Create Sales Time by Automating Data Entry

While AI burst into the mainstream relatively recently, “techies” have commented that it has been around for a while. As distributors have found out, seemingly every technology solicitation call is from an AI company.

There is Chat, Perplexity, Grok, Claude, Gemini and others that are broad-based. Then there are application-specific tools such as various meeting note taking tools, Canva, the Designer function within MS PowerPoint, CoPilot, and a myriad of others.

More importantly, there are many industry-specific purpose-built tools that have been coming to market for the distribution industry. Most relate to productivity and profitability. These encompass areas such as PO automation, sales intelligence, AP payables, inventory management / forecasting, pricing tools and similar. In fact, at the MDM Shift Conference in May we stopped counting.

And there was a conference devoted to AI for distributors called Applied AI for Distributors which reportedly had 45 AI companies in attendance. NAED recently held a meeting for some members on AI.

In other words, there are lots of companies emerging in this space. Some are established companies (such as ERP companies with new offerings), others are pure start-ups … people with an idea and either book strapping it, self-funding, or being VC funded. We’ve had calls from many. Most want to engage based upon a referral basis, which we decline. Others, who we feel have a viable offering and funding to be sustainable we’re willing to engage with.

Philosophically, we’ve taken the position that if we can help the channel, and clients, by being a filter to “narrow” the selection process, we hopefully have added some value.

One of areas that seemingly is “low fruit” is PO automation … streamlining the order entry process.

John Gunderson, who has worked with a number of large distributors throughout his career, and I are working with Conexiom, a known entity to many electrical distributors, for helping them streamline their order entry process.

In this article John outlines his experience, the challenge for distributors, and the opportunity. We’ve been doing some research and will be sharing findings at an upcoming webinar that, if you are in operations, IT, sales management, or senior management within a distributor you either should attend, assign someone to attend, or register to listen to the recording at another time. And, by registering, you will automatically get the report that is being written.

A side note … if you are a manufacturer, there could be opportunities if you are receiving orders via email BUT, if you are in sales, I encourage you to attend as there are other ramifications of this emerging model which I’ll propose in an upcoming posting (or reach out if you want a preview.)

Creating More Time for Your Inside Teams to Service Customers 

“Recently we’ve been on calls with key distributors and working on our latest benchmark research about how automated order management is creating “barriers to exit” for customers. We are preparing this report for a webinar and white paper in partnership with our friends at Conexiom.

I’m excited to be co-presenting this webinar and crafting the white paper research project, as I was an early Conexiom customer at a couple of billion-dollar distributors in my career.

What struck me as we were working on our research questions and charts was the significant change in the inside sales role for most distributors. This shift has been dramatic, driven by the evolution of the end customer and advancements in technology.

It wasn’t long ago that distributors paid bonuses to inside sales teams based on the number of lines they entered into the ERP.  The more lines an inside salesperson entered, the more bonus money they received.  That inside sales human-computer who could quickly and efficiently type complex part order nomenclature was incredibly valuable.

The time every distributor spent processing orders was significant. Around 2010 a large construction distributor team I was on tried to calculate how many hours per week our team spent entering orders. It was challenging, as we had a thriving counter business, outside sales teams calling in orders, orders arriving via email, fax, and orders we took over the phone from end customers.

At that time, we estimated that our inside teams (and counter people) spent 20-40% of their time simply entering orders we already had. That manual process did create some errors, credits, and rebills of course, but with an experienced team who knew their products, we had fewer data entry errors than the competition, or so we thought (or hoped.)

Today, there is no longer an advantage in entering orders faster and with fewer errors than the competition. End customers expect orders to be processed electronically – whether it’s via text, direct system connections (Trimble, McCormick Systems, Coupa, Ariba, etc.), EDI, email, direct file uploads to a portal, or other methods.

Customers have two simple expectations when they send you an order:

• The order will be entered properly and immediately.
• They will receive confirmation of the receipt of the order, details of what they ordered, and the delivery timeframe.

They expect quick communication on any issues, such as out-of-stock or back-orders. Speed and accuracy are no longer optional, they’re expected. If you can process orders faster and more accurately, it gives you a slight competitive advantage (especially if you’re competing against distributors still manually entering many orders).

The real competitive edge lies in freeing your team’s time to focus on selling.

Freeing your team to serve customers and sell is the path to above-market growth.

Today, distribution customers have more choices than ever, which has intensified competitive pressure. The days of phoned-in purchases and busy counters are gone. The percentage of orders arriving via email, text, Excel spreadsheet, EDI, direct ERP connect, portal uploads, and websites/apps continues to rise each and every year.

Your customers don’t just want, they expect seamless, accurate, and fast order experiences. Distributors who fail to meet these expectations risk losing business to more tech-savvy competitors. Oh, and customers expect zero errors, while also wanting assistance in catching mistakes they may make on their end.

But this customer shift isn’t just a challenge. It’s a huge opportunity.

In our webinar, you’ll discover how leading distributors are turning order processing into a competitive advantage. We’ll explore new research on how digitizing the order process not only improves operational efficiency, but also strengthens customer relationships, drives revenue, and creates powerful competitive barriers to exit (and barriers to entry for your competition).

Please join Conexiom, and Channel Marketing Group, with me and David Gordon on August 26th Webinar | Customer Loyalty by Design: How Smarter Order Processes Unlock Sales Growth to see tactical examples and case studies on how order excellence can be a competitive advantage.”

(Note: If you missed the webinar, register anyways as Conexiom recorded the session and can provide a recording to you.)

Take Aways

A few thoughts …

• Data entry has never been a value-added service to customers. So, why do it when it can be done better?
• Then the question is, what to do with the “found” time. While I know some distributors who have gone the unfortunate route, here are some more realistic realities:
  • Protecting your company from turnover and retirement
  • Enabling scalability while managing costs
  • Enriching the role by enabling for better quotations follow-up, perhaps some product training or “train the trainer” roles, facilitating / supporting project management or expediting.
  • In some cases, these resources are open to being proactive with some customers and are willing to “reach out” to known (assigned) customers
    • And some are willing to help with unassigned accounts (check out our research for Prokeep.)
  • Re-envisioning your sales model (and we are engaged with some distributors in helping then through this process.)

The point … there are lots of opportunities.

And with the wide array of PO automation resources that are emerging in the market, there is a resource for most distributors.