches, it is important for your business to have a digital presence.

With proper search engine optimization, you can ensure that your website ranks well on search engine results, and consumers can see your business when they look for products and services like yours. Social media, email marketing, and affiliate marketing are other ways to attract customers to your eCommerce store.

4. Increase efficiency

Integrating your ERP software and other back end business systems with your eCommerce platform automate processes and create a seamless workflow. It reduces the possibility of errors resulting in improved efficiencies.

5. Increase sales

By retaining old customers to reaching new ones, eCommerce helps increase sales. The upsell and cross-sell features of an eCommerce platform encourage customers to purchase related items. You can also target new customers through social networking sites like Instagram, Facebook, etc.

By retaining old customers to reaching new ones, eCommerce helps increase sales. The upsell and cross-sell features of an eCommerce platform encourage a customer to purchase related items. You can also target new customers through social networking sites like Instagram, Facebook, etc.

“The dropshipping supplier you choose can make or break your business”

Dropshipping is a business model that enables you to sell products without holding inventory or dealing with the shipment. Once your customer places an order, you need to purchase the product from a third-party supplier, who then ships the order directly to the customer on your behalf. Low startup costs and flexibility to sell a wide range of products without carrying any inventory are some of the biggest advantages of dropshipping business.

Before you can even think about starting an eCommerce store with a dropshipping model, it is imperative to find a genuine dropshipping supplier. You want to choose suppliers that will help to grow and strengthen your dropshipping business.

Why are good suppliers important to run your dropship business?

In a dropshipping model, you have no control over order fulfillment. The supplier is responsible for managing and shipping your orders. Choosing reliable suppliers is a crucial step to building a successful online dropshipping business. Working with mediocre suppliers is investing in a business that’s doomed from the start.

If you pick a mediocre supplier, you will encounter a host of problems to run your dropshipping business. These include delay in shipping and delivery, customers receiving defective products, declining margins, etc. Such issues will lead to unsatisfied customers, eventually causing loss of business revenue.

How do I identify genuine dropshipping suppliers?

Do not charge monthly fees

Genuine dropshipping suppliers will never demand a monthly fee. Paying such ongoing fees can hurt your margins. Avoid suppliers who charge monthly fees. It is a warning sign.

Are invested in technology

The best suppliers use modern technology to run their businesses efficiently. They offer features like an online eCommerce catalog, inventory data feed, easy ordering process, etc.

Calling suppliers to place orders is time-consuming and requires effort. Suppliers who have invested in technology will accept orders via email or better through integrations between your eCommerce platform and their systems. Working with such suppliers will help you manage your own business more efficiently.

Have great customer service

Good customer service is the key differentiator between a genuine supplier and a mediocre one. Genuine suppliers offer excellent customer service and resolve issues quickly. They have a dedicated support staff to efficiently handle inquiries and will assign a support representative to address each reseller’s needs.

Invest in helping the reseller sell more

Promotional assistance is an invaluable service a genuine supplier can offer. Legitimate suppliers provide marketing material that can help you sell their products.

For instance, suppliers will support you with product images, videos, and marketing collaterals to help arrest the audience’s attention and promote their brand.

Takeaway

According to a new survey by Feedvisor,19% of third-party sellers on Amazon, grossed more than $1 million in sales in 2018. This clearly suggests that selling on Amazon is a lucrative business. As a value-added-reseller (VAR), you should definitely add Amazon as a sales channel to your existing business. Amazon with its massive reach can truly help to unlock the true potential of your business.

Advantages of Selling on Amazon

1) Huge Pool of Established Customers

Extend your business reach to new heights with Amazon, a one-stop shop to millions of online consumers worldwide. Amazon has a significantly higher conversion rate as compared to other e-commerce portals. Hence, listing your products on Amazon will provide you an unmatched potential for sales.

2) No Marketing

With Amazon having a huge customer base, it eliminates the need to spend money on marketing your business. On top of that, Amazon provides excellent customer service, which in turn encourages repeat orders. Your business will continue to grow without the need to hunt for new customers.

3) Unsolicited Referrals

You can get unsolicited referrals from Amazon. Its built-in algorithm allows visitors to view a wide range of recommended products when they browse the site. Your products stand a good chance to capture your customers’ attention when they may be looking for something else. Many affiliates work with Amazon, these affiliates can drive traffic to your site and subsequently to your products when you sell products in their niche.

4) How VARs can sell on Amazon

To sell on Amazon, it is necessary to set up your Amazon seller account. You need to provide your basic business information, contact details, etc., to register yourself as a seller on Amazon.

