Distributors face many challenges. You have to serve diverse customers, manage millions of products, and adapt to unpredictable market conditions. You also need to compete with other distributors who also want to capture their market share. How can you gain an edge on your competitors? By using data to drive smart distribution sales decisions. Data can help you not only to defend your current position, but also to grow with your business into the future.

At Pricefx, we are experts in cloud-native pricing software. With more than a decade’s worth of experience, we know that data can help distribution organizations make smarter, more profitable choices and have more impact, especially in their sales teams. So, how can your sales team use data to improve their negotiations and sell more at the prices your company requires to achieve its unique set of business outcomes?

In this article, we will show you some proven strategies for using Pricefx and leveraging your data to make better sales decisions - helping your teams to sell more effectively and efficiently, close more valuable deals, and ultimately, make more profitable pricing decisions for your company.

Sounds good? Let's get started!

How Pricefx Empowers Data-Driven Decision-Making in Distribution

From our experience working with a wide range of distribution customers, we have identified three key ways our technology can leverage data for improved sales insights and of course, value-add to make more profit:

1.      Boosting Your Sales Performance with Guided Selling

As a distribution business, you already know how challenging it can be to handle customer quote requests. They come in a range of different shapes and sizes, from annual quotes to spot purchases, and they require a lot of coordination, analysis, and communication. Naturally, you want to respond quickly and accurately, but you also want to present profitable and competitive offers. But how can you achieve this balance without getting lost in the quote maze?

The answer is guided selling, a powerful feature of Pricefx pricing software that streamlines the entire quote process. With guided selling, you can leverage data-driven tools to create compelling quotes in minutes, not hours or days. You can also communicate seamlessly with your customers and track your performance along the way. In the video below, check out how negotiation guidance works and how it can help you improve your sales results.

What Are the Nuts & Bolts of Guided Selling?

Guided selling is a feature of Pricefx pricing software that automates and simplifies the quote process. It helps you to:

• Reduce processing time with streamlined workflows and automated tasks.
• Ensure accurate pricing with data-driven tools that consider current and future market conditions.
• Facilitate seamless communication with customers throughout the quoting process.

With guided selling, you can create quotes faster, easier, and more profitably than ever before.

How Does Guided Selling Work?

Guided selling works by integrating and automating the steps involved in the quote process. Here is how it works:

1. You receive a quote request from a customer, either through email, phone, or online portal.
2. You enter the request details into Pricefx pricing software, which automatically generates a quote based on predefined rules and data sources.
3. You review the quote and adjust it as needed, using  Pricefx's Negotiation Guidancetool and capability. This tool helps you to optimize your pricing strategy by providing you with insights, recommendations, and alerts based on your customer's profile, preferences, and behavior.
4. You send the quote to your customer, either through email, phone, or through your company’s online portal. Pricefx pricing software tracks the status of the quote and notifies you of any changes or actions.
5. You follow up with your customer and negotiate the deal, using Pricefx's Negotiation Guidance tool and capability to guide you through the process. This tool helps you to identify the best price and terms for each customer and scenario, based on your business goals and constraints.

With guided selling, you can handle quote requests with ease and efficiency, from start to finish.

What are the Benefits of Guided Selling?

Guided selling offers a multitude of benefits for your distribution business, such as:

• Increased win rates: You can respond to requests quickly and accurately, boosting your chances of securing deals.
• Improved margins: You can leverage data-driven pricing tools to ensure you present profitable and competitive offers.
• Enhanced revenue growth: You can close more deals faster with a streamlined and efficient quote process.
• Improved customer satisfaction: You can communicate seamlessly with your customers and provide them with tailored and compelling offers.
• Improved sales performance: You can track and measure your quote performance and identify areas for improvement.

This capability from Pricefx enables distributors to not only meet customer needs more effectively but also enhance their competitive edge, leading to improved business outcomes.

If you would like to know about how to make your sales department groove to your organization’s overall pricing rhythm and the technology to make it happen, be sure to check out this useful article below:

2.    Best Practice Customer & Product Segmentation

Customer and product segmentation is a key strategy for distributors who want to grow their revenue by selling the right product to the right person at the right time at the right price. Pricefx helps distributors to implement this strategy by providing them with flexible and powerful capabilities.

