Your sales team needs a sales portal for a very simple reason: Your inside and outside people are a team. Even in a small business, sales are rarely made by a single individual. A sales portal keeps your inside and outside people on the same page. Just as a sports team cannot function without a common playbook, your sales team will only reach their full potential when there is a common portal for them to use. Here is a breakdown of exactly how sales portals benefit sales teams.
Funnel All Order Channels
From your customers’ perspectives, it is important to offer multiple sales channels, as they each will have a preferred way to place orders. Some may appreciate the convenience of online orders, while others may want to talk directly with a sales rep who can answer specific questions. Some may prefer communicating by phone, while others may use email.
Managing all these order channels can be difficult for the team. A sales portal creates one funnel for organizing all these orders.
Track Customers and Orders
Sales portals are a central location where all customer and order information can be viewed. This makes it easy for any inside or outside team member in find a customer’s contact information or track an order that has been placed. Even when your main salesperson is on vacation, you can easily reply to a customer’s inquiry. With a sales portal, you will not need to email your salesperson, search through folders of documents or look in a long string of emails for an answer. All customer and order details are available with just a few clicks.
Reduce Order Entry
An online sales portal that integrates with QuickBooks allows your outside team members to do their own order entry. They’ll use an order form that automatically shows customer-specific pricing and selection of items. Orders placed on the portal will automatically be created in QuickBooks without data entry by your inside team. This can also reduce the back-and-forth communication that is required when an outside team member emails in an order that is unclear.
Sales Portals Help Teams Work Together
A sales portal will help your inside and outside people work more efficiently as a sales team. It will allow your outside people to be more efficient by doing their own order entry and by instantly answering their own customer service questions. Your inside people will spend less time doing routine order entry and answering the outside team’s inquiries.