Once you have completed the registration process, here’s how you can sell your products on Amazon:

1) Without your Own Website

As a VAR, you don’t need to have your own e-commerce store to sell on Amazon. However, in this case, listing your products on Amazon can be a tedious process. This is because Amazon has its own set of unique requirements for listing products. You cannot list the products the same way on Amazon and your website. There is a high probability that Amazon’s product categories will be different from the ones used to classify the products on your site. A lot of manual work will be needed to tailor your product listing as per Amazon’s guidelines. As a result, you may end up spending hours to list your products on Amazon.

2) Choose the Right Technology

An easy way for VARs to sell on Amazon is to choose the right e-commerce platform for their online business. An e-commerce solution like VARStreet has been specifically designed for IT VARs that allows them to sell products on popular marketplaces. VARStreet comes with the ‘Catalog Export’ feature that allows you to export your product catalog from VARStreet into market places and shopping comparison sites like shopping.com, Nextag, Amazon, Bing, and Google.

Listing products on Amazon using the VARStreet e-commerce platform is very easy. All you need is an account on Amazon. You have to just configure basic setup within VARStreet to use this feature. As a VAR, you don’t have to worry about converting your catalog file in the format supported by Amazon. The process is automated; no spending time in manually converting the file in the required format. VARStreet will prepare your catalog for submission on Amazon.

CRM

To put into simple terms, CRM is the system that can aid in the management of a company’s interaction with its current as well as potential customers. When one refers to the CRM, it usually means that he is referring to the CRM software. The software is basically used to organise, automate and synchronise various company processes such as sales, marketing and customer support among others.

The software has been developed in such a way that it covers all the aspect of company operations. The main aspect of CRM platform is to keep the customers happy which in turn may result in enhancing customer loyalty. It is essentially the process of managing the leads, and moving them forward through the sales process. CRM is therefore directly responsible to increase the business of the company and to ensure that it gets repeated orders.

ERP

Unlike CRM, an ERP system is a platform that is used to manage a business, while CRM is used to manage the customers. It is used to improve the overall efficiency of a business. The main common thing between the two platforms is that they allow the rapid sharing of information. ERP is used to create a real-time, up to date and enterprise-wide snapshot of the functioning of the company. This is facilitated through the entry of information into the platform by various departments of the company. Thus the whole exercise results in the highlighting and resolving of bottlenecks or problems in one department of the company.

Benefits of ERP & CRM Integration

The benefits of ERP and CRM are plenty but these tools are mainly implemented; to increase business profit. Integration of these software tools can greatly benefit the company, particularly for ecommerce companies. Integration can boost online shopping experience and increase sales revenue. There can be a wide variety of benefits that can be enjoyed with the integration of these two platforms, let’s have a look at some of them.

Get Up-to-Date Information

The integration can be instrumental in providing up to date information pertaining to orders. This may include the shipping data as well as tracking data. Up-to-date information is desirable for B2B ecommerce websites. Customers want to get data of the entire order as well on the individual items. They also desire to get tracking status, in-transit details that too on different platforms such as e-mails, messages and so on. If the shipment data is not provided, it may have downstream impacts which can result in customers switching their seller. However, ERP and CRM integration can provide the necessary information to the customers at the right time and at the right place, thus resulting in customer retention.

Offer Better After Sales Service

Improved after sales service is another benefit that can be achieved by CRM and ERP integration. After sales support is one of the most critical operations of a business at it has a direct impact on reselling. It is critical in creating a perception that the company values its customers at each and every point of the sales process.

With ERP-CRM integration, all the necessary information is available at the fingertips of company executives so that they can better respond to customer doubts and queries. In addition, they can better provide the customers with product suggestion, pricing and specification details to the customers. All in all, the integration helps the sales representatives of a company to concentrate more on the customers and less on data searching.

No Manual Data Transfers

ERP-CRM integration leads to reduced costs incurred to a company due to errors. The root source of errors in a company is manual data transfers. Both these tools when integrated eliminate the need of manual data transfer as it can be done automatically across different vertical. Thus the automated sync of information leads to less or no error at all. This ultimately results in customers getting the correct information at the right time. A point to be noted is that error in information particularly in the sensitive parameters such as pricing can result in loss of customers. This whole scenario can be eliminated with ERP and CRM integration.

Optimize Planning and Scheduling Process

Planning and scheduling of demand and sourcing are essential for efficiently running an enterprise. These activities particularly have to be customer-centric in order to avoid delays in orders and for satisfying bulk order requirements. With the integration of CRM and ERP platforms, planning and scheduling processes can be optimized easily. This integration may help a company to better forecast the demand from customers by analysing their purchase history and thus may enable a company to better equip itself to serve its clients. It also helps in the efficient management of inventory of a company and to keep it up to date to match fluctuations in demand. It also has a direct impact on the sourcing strategies of a company and can help a lot in improving them.

