You’ve poured lots of resources into building a strong customer base. Check.
Your fleet is moving product -- delivering, restocking and merchandising on schedule. Check.
But does your business have what it takes to compete and win in today’s digitally-savvy distribution world?
As you look to maximize your van sale efforts, hitting your target lies in examining common pitfalls. And so without further ado, we bring you the most popular and costly van sale mistakes that are draining your business.
- Your field staff productivity is … meh.
Your team is most likely wasting precious time (read: money) during delivery, loading and unloading, stock taking, re-ordering and replenishment. Not only that, all-too-frequent admin errors are adding up, costing you money, and ticking off some retailers who are being courted by your competition. - You’re missing out on sales opportunities at every store, every day.
Revenue is slipping through your fingers during on-site ordering with lack of access to previous orders and new offerings, delivery dates, and insufficient merchandising. All the while, your retailers are demanding and expecting more new products, better packaging options, and faster service. - Escalating transportation costs are threatening your profit margins.
One of your costliest pain points is routing inefficiencies. In other words, more fuel burned (both fossil and human) for fewer converted sales visits. Can your dispatchers react, real-time, to changing conditions, easily create and modify routing assignments and efficiently notify drivers of the changes? If you’re not constantly optimizing your distribution logistics, your transportation costs will continue to drain your profit margins. - Your billing cycles are too long and too cumbersome.
You know that inefficiencies in billing and collection hinders growth and profitability. Without electronic proof of delivery and onsite invoicing and payment, your cash flow is unnecessarily being squeezed. - Too many moving parts. (Who’s on first?)
Your route staff are collecting lots of operational data on the road, some valuable and some not so much. How do you sort through it all and extract the data you need to make the best business decisions regarding inventory, procurement, manufacturing, and product lines?
Don’t sabotage your van sales. See the big picture with a single integrated tool. Iron out inefficiencies, revamp your internal processes, and find new sales opportunities with a versatile solution that will expand your direct store delivery market sales.
Outdated, patched together mobility solutions no longer cut it. In order to play ball in today’s Direct Store Delivery (DSD) market, your route accounting software must integrate your field sales, distribution logistics, inventory management, invoicing, and payment collection -- accessible on any mobile device, and have it all synced with your accounting and inventory systems. That’s asking a lot. But it’s no longer cutting edge; it’s fast becoming the industry standard.
Today’s leading solutions or dsd software must be intuitive at all user levels, and provide actionable information for real-time insight to quickly respond to changing market needs – not simply churn out distracting and valueless data.
Imagine your route staff reaching more customers, efficiently replenishing goods, issuing invoices and collecting payments onsite. Now stop imagining and find the route system that will crank your productivity up a notch (or 2 or 3 or 4….).
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