What to Look for in a Sales Route Planner App

Route staff are always on the go. Whether they’re visiting retailers or making store deliveries, they need to travel quickly and efficiently. To ensure that your route staff make the maximum number of visits / deliveries in the minimum amount of time, equip them with an app that streamlines the delivery process and shows them the fastest routes. The benefits of a sales route planner app include:

Optimized Productivity

Rather than require your route staff to go back and forth between their list of instructions and a separate maps application, a route planner app integrates with popular GPS navigation apps like Google Maps. This allows staff to map out their routes in advance and know the driving time and distance for each day. It also adjusts staff routes real-time if there’s a sudden change of plans, like a cancellation or an urgent delivery.

By reducing your staff’s driving time between stops, sales route planning software helps you maximize your number of deliveries and sales. Wholesalers and distributors can use a wholesale ordering app to keep track of all route staff operations, using geo-tags and time stamps to provide full visibility of staff activities and location.

Complete Customer Information

By having an app that is both a sales route planner and a mobile sales app, sales reps can not only efficiently route plan but also have customer details and order history at their fingertips. The same app can also include an e-catalog that contains thorough product details so that route staff can better answer customer questions and advise customers on recommended products.

These apps work on a variety of devices, whether mobile or tablet, and on a variety of operating systems. This means that staff can use the app on their personal devices, giving them instant access to customer and sales information from any location. This BYOD (bring-your-own-device) capability means staff can navigate the app from the comfort of a familiar device, resulting in cost savings for wholesalers and distributors.

Flexible Payment and Pricing

A sales route planner that is also a mobile sales app means sales reps have full access to price lists which can be customized for each customer. It also lets them define discounts and cross-sell and upsell promotions for each customer.

Using the app, reps can quickly process orders, issue invoices, and capture electronic proof of all activities. They can also collect payment through cash, credit cards, checks, e-payment, or back office accounting.

Inventory and Sales Visibility

Another feature of sales rep route planners is that they make inventory and sales data transparent and easily accessible for both field reps and back office staff. The app can track inventory real-time, making it easy to locate products instantly. In addition, real-time sales reporting tracks customer purchases and analyzes the most effective pricing strategies.

By connecting your route staff with back-office data and activities, equips them to advise retailers on merchandising, stocking, and reordering. This gives retailers the ability to better optimize shelf space and consistently replenish the most popular items.

Seamless Integration with Your CRM and ERP

Sales route planner apps further benefit retailers by syncing sales, product, customer, and pricing details to their ERP system. The best ones integrate with a wide variety of ERP and accounting systems, ensuring that retailers can maintain their existing ERP rather than switch over to a new one. Automatic syncing with your CRM ensures that you don’t have to manually upload all your customer information.

Rather than worry about a Wi-Fi connection to keep your app updated, find an app that works in offline mode. Even offline, a good app should be able to integrate real-time with your ERP. Not only will your route staff be able to use the app from any device, but they’ll also be able to use it from any location, even when they’re on the road.

For a sales route planner app that has all these benefits, check out Pepperi’s Route Accounting Software.