Things to consider when choosing B2B eCommerce for Start-ups

The choice of eCommerce platform is critical for the success of any business. IT takes both time and research for choosing the right platform. A right eCommerce platform should serve both the long term as well as the short term strategy of the organization. B2B eCommerce platform directly affects the nature of customer experience a company delivers. Let’s have a look at some of the parameters that may help to answer the important question, how to choose eCommerce platform?

Self-Hosted or Cloud-based-

Self-hosted, B2B eCommerce platform is the one that stays at the server of the user. IT means that the software has to be installed on site. The owner is responsible for the server on which the website will run and also for its maintenance.

A cloud-based website is provided by the service providers. As long as one has an internet connection, you are able to access the web store from a browser. Customers have to be careful while choosing the type of web store because the choice directly affects parameters such as PCI compliance, costs, security and compliance.

Cost-

Cost factor varies for a different type of websites. Hosted solutions cost more than their other counterparts such a cloud-based ones. The bundled cost associated with this type includes the fees for the license, maintenance of servers, developer costs, etc. In addition, an in-house IT team also has to be maintained for the proper functioning of the servers.

Cloud-based platforms, on the other hand, have costs that are bundled together. This typically lowers the overall costs. Usually, a monthly fee is to be paid for the maintenance, functioning, hosting, security and support. One has to carefully plan for the features he needs for his website and then calculate the cost that will be incurred. A careful decision has to be made whether a service is worth paying or not.

Scalability

It is important for online platforms to grow, as their clients grow. No online platform should stay of the same size. A platform should be chosen in such a way that it allows the flexibility to expand operations rather than forcing one to stay at the same level.

Functionality

There is a vast difference between B2B eCommerce platform selling and B2C selling. B2B ventures have to face certain complexities, due to the nature of the business, and the platform chosen need to address these complexities in a better way. Some of the functionalities that must be provided by B2B eCommerce platforms are:- 

1) Ability to Handle Complex Pricing

B2B eCommerce platforms typically have different arrangements for different customers. The factors for the same are the volume of business differs with each customer, as well as the order frequency. In addition, some of the products may have the same pricing, irrespective of the customers. Thus making B2B eCommerce far more complex than b2c where the pricing is usually fixed for products. B2B eCommerce platforms thus need to have the functionality to handle such complex pricing strategies effectively. 

2) Simplified Reordering Process

A good B2B eCommerce platform should allow their customers, to reorder an item with a single click. Whenever a customer logs in to a website, he should be able to see his order history. This functionality is important to save time and to build customer loyalty. 

3) Ability to Buy in Bulk

B2B platforms must provide the customers with the ability to buy in bulk, as most of the customers are looking for bulk purchase. Tools such as bulk order forms should be set up for streamlining this process. Catalog orders or product orders by SKU should be set up to simplify the search process for the clients for bulk ordering. 

4) Ability to Offer Volume Discounts

Volume discounts or bulk discounts are common in B2B market place. These discounts are tools to generate customer loyalty and to encourage higher value reordering. Built-in volume discount functionality should be present in a B2B eCommerce platform, to better serve customers as well as to generate more transactions. 

4) Ability to Setup Approval Workflow

Approval workflow is important, as after an order is placed, one needs to review it and suggest changes if any. Also, once the order is approved, the client has to be notified about the same. The entire process needs to be streamlined to save time and to provide a faster response. The chosen platform should have the ability to handle such an approval workflow.

5) Ability to Configure Products

Ability to configure products is functionality that ensures that the customers get accurate information about the products. Product configuration is particularly important to build brand trust, repeat sale encouragement, and for improving the overall customer service. 

6) Ability to Define Minimum Order Size

Many B2B eCommerce platforms have limits set regarding the minimum order size. This in addition to other policies such as bulk discounts, etc. This functionality should be present on an eCommerce platform, to ensure the management of margins and to ensure that the venture remains profitable. 

7) Quoting Capabilities

Some of the products that are sold on B2B websites might be complex and a quote cannot be instantly provided. However, the platform must have the ability to allow a customer to ask for a quote and to streamline the entire process. The entire process should be speedy and simple in order to enrich the customer experience. 

Marketing Tools

Marketing tools are particularly important to increase website traffic, thus resulting in increased business prospects. eCommerce platforms should allow easy promotion of product ranges on the website. The marketing tools should perform in such a way that the products and the website stay on the mind of the people, is instrumental in building loyalty, is able to win repeat orders and has the ability to upsell as well as cross-sell. 

Built-in SEO Functionality

Built in SEO functionality, results in increased traffic on the website. Effective search functionality, ease of navigation, and better response are the attributes that are in demand for a B2B platform. Keeping these things in mind, a strategic SEO campaign can be drafted and facilitated by the built-in SEO feature to increase traffic, thus resulting in a significant increase in ROI. 

