Earlier sales management was known as a process that was used to track stocked products and sold products only. The dynamism of the sales channel has changed a lot nowadays, and so does its management process. Previously sales management means incorporating all the factors that are directly connected to sales.

Normally, an organization manages its sales channel in two steps, i.e, Primary Sales and Secondary Sales. Therefore, driving both sales channels manually is a challenging and complex job that is sure to make thousands of blunders into account. To properly manage both sales channels, a solution to this chicken-and-egg problem, companies are now looking for sales automation software.

For any business, sales automation software plays an important role that is looking to increase productivity and optimize their profitability. While it may sound complicated, companies use sales automation software to automate and monitor primary and Secondary sales activities which include stock of product and inventory management, order management and interaction between the field sales force and different sales points. In order to enhance profitability, this is the phase where companies need to have high productivity.

What Are Primary and Secondary Sales:

Primary sales: The sale made by a  company to the distributor is called primary sales.it contributes to the company’s revenue and profit, so companies main focus is to increase primary sales.

Secondary sales: The sale made by the distributor to the retailer is called secondary sales. In this transaction, the distributor keeps a profit margin and sells the product at the dealer’s price.

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Challenges in managing Primary sales: 

At the beginning of a sales process, primary sales automation takes place. Products are sent from the manufacturer’s warehouse to the dealer’s inventory in primary sales. In the absence of a systematic approach, the distribution channel is hampered.

• In general, the company having more distribution channels becomes very challenging to manage the distribution process; so, keeping track of primary sales gets more difficult.
• Little to no protocols for tracking and measuring primary sales data over a longer period of time, so there is no way to analyze sales and rectify the weaknesses.
• While handling the primary sales, no forecasting of product stock updates is a major issue. Due to no reporting system of secondary sales from the dealer’s end this issue arises.
• Insufficient or incorrect information about secondary sales longing for higher inventory handling time increases financial risk for manufacturers who are unable to forecast stock levels accurately.
• Inventory management becomes difficult as well because there are no records of the movement of goods between various levels of the supply chain. 
• A lack of control in managing secondary sales also results in bad management of primary sales.

Challenges in managing Secondary sales:

The challenges of managing secondary sales are important and costly. With the growth in a company’s distribution network, the challenges of determining product availability across channels become exponentially more difficult with each new channel added to a company’s supply chain.

• Lack or poor visibility in secondary sales, especially with retailers due to high demand and low supply during the holiday season.
• As a result, it becomes difficult to keep track of inventory and product stock.
• There is challenges with product stocking management because the company may have to face shortage due to insufficient inventory.
• With the increase in the number of sales reps in different distribution points, manual coordination is a pain in the neck for any supply chain network
• Lack of common or central database and unorganized supply chain operations lead to revenue loss
• No market survey or poor market research data from the field reps can directly communicate with higher authorities
• Secondary sales also gets affected due to lack of visibility in trade promotional campaigns 

Read More – Distribution Management System – Importance & Why Is It Needed?

Why is sales management important for a business?

Sales management is something which lies in the heart of every business. A poorly established process results in most of the profits being lost. Planning sales, distribution management, and order management are all part of it and everything should be as smooth as a running clock.

Can measure the efficiency of distribution channels:

Sales managers can understand which areas will be the most profitable for sales, with which distributors and dealers are better to interact and how efficiently and smoothly the whole process is running.

Sales department management

Making better and effective plans, developing motivation systems for workforces, assessing their work and comparing results, and motivating them to become more involved in achieving the company’s planned goals. All these are part of sales management.–

Adjustment of the sales structure

The sales structure works like a body which consists of many other departments, like – logistics, inventory, and delivery etc. etc. All are part of sales management. We need to analyze them to function it properly, evaluate their results, draw up plans to improve sales efficiency, and correct mistakes.

Organization of Sales

An effective sales management strategy depends on the availability of everything necessary. The sales department has several important things to organize: stocking enough during the holiday season, forecasting future sales for raw materials, and ensuring sales reps are present in the market.

How to get rid of those challenges?

In the business world, all are well aware that the sales department helps to keep a business operational, but there are many more reasons to be concerned with how they are managed for better output.  Sales challenges can lead to complexity between departments and companies, decrease productivity due to understaffing or overworking existing staff, negatively affect the morale and work ethic of the workforce, resulting in low morale among customers, and cause a decrease in sales.

Automate Your Primary And Secondary Sales With SalesBabu DMS

Primary and secondary sales are both critical pillars for a company’s survival, yet they are often unmanaged in many organizations. Whenever we deal with sales challenges, we are expected to find solutions that reduce the pain. Also, little attention is given to transforming the traditional sales management processes and implementing automation to streamline both sales and distribution channels.—

Primary Sales:

A cloud-based platform is used by the manufacturer’s end to manage primary sales, which is about balancing the movement of goods between dealer and manufacturer. Dealers use this app to send the order to the manufacturer’s end and the respective manufacturer or anyone who is responsible from the company’s end receives the order. 

Then goods are prepared for dispatch and receive cash/ cheque and finally delivers the product to the dealer’s end. SalesBabu DMS make the whole process visible and every cash flow is monitored through it. Our online DMS solution also helps to manage inventory and reduce product departure time. 

Secondary Sales:

A company mainly depends on secondary sales. If there are no secondary sales dealers or distributors will not buy products as a company won’t be able to make primary sales.  So, it will end up with no revenue.

To manage secondary sales, the SalesBabu app monitors all the activities of the field force and helps to integrate with primary sales. SalesBabu tracks things in the following sequence:

1. The sales reps visit the market or retail outlets, give check-in and mark that outlet in the app
2. Along with promotional discounts shows products and details through the app to retailers
3. Makes an invoice with the help of the app after taking an order and sends it to the distributor’s end
4. When payment is done, it is also notified and also shows the dues that are left

Every time, the circle continues whenever a secondary sale is made for every other retail outlet.

Conclusion

The challenges in managing primary and secondary sales can be overcome by using SalesBabu’s online distribution management system. This collects data from manufacturers’ and dealers’ ends and helps to effortlessly manage stocks and updates them in real-time. 

It also collaborates between sales reps and manufacturing companies to enhance their secondary sales efficiency and boost the company its desired revenue. Our cloud-based DMS takes care of your retail sales distribution channel by implementing automation in different sales stages. Therefore, our tool helps to manage your sales operation in every way.

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