June 2016

What a difference having the right mobile sales system can make! Flame & Fragrance vendor Xystos saw the difference when they went live with Blue Alligator’s SalesPresenter catalogue/order taker on the iPad. In time for the Home and Gift Fair at Harrogate.   As a long term user of a well-known PDA based handheld order taking system. They were nervous about changing systems and suppliers. However, Blue Alligator and SalesPresenter had been highly recommended by other users. Having taken the plunge, Tom Sykes (Xystos’ General Manager) was extremely pleased with the outcome:   “Getting the system going was very quick and professionally handled by Blue Alligator. Overall orders taken at Harrogate were 42% up and a significant part of this was due to the speed with which we were able to take the orders. Much faster than the previous handheld system”.   “We saved masses of paper and got the orders automatically fed into Sage much faster than before.”   Tom is optimistic about the future, and is expanding his use of Blue Alligator products:   “We are now looking forward to adding the online trade ordering facilities of CloudCart. Gearing up for a good Autumn Fair,”

1. What does PRS Guitars do? “When it’s gone, it’s gone” is a phrase much in use at PRS Guitars. The company’s beautiful range of hand-crafted premium guitars, as played by hundreds of top musicians such as Carlos Santana. Today these quickly snapped up by fellow musicians and fans alike. And with every single product coming out of PRS’s factory near Chesapeake Bay, Maryland looking like an individual one-off.  “as soon as they see the right one they just have to have it!” says Gavin Mortimer, MD of PRS Guitars’ European operation.   Gavin continues: “Each guitar is manufactured individually. Differences and options in the model, finish, neck, electronics and bridge mean that we actually have over 70,000 potential product variations.  Customers realise that another guitar of the same appearance and specification is unlikely to come around again. Promotes the notion of a highly personalised product, and the need to secure it immediately.”   Until recently, demand for specific individual products would cause problems in the distribution network which would actually hinder sales potential. Gavin explains:   2. How they previously took orders “Sales reps didn’t really have an accurate up to the minute view of product availability. They had stock lists and would resort to the mobile phone to check, both costly and inefficient. Our marketing would be promoting the availability of new stock over their heads to our dealer network. End users by displaying attractive images on our social media sites and Flickr. This often resulted in multiple dealers chasing a specific product. Sales reps in different countries receiving orders for the same one-off individual guitar from different dealers. The potential for disapproval and conflict is obvious; we even experienced confrontation between sales reps over stock allocations.”   3. How SalesPresenter helped their success Along came Blue Alligator…