Responsive

Customers operate and browse through the websites from a wide range of devices. There might be instances that a customer may search for a product from his smartphone and may then complete the transaction from a desktop. The platform must have the ability to accommodate this type of buyer behaviour and the platform must be responsive, irrespective of the device that the client accesses the website from. Web site content rendition should be of the same quality across devices, making it easy for buyers to purchase items from the device of his choice.

 Supports Third-Party Integrations

B2B eCommerce platforms should have the functionality which facilitates third-party integration with business systems, thus resulting in improved efficiency and better customer service. IT should allow integration with major business, finance and management systems to handle the workflow better.

PCI Security

eCommerce sellers have to have PCI compliance. It is necessary for companies as it results in the safeguarding of client’s payment card information, whenever a purchase occurs. Cloud-based servers, usually provide this security, as the onus of protecting the data is with them, as they are in charge of managing the data. In cases of self-hosted, this responsibility is on the owner. All in all, the seller has to ensure that the payment gateway security is at par with industry standards, as failure to do so may result in serious complications.

Importance of customer reviews

Of late, online shopping has become a huge thing because of the great benefits it has. But, it has a flip side as well. The lack of personal touch overshadows other aspects of ecommerce. So to compensate this drawback, customers often resort to reading reviews on website to get a hint of the products online.

According to reports 90% of customers read online reviews before placing order and 88% of them trust the reviews as much as they do for personal recommendations. This holds generally true for those looking to buy electronic gadgets or other IT parts. Since they have only customer reviews which provide them real (unless not sponsored) insight about the services of organization. So a Value Added Reseller needs to be active on the review page of its store and encourage more people to use his/ her products and write down their thoughts.

As per Amazon reports, this ecommerce juggernaut uses algorithm to rank the products on search results on the basis of customer reviews and ratings. Amazon has a reputation of providing original reviews to its consumers and has banned sponsored reviews. So if you are an IT seller on Amazon, you need to get customer reviews as much as you can to attract more people.

Many assume that if a store has no reviews, then it is a good sign. But this is far from truth. Many times it happens that customers with not so good experience of using the product often don’t provide feedback, they just simply don’t bother. So the task for managers should be to build customer relationship by asking for reviews. For instance, you are selling computers and laptop and to improve your business you look for customer reviews. But there are not many, so your management will send personalized emails to the customers and ask for reviews.

There are many ways of getting customer feedback to your online store. They can be expensive, cheap, time consuming or time saving, but the way you want to get reviews depends upon the nature of your organization and budget.

Following are the techniques through which you can lay a foundation to build effective customer relationships and get reviews.

1. Offering high quality service

Providing great services to your customers often act as a magnet in drawing them to write positive reviews. This mantra is religiously followed by many online sellers, as they cannot impress people with their infrastructure but only with their services. In general, if consumers are treated well and the products offered are of good quality, then customers will voluntarily write great feedback on your website.

2. Sending emails for reviews

E-mail is a powerful tool to develop good relationship with customers and in upholding public image. E-mailing has a great advantage of personalizing mails according to the customers and their preferences based on historical data. Personalizing the letters to ask for reviews often leaves a positive imprint on the minds of customers about the business. You can also see who has opened your mail and then resend them all over.

3. Performing surveys

As part of your social media campaign, you can do surveys. They are great to expand your customer base as well as in improving your business. The key here is not to ask complicated and ambiguous questions. You need to be precise with your questions. Ensure that survey questions are a mix of light heartedness, but polite enough, and shoot at important goals for which survey is undertaken.

4. Granting incentives

Providing incentives to customers is equivalent to caring for them. You should not live in oblivion when it comes to giving rewards to consumers. Suppose, you are a VAR and you want more people to put reviews on your store then you can distribute few free samples to your past customers of what components you are selling. Then you can ask them to video review on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram. This method will have wider outreach and people tend to trust more on video reviewing. This can prove to be a great marketing tool of its own kind. You can even provide cash back offers to customers if they provide unfeigned reviews on the website.

5. Don’t resort to paid reviews

Paying for reviews is often regarded as unethical, because the sense of neutrality and genuineness doesn’t prevail in case of paid reviews. Blatant positive ones can deceive the customers. However, if a user is not happy with your products, then public image of your organization will be harmed. Essentially, this is not a way of getting reviews but a common mistake marketer often does to prevent external attacks.

6. Create your presence across all social media platforms

To make sure that you get maximum amount of reviews you need to have accounts on many social media platforms. For an IT component seller, the only way it can create customer base or expand is by the way of customer reviews. You can ask your past customers on social media to put forward their thoughts on the services they received. Most of the customers or companies purchasing IT equipments online rely on the customer reviews present on social media. You can separately create a page of testimony, wherein bloggers can write down their experiences. For example, in USA Yelp.com is hugely famous. People here closely follow the reviews written on this platform. As a small scale VAR you can build your profile on the platforms like Yelp, where you will get more attention of people, who can describe their thoughts about you to a wider audience.

