When it comes to finding software for your sales reps, traditionally, businesses have looked for contact management and CRM functionality. However, even though these tools are great for managing contacts and accounts, they often lack in additional functionality such as order taking and reporting. Blue Link ERP is an all-in-one inventory management and accounting solution with specific tools for your inside and outside sales reps. In addition to our contact manager and CRM functionality, Blue Link also includes robust reporting and order taking features to better manage your relationships and sales.
Blue Link ERP includes functionality to manage all aspects of your business – sales, inventory, accounting, warehouse management, order entry and more – so that you can focus on what really matters, growing your business.
Contact Management is a broad term that covers the tracking of customer, vendor and individuals’ information and communication. Blue Link’s Contact Manager Software functionality allows you to track:
CRM functionality implies a more advanced system, providing additional sales and marketing capabilities. CRM tools are typically used to fully manage relationships with customers, vendors, and prospects and in addition to the features available from contact manager software, CRM systems allow users to:
CRM tools are about managing sales funnels, sales cycles and relationships, and not just storing basic information. A CRM is particularly useful for businesses that have long or complex sales cycles requiring ongoing customer interaction, with scheduled follow-up dates and detailed communication records.
Blue Link’s B2B Order Platform provides a place for sales reps or customers to place orders online, view order history, browse available inventory information in real time and see specific pricing. Sales reps can pull up customer accounts to place orders while working with their customers or view past order information and available inventory. As part of Blue Link’s software for sales reps, our B2B order portal is fully integrated with our inventory and accounting ERP functionality, so inventory is always up-to-date, and order details accurate. This also means once an order is placed through the portal online, the inventory is allocated in the back-end for picking and a sales order is created for further processing. This tool gives sales reps more ownership of order taking while still providing the benefit of a personalized sales approach. Once an order is placed, it can automatically be sent to the warehouse for picking, packing and shipping, or an internal customer service or order entry rep can review the order information first.
Mobile sales apps (whether iOS, Android or any other software) allow sales reps to present products in a visually appealing way when on-site at a customer’s location, at a trade show or on a showroom floor. For anyone who has ever spent time at a tradeshow, the work involved managing orders when back in the office can be exhausting. This method is also prone to issues and human error when you have to re-enter orders taken at the show and then contact customers when inventory is not available. This extra administrative step can sometimes even lose sales – customers want to know that the product they buy at a tradeshow is available exactly how and when they want it.
Mobile sales apps are fully integrated with Blue Link’s back-end inventory and accounting ERP system for easy order taking on the road. Blue Link syncs with the app in real-time when connected to the internet so that inventory information is always up-to-date and order details accurate. Once an order is placed through the app the inventory is allocated in Blue Link ERP for picking, packing and shipping, and a sales order is created for further processing. This sales rep software tool gives sales reps more ownership of order taking while still providing the benefits of a personalized sales approach and reduces the amount of data entry and administrative work when back in the office.
Blue Link has partnered with a couple of different mobile sales apps which are fully integrated with our ERP software.
“The thing I like most [about Blue Link] are the reporting functions and the ability to get information at my fingertips. What we’ve seen with the service component is amazing. We used to spend 3 days a month getting our statements out. Now it does it automatically.”
In addition to the above CRM and order entry tools, Blue Link ERP also provides useful information to your sales reps using reporting and analytics. Blue Link ERP is able to pull information from different areas of the software to customize virtually any report your sales team may want. These can then be updated and emailed automatically and on a regular basis to the appropriate rep.
Specific report examples include:
The examples mentioned are just a start – Blue Link ERP will work with you and your sales team to determine what reports are beneficial and how they can be created in the system.