Increase the value, margin, and line items of your Customer Order

Use up-sell, cross-sell models to immediately see a marked improvement in Sales
My son, a badminton nut, recently ordered a badminton racket and a pair of badminton non-marking shoes from an e-commerce site. Within a couple of weeks of delivery, he got an email, with a discount coupon to buy "autobiography of Pulella Gopichand". Till then, he wasn't aware of the existance of that book. Of course, the order went out that very same day. That's an example of cross-sell. The e-commerce website correctly understood his profile, and offered him an item from a category (books) very different from the other two. The website was checking what other people of his profile were buying, what he was not buying, and hence placing the appropriate offers. Presumably, in a couple of years, when its time to replace the shoes, they'll send an offer for higher end shoes, maybe those which are lighter, and have a better grip. That's up-selling. Within the same category, they would attempt to (Oh God) migrate him to a more expensive, higher margin product.
We extend those B2C concepts to the B2B space. A few of our customers are from the 'auto part trading' sector. If their "Customer A" (maybe an OEM to auto manufacturers) is buying drillers and cutters, but "Customer B" (of the same profile) is only buying drillers, ISM will identify that 'cross-sell' opportunity and highlight it. Customer A is based in NCR. In May-June, they look for highly durable drillers which can perform under intense heat, and hence keep their quality within specs. Through ISM's team of 'sales analysts', our customers can identify that 'upsell opportunity' for their NCR-based customers in May-June, and reach them before competition does.

Accurate forecasts keep all stakeholders motivated

A few of our customers are from the 'auto part trading' sector. Before ISM, the most popular (and the simplest) way of forecasting was on a 'straight line 12 month' basis, at an Account level. Meaning, if the annual forecast (for one of their customers) was Rs 24 lakh, it got projected as Rs 2 lakh per month (Rs 24 lakh / 12 months)
We knew the seasonalities in their client's sector. In the auto sector, demand was high in the January - March season. It slowed down slightly before the budget announcements. There was a lean season till the build up to the festival season, during late Aug - September. Demand again slowed in December. Of course there were nuances in the demand patterns by geography, by segment (Commercial vehicles vs Passenger vehicles), by sub-segment (Light Commercial vs Heavy Commercial). Moreover, the Heavy Commercial vehicles were more susceptible to economic upturns/downturns, interest rate movements, budget announcements etc.
On analysing the client's historical data, we showed them why they were missing annual forecasts by a wide margin, and how it was negatively impacting the morale of the Sales-reps. While the reps had it relatively easy to meet the 'straight line targets' in the high demand periods, they struggled during the 'low demand' periods. We constructed the same annual forecast, but with the seasonality and economic conditions factored in. We explained this to the sales-reps, got quick buy-in from them. They were a relieved lot ! The company owner was pleasantly surprised on how quickly the buy-in happened. As of this date, am happy to inform that the Forecast accuracy over the past 2 quarters has been much better. (we loaded their data about 7 months back)

Integrated view of the customer shows which Account to prioritise and on what metrics

Monthly customer scoring on cross functional parameters keeps each customer's risk levels and forecasts in check
A client of ours is into industrial coolants. Each May-June, his orders from a hotel chain in Delhi would shoot up. He would be thrilled at a almost 30% jump in Sale vs the previous Months. However, was that translating into Receipts as per the usual pattern ? No. Whilst their costs increased, the hotel would go through a seasonal down-turn in those hot periods. Cash, which would come in around 1.5-2 months would now get extended to 2.5-3 months. Our client would have to avail over-draft facility, break FD's to cover his working capital expenses. It was a stressful experience. Next year he would forget about the incident and experience the same negative pattern. Our analysts figured out this pattern, when the historical data was being uploaded. Moreover, we realised that the same chain went through a up-turn in October-November. Their Receivable pattern showed a marked improvement
We now inform the client well in advance of the seasonal downturn and upturns through Notifications in App, SMS, email etc. The back-office team, Sales, Marketing and the CEO, through their respective ISM logins, now have visibility into a common set of metrics which includes Days Sales Outstanding, Receivables%Revenues, Top Customers by Outstanding AR. Moreover, they can drill down to those metrics by Customer.
Moreover, we combine numerous metrics to arrive at a composite score by each Account. This factors in Order history, Receivable history, size of business, Sales cycle lead times, Outstanding Receivables etc. This "risk-adjusted composite metric" helps all functions understand which Accounts to focus on, in which season
The Sales-reps are measured on whether they take orders from Accounts with higher composite scores, whether the Receivables are reducing etc. All this, and more is visible on their App. If the order is for Rs 500,000 , they try to get Receipts worth (say) Rs 7,00,000 so they, over time, the Receivables came come down to normal levels for that Account

Have highly engaging relationships with your Principals

Be recognised as the best and the most innovative Distributor In our experience, many Distributors, especially those having tie-ups with multiple Principals, struggle with meeting Target expectations of their Principals. Through ISM, the Distributors are able to identify realistic monthly/quarterly/annual targets. Principals are getting quite concerned about forecast accuracy. Even if the forecast is somewhat lower, they would, in general, prefer Distributors to meet their commitments, rather than over-committing and under-delivering. However, numerous features like the up-sell/cross-sell models (we talked about this in an earlier blog) throw important insights into Sales opportunities which your competitors (becasue they don't have access to the complex mathematics) are unable to spot. These insights, when identified, are delivered straight to you as app/email/SMS notifications, so you can take action immediately. Its a great place to be in .. If you can pick up greater targets, show that you can deliver on them, and in the process improve on margin and market share. Moreover, through ISM you can show your Principal which of his schemes worked for which geography/sector/period, and why. The Principal can then plan highly targeted, high ROI schemes Your Principal will reward you with preferred Distributor status .. and that results in special Pricing deals, special schemes .. and a lot more !

How to efficiently manage your Sales Funnel and Get a 360-degree view of each inquiry.

Get a 360-degree 'real time' view of each Inquiry, and take immediate decisions to make it zip down the funnel
As with most B2B businesses, your Sales come from a mixture of Inquiries and Repeat Orders. The new business can be with an existing Account, or with a new Lead. Your sales-reps create an Inquiry for each new business. If they're dealing with factories, they probably create an Inquiry sheet. Over the next few days, weeks, months .. the Inquiry should make progress, as per other Inquiries of that profile. Progress means, the Inquiry should cross different 'stages', with each stage making it clearer whether you will get the business, or not. Not every stage needs to be crossed for every Inquiry, but there should be certain guidelines As the requirements become clearer, the client (Lead/Account) asks for a Trial, and gives you a Trial Order. You want the trial to be successfully closed as quickly and at least cost, so you can then move to the Quotation phase, and walk away with a large Order. This then opens up another channel of Repeat Business. You want to be aware of the cost of pursuing that Inquiry. If the Inquiry slows down you want to be aware, quickly jump in, and decide what to do with it. In Marketing Science terminology, that Inquiry is flowing through the Sales Funnel, and should result in "closed won" (secured the Order) or "closed lost" (lost out) . There's a ton of analysis that can be done to ensure the Inquiries stay on track to move quickly and efficiently towards "Closed won".
A Sales funnel analysis across our clients in North India in the auto trading sector showed an important pattern. Successful completion of the "Trial stage" improved Sales cycle time by 17 days, and boosted chances of getting the PO by 38%. Once this insight was known, our Customers start putting double attention on the Trial phase, and some even push their Clients to do a Trial