Conclusion:

What is e-Commerce marketing?

Ecommerce sales have seen spikes in recent years due to decrease in time for people to go for shopping and the comfort of scrolling down the websites of online shopping at home. Ecommerce marketing helps in increasing sales by creating awareness about the products that an organization is selling.  Marketers use mostly digital platforms, search engine and social media influencing to advertise their products.

According to the analysis released by US Commerce Department, US ecommerce sales in USA grew 15.5% through the three quarters of 2018, this figure is highest in last three years. Based on the estimates by digitalcommerce360.com ecommerce sales during the five day period from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday grew 19% to $22.5 billion up from $18.9 billion in 2017.

If you are a VAR, various strategies could be adopted to increase the ecommerce sales of your organization. Following are the ways through which ecommerce sales can increase.

Ideas to increase e-Commerce sales

1. Holiday themed website

You need to make sure that your website is holiday friendly, bring down the same rusty theme and add the holiday touch to it by using creative templates so that visitors take interest in what you are trying to sell. You can add the remarketing pixel to your page so that later on you can market to the previous visitors.

2. Artificial intelligence marketing

AI marketing is a form of marketing leveraging AI concept and model such as machine learning and Bayesian network to achieve marketing goals. Using AI you can use historical data to know at what time users are likely to open emails, so that you can send them at an appropriate time and can even mail other live contents related to black Fridays and cyber Monday along with the main one. There are many AI partners that provide economical and straightforward services to a VAR to meet your marketing needs and business alike.

3. Offering incentives to the customers

You need to know what attracted the users/visitors to you, mostly deals and incentives are the ones that matter. In holiday season most people have a lot to buy but limited pocket, so to fulfill their demands they are more likely to go to those businesses/stores that offer good incentives like free shipping, discount, cash back and buy one get one free coupons, such promotional strategies work for many ecommerce stores. So you need to make sure that you offer good incentives and benefits due to which people will be encouraged to use your services. You need to do some calculations over what discount rate works best for your organization. Then to make the work easier for the customers you can choose video marketing, primarily highlighting the deals and products. According to Facebook, marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users. BFCM is probably the best time to sell the your products as the deals are highly beneficial from customer point of view, if you are a IT component seller you can attract huge people with luring deals. 

4. Retarget the customers and find new ones as well with social media

Use social media ad campaign like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to drive the users to your website and then review who saw what and then retarget them by sending emails as a reminder. Similarly you can acquire new customers as well because social media ad tools are great for attracting people and driving sales. For example, if you are IT components seller you can organize various activities, like competition, to attract new customers and the one who wins can be awarded Sony VAIO laptop or Smart TV.  

5. Enhance mobile experience for people

Twitter says that over 90% of video is viewed on mobile; around 10 million Snapchat videos are watched per day and last year cyber Monday only generated $2 billion revenue. According to shopify.com in the U.S., 57% of BFCM traffic came through a mobile device while mobile purchases only generated 39% of revenue, why is that websites are not able to convert? Mobile sites can be enhanced by putting attractive templates, unnecessary texts are eliminated so that descriptions are to the point and precise. Shopify.com was the only ecommerce website in USA that had 66% of mobile sales; the website largely gives credits to its simple payment method for mobile users. In same way, ecommerce websites should provide easy way of making payments on mobile devices like online wallets. 

6. Triggering emails and cart abandonment

Cart abandonment is not a stranger to ecommerce stores, the average abandoned cart rate across all Emarsys ecommerce clients is 67.2%. It happens when visitors add products to their carts and leave them without taking any action; this causes triggered emails, which is basically a reminder for the users to take further step. And holidays are important times to give reminders as people are browsing internet, searching for best deals for their gifts and utility.

However, without proper analysis abandoned carts cannot be converted. This phenomenon is due to various reasons like extra costs on shipping, complicated checkout process, website crashed, lack of trust in providing personal information, returns policy are satisfactory, and lack of other payment options. The solution for all these problems could be transparency of cost, free shipment is what attracts customers the most (especially in holiday time as they have a lot to buy), full information of people working at your store, so that people can build trust on your site and you can even put testimonials/reviews. Smooth checkout process should be adopted, so that customers don’t have to deal with unnecessary contents and waste time. You can even send the mails to customers modified according to their preferences; this will be enticing and encourage them to shop with your store.

Conclusion

As the requirement to provide real time information to customers from any location grows, switching over to quoting software from MS-Excel or MS-Word is surely on the uptick.A sales quoting tool provides accurate and professional quotes; shortens your sales cycle; and increases your bottom line – we all know its super advantages.  But with a plethora of quoting tools vying for your attention, how would you ensure that the software you are selecting is the right, the best and most effective for your business needs?

