Does your business attend tradeshows? Are you considering starting to attend tradeshows this year? While in certain industries attending tradeshows has long become a thing of the past, there are still various industries where it makes sense to sponsor, exhibit or walk tradeshow floors to increase brand awareness for your company, network with potential clients and partners, and sell product. This is especially true for emerging markets like the recreational cannabis industry in Canada and other specific industries such as automotive, entertainment and the healthcare/medical industry. To be successful at a tradeshow, a lot of thought and consideration needs to go into your marketing and sales plan. It is important that you present a strong, cohesive and relevant brand image through your booth design, brochures and handouts, displays, demos and swag. You want to prepare the appropriate sales collateral to give to visitors at your booth and you want to ensure you have a process in place for following up with leads after the show. As a distribution business, there may be an opportunity to generate actual product sales at a tradeshow in which you need the right tools and processes in place to show product, create sales orders, collect payment and then ship and invoice orders from your warehouse. Before you start to consider manually taking orders or looking at alternative solutions, consider whether your existing distribution ERP software has the functionality to help. Below we explore distribution ERP and specifically Blue Link tools your team can use to successfully exhibit and sell at a tradeshow.
Point-of-Sale (POS)
Not just for use in a retail brick and mortar stores, point of sale software allows you to easily create an order and accept payment from anywhere you have a terminal set-up. Since Blue Link’s POS solution works offline, it’s a great tool for businesses that want to take and process transactions at a tradeshow. Your company can simply sync with your system’s real-time data before the show for an up-to-date list of inventory, then set up a computer terminal with payment processing equipment to enter orders and accept payments during the actual show. At the end of the day, once again you can sync the system to update inventory and order information which then automatically sends appropriate orders to your warehouse staff to pick, pack and ship. Blue Link’s POS system works with barcode readers, cash drawers, receipt printers and display poles and so you even have the ability to scan and sell product that is physical on display at your booth.
RepZio (Mobile Sales App)
RepZio is a mobile sales app designed for use by sales people in a showroom, at a tradeshow or while onsite with customers. Fully integrated with Blue Link ERP, RepZio allows your business to sync orders between applications, sync product details, pricing and photos as well as sync client information. Available on iOS devices, RepZio works great for a variety of industries, especially those that would benefit from a visually appealing representation of products. RepZio allows you to show customers a visual representation of available inventory and can even specify alternate or similar items. Since the app also works offline, even if you don’t have a good internet connection, you’re still able to process orders.
Contact Relationship Management (CRM)
Although it is unlikely that you will be capturing leads through your CRM system while interacting with prospects on the tradeshow floor, access to your distribution ERP’s CRM functionality allows you to manage this information easily from your hotel room after the show. Instead of waiting until you’re back in the office to manage all of the sales leads collected from the show, cloud-based distribution ERP with CRM functionality means you can access the system from anywhere with an internet connection to start triaging leads. CRM functionality allows you to generate lists, track communication, schedule appointments, set follow-up dates, log field changes, specify primary contact information, manage lead status’ and maintain a record of verbal and email communication.
Tradeshows are busy enough without having to manually track customer, prospect and order information. As you prepare for the tradeshow season, check with your existing ERP vendor for the above tools, and consider switching to a more robust solution if you require additional functionality. Not only does processing orders and contacts at the show save your team time when back in the office, but it also eliminates errors when you try to remember who you spoke with an ensures you actually have the product to ship that was sold at the show.
