Sales order automation has many benefits. Delayed orders lead to difficulties with cash-flow, lagging commission payments & lost shelf space. Read more now.
Order to Cash: What It Is and Why You Should Care | Handshake
How Order Submission Delays are Killing your Business | Handshake
1. Post Link: How Order Submission Delays are Killing your Business
How Order Submission Delays are Killing your Business
The traditional wholesale sales order processing model has several dangerous blockage points
that can eat up profits. While the cycle of "order to cash" has been improved by ERP vendors
and accounting and finance professionals who engage the process once the order hits the
ERP, the order side of the cycle is where good money can be saved today. Recently we heard
from a sales manager from one of our brands that "An order delayed is cash flow delayed." It
got us thinking a little more about the comparison between paper and digital order writing,
what's causing delays in cash flows, and what can be done to speed things up.
Writing the Order: Paper vs. Electronic
Compare two wholesale customer order writing scenarios; one paper, the other - electronic
sales order automation:
Paper ordering
Orders written on paper might be partially created or recreated three or four times before it’s
ready for signature. Not only is it a waste of time and labor - but it introduces the opportunity for
errors. In scenarios where companies are (still) using fax, blurry, illegible text means an even
higher chance for errors and the need for electronic recreation for the ERP system. Plus, paper
2. just doesn’t scale. You've probably experienced the joy of hand writing hundreds of manual
orders at a trade show to then go back to your hotel or office to re-create them. A major
downside to paper writing is the time it takes to advance to the next step of the order process.
Handwritten orders may be delayed from advancing to fulfillment based on a rep's lack of
access to a fax machine, the need for a rep to collect and submit orders after a business trip, or
because they're put into queue for manual re-entry by a customer service team.
Electronic ordering
With electronic order taking, the order is written using software on a mobile device, tablet, or
computer, perhaps with a bar-code reader or an integrated catalog, and the customer can
immediately approve and sign it. Since the electronic order software often interfaces directly
with the rep’s ERP, the rep can confirm inventory availability and delivery dates. The approved
order is transmitted, and fulfillment starts that day. The customer receives an email order
confirmation and a ship notice as soon minutes or hours from the sales order being placed.
Sales Order Automation Benefits
Productivity
Each step that can be automated or eliminated shaves time off the turnaround from order to
cash. The longer it takes to ship, the longer it takes the buyer to pay. Fix the order process and
you bring the ship, invoice and collections dates closer.
Labor
Any labor savings from automation go straight to the bottom line, either because you can
eliminate low-value work that is no longer needed, or redeploy people to more value-added
tasks, like providing exceptional customer service. We recently talked with an IT person who
was responsible for the order-entry process. Through automation, he saved about 32 man-
hours a week – nearly an FTE. Happy salespeople and customer service reps who don’t have
to waste time re-entering orders have better morale.
Time
Speed is key. A delay can move cash receipts from orders into the next month or the next
quarter, affecting both sales rep commissions and your cash position. For the rep, it can have
implications anywhere from missing their quota, to delaying commission or damaging rapport
with their customers. Automatic sync of orders from the field to home base is critical - it
drastically reduces the amount of time between order placing and fulfillment.
Defending your shelf space
Once you’re established with a retailer, the last thing you want is for your allocated shelf
space to be empty. This means not only loss of potential sales, but that another brand or