A non performing software could leave your sales rep in a fix and your customers unsatisfied, resulting in a marred brand reputation for your organization. Hence, don’t rush into buying a sales quoting tool that pops up on the first page of a search engine, is used by your competitor or simply because it is more popular in the market.  Here are a few evaluation tips you should consider before selecting the quoting software.

1.    Give your vote to web – based software

A desktop app is a good option when your business boundaries are restricted, you want your own backups or you are tight on budget. But if the flexibility and virtual access from anywhere, anytime is what you are looking for, an online quoting software could give you the desired results.  Since it is stored on a server and managed by a vendor, there are no hassles of installations, updates or maintenance either.

2.    It should integrate with CRM,  other business apps and distributor

Take a close look at the integration features of a quoting software. Does it allow you to manipulate the data intelligently and diligently from across CRM, accounting, marketing and other business apps? Similarly, it should also fetch you the real time price and availability of the product from multiple distributors through a single sign – on.

3.    An online payment feature is definitely a plus

You wouldn’t want to waste time getting the customer sign the deal after he has given a  positive nod.  An online quoting software that allows you to accept online payments on the spot through electronic signature will multiply the value of your quote by several times.

4.    Simple or complex – it should accommodate all pricing requirements

Percentage and volume based pricing, discounts, customs and bundles, freight or markups – a quoting tool should able to capture every possible pricing scenario and generate customizable quotes for the customers.

5.    Do not hesitate to ask for a free product demo

The best way to verify if all features will live up to their promises is to ask your vendor for a demo or a free trial. This will not only give you a hands –on glimpse into the working of the software, but also show you if need to install any additional software or app to support the quoting tool.  If a vendor is unwilling to give you a demo, then it may indicate that the software may not match your expectations.

6.    Evaluate vendor support and services

No matter how low maintenance the quoting software may be, you may need vendor support from time to time.  After you are satisfied with all features, ensure that the vendor provides comprehensive technical support for the configuration, updates and security.  If possible, read the latest reviews on the product as well as vendor services to get the accurate feedback.

Remember, you are investing your money as well as time in the sales quoting software. Hence, it is advisable to list down all required features you want and the expectations that you have from the software and then match them to your needs.

Gone are the days, when there were only a handful of suppliers in the market offering a limited range of products to customers.  Doing business was easier then- fewer the products, the less complex making choices were. However, after the advent of technology, especially with e-commerce, the way of doing business has transformed and how! Today’s customers seekmore, better  and varied product options;  prefer doing a  comparative analysis; and then arrive at a buying decision.  Does this spell more trouble for your sales team? Definitely yes.

Your sales team now needs to go a few extra miles to find the right mix of product and price for the customers, continuously keep pace their dynamic demands and at the same time keep the competition at bay. This requires for smart selling and that is where a sales quoting tool can be their knight in the shining armour.

A sophisticated quote coupled with accurate pricing is all it takes to improve your win rate. Online quoting software provides everything that a sales rep is expected to know for an effective negotiation – product configuration and allied services, pricing, discount and upsell / cross sell offers; and other sales tracking and analytical tools.

Here are 5 ways how a sales quoting tool can sweeten the deal for you.

1.    Right Product Offering

With so many distributors offering same products at different prices, it is really challenging for the sales rep to quote the right and the best product suited to customer’s business needs.  Also, another question that arises is whether the products are available in the stock at the time of quoting.  An online quote system can quickly generate the product list with real time price and stock availability 24/7, thereby reducing the sales cycle and increasing the chances of the win rate.

2.    Maintain Profit Margins

In spite of giving the best prices and discounts to the customers, they still look for a complete package comprising a bundle of services and additional support.  In order to arrive at a customer friendly deal, sales rep usually ends up compromising on the profit margins. However, an automated quote will prompt the competitive deal options that sell more while preserving the margins.

3.    Quote on the Go

With mobile business becoming the new norm, customers expect speedy responses. In case of cut throat competition, even a few minutes delay can snatch the deal away from you. A mobile quoting app can give you an instant quote along with real time information at the tip of your fingers, right during or immediately after the meeting.  What is more, you can even convince the customer for on the spot approval and payment.

4.    Better Services, More Customers

Since your entire sales quote process is digitized, you can spend more time on servicing your customers. This results in enhanced brand reputation and more referral customers.

5.    Track Sales Performance

We already know the point how a sales quoting tool can make your quote-to-order process efficient. But with so many quote programs floating on the web, each offering features, some distinct and some overlapping, the big question is ‘which is the right one for you? In order to ensure that the quoting software offers smart sales solutions, we have enlisted 10 key features you must consider before buying the same.

Sophisticated User Interface

A sales quoting tool should be able to create, send and manage state of the art proposals, even after putting together complex product and pricing configurations that your company uses. Further, it should allow you to create multiple versions of same quotes in HTML/PDF formats, add interactive content accommodate any type of dynamic business scenarios. More the automated features, more time you get to focus on sales and client interaction.

