Top Distribution Sales Takeaways from Epicor Insights 2019

Top Distribution Sales Takeaways from Epicor Insights 2019

We just got back from Epicor Insights 2019 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and we wanted to share the most common conversations we had at our booth. We spoke with hundreds of Epicor users and their questions might give you some insight into where distribution sales is headed in the coming year.

Here are the top questions we answered at Epicor Insights 2019.

How can I make my sales reps more effective outside the office?

Mobile sales enablement was perhaps the number one issue Epicor distributors wanted to talk about this year. It’s one thing to be an effective rep inside your four walls where you have access to systems and coworkers, but how do you sell effectively and efficiently in the field?

We had a lot of conversations around SMP’s mobile sales tools that give your sales reps access to the most important sales data they need when and where they need it. Your reps can access purchasing history, product information, activity history, contact information, open orders and quotes and more right from their mobile device. Preparing for customer meetings has never been easier.

What do you mean by the phrase “actionable analytics?”

We fielded many questions about the differences between SMP’s actionable analytics and the typical reporting and BI solutions that many distributors are struggling with. The biggest difference is that SMP doesn’t just give you a report or a pretty dashboard, we give you the power to take action right from your data. A static report is nice, it shows you what happened in the past for some preset parameters. But SMP allows you to do two very important things that no static report can do:

1. Explore data in just about any direction. If you have questions about your report, you can’t drill in and dig deeper. With SMP you can. Have you ever thought, “I wish I’d run this report by branches instead of by customers?” With SMP, you’re just a mouse click or two away from reviewing your data in new directions.
2. Turn insight into action. With SMP, you can easily turn your data exploration into trackable activities. Let’s say you found a group of customers who hadn’t made a purchase in six months. With a static report, you’d have to toss the report on your reps’ desks and hope they made some calls. With SMP distribution CRM, you can select the customers right from your BI dashboard, create CRM activities that you can follow up on and create a call campaign in just a few clicks.

My distribution marketing team is struggling — what seems to be working with your users?

Great marketing campaigns are targeted and highly relevant to each contact. Too many distribution marketing teams just blast out generic emails and promotions. It’s not because they are unskilled or lazy, it’s because they don’t have powerful software to create highly targeted — and thus highly effective — marketing campaigns.

Great marketing campaigns are another result of SMP’s actionable analytics. SMP helps you do pinpoint-targeted marketing campaigns right from any business intelligence visualization you create. In a few clicks you can analyze your customers, create a custom list and send a very targeted message to those contacts. When a customer gets a generic. they don’t see any value from your messages and start ignoring them all. When you send emails that actually matter to them, they see you as a valued partner and are much more likely to interact with you in your marketing campaigns. Something as simple as running lists based on purchasing history can make it easy to introduce your customers to new ideas, new product uses, updates, complementary products and more in ways that make your customers feel unique.