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Sales is an information game. In order to be successful, your business development staff needs to know your products inside and out. They need to be able to answer questions at a moment’s notice and to convince prospects of the value of your products at every turn.
Sales reps also need to know about the customer – his preferences, his history with the company, his needs and so on. It is a tall order, but by putting product information management technology in place it becomes a lot easier to manage.
Here are some ways that having up-to-date product information can help sales reps excel:
Customers have questions and they want answers to them now, not tomorrow. In the 2017 Arise study, researchers found that almost 66 percent of people expect to wait two minutes or less when they call in somewhere. Having easy and quick access to updated product information and pricing is crucial in order to respond quickly to customers’ requests.
By having up-to-date product information available you will also have the right foundation for customer self-service in place, which could improve your customer service significantly.
When your business development team has the most up-to-date product information at their fingertips, they can answer customer questions more effectively, but they can also answer objections more readily. When a customer voices an objection, it is almost always a question as to whether the product can meet their needs. Make it easy on your sales rep and collect all the things they need to know in one place that is updated regularly.
Having access to up-to-date product information also helps your sales reps produce quotes more quickly. When your business development staff has access to a Product Information Management (PIM) system, preparing even detailed quotes is as easy as clicking on the right fields. Product costs, specs and any bulk discounts are transparent and current.
Adopting a PIM system makes differentiated pricing easier as well. Depending on your industry, region or desired way of doing business, different clients might receive different pricing – be it a way to reward a long-time client or a special pricing discount for an area.
PIM systems streamline this by letting you set pricing parameters for each client and can be updated remotely so introducing a product price increase across the board is simple and accurate.
Speaking of errors, when you use a PIM system, your product information is always aligned, so you won’t leave behind a quote with errors that you have to clean up afterward – if the potential clients are still around, that is. Don’t take the risk. Quote errors cost your company money when they are too low, cost you business when they are too high, and generally make you less professional when they are inconsistent. Instead, adopt a product information management system that takes care of the legwork for you.
Up-to-date product information should be a goal for any company. It makes pricing easier, streamlines the sales process and helps your team deliver the best customer service possible. Adopting a product information management system or PIM is one of the best ways out there to make sure that your product information is always current.