Customizable Quotes

Sales quoting software should have reusable templates that can create customizable quotes branded with your logo for every client. Also it should be able to accurately capture your customer’s needs in terms of pricing, discounts, margins, customs and bundles, sales, freight and other cost factors.

Real Time Pricing and Inventory

Check if the quote program has features to access the real time pricing and inventory from multiple vendors and distributors. Real time information can retrieve latest inventory updates and lowest pricing options to customers within no time and enable them to make informed purchasing decisions.

Rich Content

Lower prices or a wide product basket isn’t enough to draw customers to your proposal. Quoting software that can pull a rich content catalog in the form of product images, tech specifications description, 3D views, instruction manuals, product comparisons and videos can make your quote look more attractive and informative.

Website Integration

Another feature to consider is if the quoting program supports instant online quotes by integrating directly with your e-commerce store. This way, your customer can do their business with you electronically from anywhere, anytime – be it viewing quotes, comparing products, placing orders or tracking product status.

CRM and Other System Integration

A good web based quoting program will integrate seamlessly with CRM, accounting software and other marketing applications. As a result, data across all business processes will get synchronized, bridging the information gap and eliminating duplication of work.

Online Payments

A good quoting tool is one which enhances the value of your quote in every possible way to get a YES from your customer faster. Inbuilt electronic signature or online payment acceptancecan seal your sales deal within no time.

Security

Depending on the nature of your business or number of users, you may want your quoting software to be preloaded with security tools. You can use these security features to assign admin controls and build approval work flow.

Analytics

Once you have submitted the proposal, how would you at what stage it is with the client? Well, an ideal quote software would have inbuilt analytics through which you would know when the client has opened your proposal and how much time they have spent studying it. This will assist you in anticipating possible queries from clients and set alerts for timely followups.

        10. Dashboard

Dashboard can intelligently monitor and review the performance of your sales team; evaluate the win rate of proposals; and also track the pending deals for follow up.

Apart from features, the success of an online quoting tool also depends on the vendor you have chosen for the same. Here are some tips to bear in mind.

The vendor should be equipped to give you a full-fledged virtual technical support in terms of installation, maintenance, updates and data security.

Find out if the vendor can offer a free trial or demo. This way you can verify whether the quoting tool really offer the promised features and also confirm if you require any additional software to function wholly.

Are you vendor willing to enter into a monthly billing or short term contract? Or does he provide money back guarantee? Ask these questions to your vendor to determine how much the quoting software would cost you and whether the final price is feasible to your business.

Sales rep: “Boss, we lost the deal.”

Boss: “How could we? Ours was the most competitive quote!”

Sales rep: “The customer did not find our proposal format impressive. He was pissed off with spelling mistakes too.”

Can you identify with this scenario? Quite often, organizations believe that a competitive quote is sufficient to increase their chances of taking away the deal home.  However, in reality, a proposal is more than a piece of document containing your quote. It is your organization’s first impression thatalso reflects of your brand image and acts as a precursor to building a strong relationship with your customers.  A good proposal is the one, which not only captures the competitive pricing point but also allows you to close the sale accurately and with speed. Hence, to ensure that your proposal does not become a deadlock at the quoting stage itself, what you need is a quote and proposal automation tool.

An automated quoting tool can empower your sales rep to optimize their selling efforts and minimize the administrative tasks.  Here are 7 ways how a quoting program can help you freeze the deal in your favor.

1.    Build a Custom Sales Document

An online quoting tool can build a sophisticated, professional proposal for you within minutes. No longer does your sales rep need to be a rock start administrator who is expected to create a winning quote using tedious excel spreadsheets, product catalogs or pricing databases.  All they need to do it to select a standardized template from the sales quoting software and tap in the required information. The result is a comprehensive proposal that includes company information, pricing, product specifications & descriptions, images, terms & conditions and various other features that meet client’s specific needs.

2.    Minimize Errors and Control Quality

With in-built spelling and grammar rules in a web based sales quote program, you don’t have to waste time checking and revising your document for any mistakes. Rather, you can use this time effectively to concentrate on other core functions. Also, the updated version of quote is always available on the cloud for real time collaboration with and between staff and customers. Over a period of time, you can standardize your quoting process, ensuring that you consistently deliver only a high quality quote to your client.

3.    Offer Multiple Options

Who doesn’t love choices? Customers who get multiple options in a quote are more likely to consider your proposal before others.  An ideal proposal should good, better and best scenarios to make them aware of your entire product and service basket.  Also, giving flexible alternatives will reduce the back and forth time spent in making an acceptable proposal.

