This is great! It was hard to really see the value at first, but once I watched one of Daniel's video and saw how he used it I was able to see the advantages.
I run an enterprise SaaS and I will say that the process of selling software that has never existed is extremely challenging. We essentially are a software tool that manages the process of selling distressed inventory. It is very easy to get meetings, really hard to close deals.
The main pushback we see is the following:
1) It is hard to get budget carved out for new enterprise software without explicitly showing saved time, saved money or more money. The best bet is to find a "champion" will will work with you to build out case studies and sell internally. The issue for that person though is they are going out on a limb and that is a double edged sword.
2) We were selling software to someone that essentially did the same job as our software. It created a lot of feet dragging and undermining. It wasn't in a malicious way but its hard to go in and disrupt the "old school" way of doing it.
With all that being said, the more customers you get, the easier it gets. The early ones can work with you to build out case studies that let you narrow down the key benefits and that can be used to sell new customers.
My friends that successfully sell software for a living often sell software that everyone already owns a version of and they know exactly who to speak to. I think those are the two hardest parts and once you can get past that, again, its just about saving time, saving money or making more money.
They make shows to match different demographics and user groups. Not every show is supposed to be enjoyed by every person. It is about making a broad range of shows to meet the wants of multiple people. Going out on a limb, but I assume most young adults don't care about high brow political shows like House of Cards and would rather watch shows like The Society.
I was an early user of "unnamed" popular Kickstarter door lock and I took my dog out at 9pm and came back to find that the batteries were dead.
I called the customer support and they told me the low battery alert message was sent after I had locked the door and left, which was about a 20 minute trip.
They ended up paying for my locksmith, but I haven't felt comfortable using the lock since so it just sits on my door.
We are targeting ourselves to anyone that doesn't have their own system. Small and medium distributors lend themselves well to this because they usually have small sales forces and are limited in the number of accounts they can service.
Thanks for the thoughts and we will check them out.
We aren't looking to change the way alcohol is distributed, just offer a tool to take orders. There are a bunch of distributors that have already built their own ecommerce ordering solutions and have found them to work well.
The requirements of the alcohol industry are very specific and vary state to state, so we think it requires specialized software to take that into account.
Some distributors have built out systems to allow online ordering and it works well for them and they view it as a competitive advantage. A few have also tried over the years but found they couldn't get customers to actually use it.
It helps that we have seen a major shift from food distributors to online platforms.
A concern of some distributors is losing the touch point with the sales rep. They want a rep to be talking to the buyers at any chance they get or they think people will pass up on their products.
Great question. The main problem isn't necessarily placing orders, its also being able to manage your ordering process. If you are doing a new cocktail menu and you need a lemoncello that is under 20 dollars to fit into your cocktail, you would have to reach out to every rep and ask them for product info and pricing. Our system lets you see everything available to you from all distributors. You can then one click order across as many distributors as you want.
A majority of small to medium distributors use quickbooks, so we could tap into that API. The larger ones have custom erp systems that could be tapped into, but it gets tricky. At the lowest touch point, we could send orders to sales reps to punch.
Yea, there are things to take into account with certain states related to pricing, etc.
There are 5600 distributors in the country. Our software could also work though for self distributed beers, liquor and wine, as they have to take orders also.
The sales reps could see it as a threat depending on how it works with them. We always say that there is a place for good sales reps, we just don't want them to be glorified order takers.
You do also have a lot of old school distributor owners that view sales reps as hand to hand combat and are afraid of losing that touch point.
Great thoughts and exactly the problem we are trying to solve.
We actually have our system setup to work with Bevinco, which comes in and takes your inventory in the middle of the night and then generates an inventory report. We have a quick order page that matches that so they can just run down a list (opposed to driving through a catalog, which is our main way).
Our plan is to eventually have inventory be apart of our system so we can have machine learning on par levels, consumption, ordering.
1) Accounts (bars, restaurants, wedding halls, grocery stores, etc.) are either served by a sales rep or the orders have to be phoned in if you don't have a sales rep. If you have a sales rep, you place your order by calling, texting or emailing.
The problem is that all ordering and product info is then reactive to the rep. You can't login and see prices or products available, you have to reach out to your rep to answer questions.
The other side is that reps are busy and driving around all day, so they often don't respond by order cut off time. Our system helps take away these manual tasks and let hem do more selling.
2) Distributors spend $100k-$1mm each year paying employees to take orders for house accounts. Our system allows them to cut down on this labor cost. It also allows them to reach more accounts as each sales rep might only be able to service so many accounts. If we can automate part of it, they can do more selling to more accounts.
It is a split, the bars, restaurants and stores get to speed up ordering immensely and also don't have the interruptions of sales reps in and out.
The distributors get to streamline how orders are placed and have records of them. They also get to save money by servicing house accounts that might rely on telesales to take orders.
There is a pretty big range - but it ends up being a nice mix of large, medium and small. Large distributors will typically be your macro beer and liquor brands. Mom and pop distributors will typically be niche wine distributors.
A handful of chains have developed systems to create PO's, but a majority just rely on sales reps to service the account.