In a world moving faster than ever, many distributors are looking to increase efficiency. BlueVolt sat down with RepMove’s founder and CEO, Dillon Baird, and Marketing Director, Robert Ozeroff, as well as our own Senior VP of Operations, Tom Rangner, to discuss how to address the challenges faced by outside sales in distribution.

Baird, a former outside sales rep himself, created RepMove to overcome some of the challenges he’d witnessed in the industry.

“RepMove is a sales tool for reps to be more efficient throughout their day: have all their customers on a map in front of them, all their notes, all their contacts,” Baird said. “They can create structured days while optimizing routes. It's essentially like a a Swiss army knife for an outside sales rep.”

Baird explained that RepMove includes admin tools to help with team structuring, onboarding new reps, setting up their territories, and assigning maps to their salespeople.

BlueVolt, an online Learning Management System, was founded in 2002 to train electrical distribution reps and has since expanded to serve a wide variety of verticals.

"BlueVolt was developed to help organizations unify their team, culture, and message. As our customer count grew, we identified a niche where we could help centralize, and simplify, the exchange of training between industry partners,” Rangner said. “This ability to exchange content creates stronger relationships, builds day-to-day efficiencies, and simplifies an organization’s training initiative buildout.”

Access anytime, anywhere

One of the biggest issues that outside sales reps face is a lack of tools that are easy to use on the go. When you’re on the road all day, you can’t stop—time is everything.

“RepMove fills the gap that the vast majority of modern CRM's have, which is being built for inside sales and then having to be jerry-rigged and given a lot of development work to make it work for outside sales,” Ozeroff explained. “It combines the best parts of a traditional CRM with a field sales mobile app, a sales route planning app... it’s completely designed to serve the sales rep out in the field.”

Rangner added: “BlueVolt and RepMove share similarities when considering the key value props and who the platforms are tailored to. BlueVolt steers away from the traditional Learning Management System, knowing that our customers work in a fast-paced environment, where retaining relationships influences outcomes and time is of the essence. Our focus: simple, fast, and effective ways to train.”

Increase efficiency

Outside sales reps lose efficiency due to uncertainty. Finishing at a location with no idea where to go next, sales reps lose time and motivation without a clear direction.

With RepMove’s map feature, it’s easy for admins to assign locations and for reps to see which clients might be nearby. According to Ozeroff, reps who use RepMove typically add at least 2 customer visits daily and 40 monthly, a 40% increase in sales volume. Many reps increase visits by 100% or more, leading to a 100% increase in sales volume.

Sales reps may also lose time on other necessary parts of the job.

“We all have jobs – those jobs have responsibilities, including caring for the customer. Training shouldn’t jeopardize time or relationship opportunities,” Rangner said. “When it comes to training with BlueVolt, we encourage setting automations and optimizing the length of courses—complete training faster, minimize training impact on the day, and give time back to people to service the customer.”

According to a 2021 Forbes article, training makes outside sales reps more effective. The article found that sales results are the number one outcome of sales training, citing an estimated $4.53 return on every dollar invested in training—a 353% return on investment.

Conclusion

While outside sales reps face a variety of challenges, having the right tools allows reps to increase efficiency, improve service, and grow sales.

“Let’s get your reps out there in front of more people,” Baird said, “and let’s give them more knowledge to add more value to your customers.”

To see how you can increase productivity and grow sales, reach out to BlueVolt and RepMove today.

Source: What Companies That Grew In 2020 Realize About Sales Training (forbes.com)

 

 

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