I was on a sales call with one of our customers the other day and they made a statement that I thought was a little bold…they told their prospect that if he started doing business with them and used Four51 to place their orders, our customer would save them 30% on the operational overhead associated with processing, tracking and reporting on those orders.

We then discussed two of the many items that the customer orders: business cards and product flyers that they produce for their retail customers. The business cards are still ordered by an administrative assistant who fills out a form and faxes in the order.

You’ve heard this process before: The proof is produced and faxed back for approval, changes are made, the proof is faxed back and the order is finally produced. Tracking consists of calling the supplier to see where the order is. If you can believe it, the flyer process is even more inefficient. Every time there is a new price or product feature added to the product flyer, they order flyers from their supplier who sends them to the home office. The home office employees then split up the order by sales rep and the sales reps drive the flyers to their retail customers and drops them off. This particular customer has a half a dozen sales reps that service several dozen retail locations. (Just think of what you could save this customer in terms of gas alone!)

At first I was nervous, but at this point I found myself that 30% may be a little conservative!

What a powerful selling message. Can you demonstrate to your customers how they can save 30% by ordering online? Is 30% a good number?

Bill

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