With Pricefx, distributors can easily create and update customer-specific pricing frameworks that reflect their unique customer segments and product attributes.

These frameworks can include various criteria such as:

• Geography
• Customer class
• Customer Type
• Customer Behavior
• Share of wallet, and;
• Cost to Serve

Pricefx also allows distributors to adjust their pricing rules as the market conditions change, ensuring that they always offer the optimal price for each customer and product combination. Pricefx integrates seamlessly with the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning software) system, automatically converting the pricing frameworks into conditions that can be accessed and applied by the sales team.

Moreover, Pricefx enables distributors to simulate the impact of their customer-specific pricing rules, helping them to make data-driven decisions that balance customer satisfaction and profitability.

To dive deeper into learning more about best practice segmentation for modern distributors and how to use it to become a more profitable organization, check out my in-depth article on the topic below:

3.    Achieve Business Goals with Pricex AI Optimized Price Guardrails

As a distribution salesperson, you know how challenging it can be to close deals in a competitive and dynamic market. You need to balance customer needs, inventory levels, demand fluctuations, and profitability goals. And you need to do it fast and effectively, without losing your edge or your confidence.

That is why you need a secret weapon that can boost your success and make your life easier.

Pricefx is not just for product and pricing managers. It is a powerful tool that helps salespeople like you achieve your goals, close more deals, and create a win-win situation for both the company and your customers. How does it do that? By providing you with the best price corridors customized to sell to the right customer at the right time and the best set of products to cross–sell to them.

Let's take a closer look at how Pricefx can help you navigate any sales situation and secure the most profitable sales possible.

Real-Time Actionable Insights

With Pricefx, you have instant access to data on future demand forecasts and current inventory levels. This comprehensive picture empowers you to tailor your sales strategies for each product.

Check out this informative video below on how the Pricefx Actionable Insights Accelerator works:

Profitable Guidance

Pricefx also provides you with pricing guardrails that ensure you always present prices that maximize profitability. No more underselling or missing out on golden opportunities. Pricefx analyzes your data and calculates the optimal price range for each product and customer segment. It also considers your business goals, such as revenue, margin, or market share. Pricefx then gives you clear and actionable recommendations on how to price your products to achieve your desired outcomes.

For example, if you are a distributor of medical supplies, Pricefx can help you set prices that reflect the demand, supply, and cost of each product category, as well as the price sensitivity and loyalty of each customer group.

Dynamic Pricing Power

Pricefx also enables you to propose prices that automatically adjust based on your specific business KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). This ensures you close deals that are attractive to customers while simultaneously helping you drive towards your unique set of business goals.

Pricefx uses advanced algorithms and machine learning to dynamically update your prices based on changing market conditions, customer behavior, and competitive actions. You can also set up pricing rules and scenarios that trigger price changes based on predefined criteria. This way, you can always offer the most competitive and profitable prices for each situation.

For example, if you are a distributor of industrial equipment, Pricefx can help you adjust your prices based on the seasonality, availability, and demand of each product line, as well as the contract terms, order size, and delivery time of each customer order.

Pricefx enables you to evaluate your performance and track your improvement, basing your decisions on data and insights. You can become a data-driven salesforce, capable of managing the contract terms, order size, and delivery time of each customer order as required to achieve your unique set of business goals.

Learn More Ways to Build Revenue with Pricefx

Now you know how data-driven sales decision making can help you to boost your sales performance and increase your margins in your distribution business.

But for the execution of a 360-degree, holistic pricing strategy, there is much more to it than merely using a quality pricing software solution like Pricefx to empower your sales team to discover more targeted pricing for deal closing.

To get the lowdown on 5 examples of different strategies and tactics that your distribution business could potentially use (depending on your company’s specific business objectives of course) on route to increasing revenue and becoming a more profitable organization - and how to achieve them with pricing software – check out this informative article below:

Meanwhile, happy pricing!