4.    Ensure Quick Approval and Delivery

Since you are using an quoting tool, sales reps can send quotes electronically to managers for approval.  Similarly, you can send the quote to your client via email for him to study it directly on his digital screen anywhere, at any point of the time. If he approves the quote, then he can take a printout, sign his acceptance and send a scanned copy to you. Case closed just in a matter of few clicks!

5.    Track the Progress

Often, sales reps forget to follow up with the customer on the status of the proposal, as a result of which your quote moves to the bottom of the pile.  With in – built proposal notifications, analytics and dashboard of the quote program, it is easier to track the real time status of quote and measure its effectiveness at every stage.

6.    Integrate with Other Business Applications

One of the most powerful uses of a quoting tool is that it can be integrated seamlessly with CRM, Accounting and other business systems. This further automates your entire quoting process and builds intelligence in your sales cycle.

7. Makes the Process Less People – Dependent

How often does your sales reps forget what was discussed with the client in the pre-proposal meeting? Or what if your top performing sales guy hands over his resignations papers to you just before a crucial deal?  Well, fret not.  Since a quote program is web based, it eliminates the human intervention and making your sales process more system oriented to ensure smooth functioning all the time.

Just as the advent of reliable quoting has got rid of the manual processes, it has also become a viable medium to protect data from illegal access and use that can harm the integrity of any online accessible data. Database protection becomes a crucial necessity today. There are many backup and restore facilities available today but how about a software that takes care of the data as well. Quoting software does that with features that can feasibly integrate with latest CRM solutions and cloud servers. These are not only considered software-as-a-solution (SAAS) but also have backup and disaster recovery solutions for businesses of all sizes.

The Power of Cloud Computing Software

Companies leverage the power of the cloud and quoting takes advantage of cloud server technology which is a pathway to scalability and profitability. Similarly, online cloud computing software using cloud server technology stores product and customer information in off-site locations. Any damage caused to the physical property and computing technology in your office will not lead to loss of data since it is stored in other locations in the most secure manner.

The online sales quote software solutions used by leading businesses also integrates with CRM solutions like Sales force. Salesforce.com Inc is a cloud computing company that specializes in CRM solution. This system will manage your data, make it user friendly and secure through user defined tokenization and encrypted version of the data when it leaves the business arena and at times when data is transferred from one place to the other. The cloud computing technology of Salesforce.com makes it highly secure with different permission levels depending on the type of the user and   the purpose for information access.

Online quoting software can help protect your data against illegal access and any breach of security is closely monitored and reported instantly at the click of button. Go for online quotes software solution for easy quote management and utmost security. This is one viable option when compared with the old method of data accumulation and storage.

VARStreet Inc. today announced that it has added a new “Quick Quote” functionality to its quoting module which will help VARs create much higher volume of sales quotations every day for their prospects

VARStreet Inc, the leading provider of integrated Sales Quoting and e-Commerce software for IT and Office products Channel today announced that it has added a new “Quick Quote” functionality to its quoting module which will help VARs create much higher volume of sales quotations every day for their prospects

This new functionality is an add-on to the existing sales quote program. The current functionality requires a sales person to first add the complete information about the prospect before a quotation can be created for them. However with this new functionality VARS now do not have to enter the entire customer information in order to produce a quote for the prospect. They can simply add the prospect’s First & Last name, Email, zip code for freight calculation and add products and send a quote quickly.

This helps them to produce a much higher volume of quotes as now they do not have to enter the entire customer information of the new prospects. Once they have sent the quotation to the prospect and if that quotation is converted into a sale then the Sales person can go and add other information about the customer in order to complete the transaction.

“This new functionality will be a big boost for our customers as now they will be able create more quotations and hence sell more.” said Shiv Agarwal, Vice President-Sales, VARStreet.

This feature comes in all the versions of VARStreet and will be available to all the existing and new customers.

About VARStreet

VARStreet Inc is a premier provider of On Demand/Hosted B2B, B2G and B2C e-Commerce and Sales Quoting & Proposal Creation software solution for IT and office supplies VARs, system integrators and various other technology solution providers. Since its market presence from 1999, VARStreet has successfully served more than 3000 resellers and 10,000+ VAR users.

VARStreet provides a complete hosted and customizable e-Solution with a holistic portfolio of automated modules which include sales quoting and ordering, purchasing/e-Procurement, aggregated and custom catalog, contract management, e-Marketing and a highly customizable and configurable e-Commerce storefront. It also integrates with numerous CRM, ERP, SRM, accounting and business systems and offers punch outs with known procurement systems including Ariba Punchout Catalog, PeopleSoft, SAP, JD Edwards, Oracle etc. Its powerful aggregated catalog engine collates products from 21+ IT and office products distributors, adds rich product content from ETilize ensuring availability of accurate specifications, pricing and inventory. Real time XML integration is also available with top distributors.