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Product News & Updates

Simplify How B2B Sales Reps Respond to Quotes and Orders

June 23, 2016 | msarandi

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The B2B eCommerce use cases we are solving with OroCommerce

The Oro team identifies 3 main B2B eCommerce use cases:

  1. Self-served. A buyer visits B2B eCommerce sites, such as Amazon Business or Costco, and purchases items without any interaction with a sale representative.
  2. Buyer-Seller interaction. This is the widely used use case where the buyer and seller negotiate via request for quotes, orders and proposals.
  3. Market place

For the near future, OroCommerce looks to solve the first 2 use cases. This current blog, along with the blog published a few weeks ago titled Create a Shopping List, Request Quotes and Submit Orders, focuses on the use case of the buyer-seller interaction . This is one of the most important use cases where a seller enables his buyers the ability to negotiate based on price quantities. This is an intricate and complex use case which B2B eCommerce platforms must support with well-designed and robust capabilities. Otherwise, the buyer and the seller will have to adjust their normal processes due to limitations in the software, a challenge that no business wants to experience. Since OroCommerce is built from the ground up as a B2B eCommerce platform, this essential use case is designed to answer the buyer and seller needs right out of the box.

In the blog Create a Shopping List, Request Quotes and Submit Orders, we discussed one side of the buyer-sales rep interaction – how a buyer can start the interaction (negotiation) by submitting an order or request for quote.  This blog will discuss the other side of the interaction demonstrating how a sales rep can respond to a buyer’s request for a quote or order.

Responding to Request for a Quote

A sales rep can view all the quotes submitted by his assigned buyers by clicking on the “Quotes” sub menu under the Sales menu. In this screen, the sales rep can view all the information about the quotes including owners, date created, PO number, etc. The rep can easily start responding by clicking on a quote request. In this example, quote request #13 is submitted by one of his buyers, Marlene Bradley. Clicking on the quote will navigate the sales rep to the quote details page where he can view all the products requested, their quantities, requested price, etc. To view more details and respond, the sales person should click on the “edit” button on the upper left.

Simplify How B2B Sales Reps Respond to Quotes and Orders
On the following page, the sales rep can see quantities per order, the related price submitted by his buyer and additional information such as shipping date requirements, customer notes, etc. Now the sales rep can create a proposal and respond to each line item in the quote request. He can change the quantity per the offered prices, set conditions (i.e. offering the price per unit for an order with a minimum quantity), and adjust the price per unit by selecting on the list icon located between the “Unit” and the “Price” fields. The sales rep can offer various price lists/product prices depending on the customer, order quantity, or personal discretion (limited by his role and access level). The sales rep can also delete items, offer additional products, and add product/services that are not included in the catalog such as the cost of assembly, etc. Once he completes this section, the sales rep can then proceed to enter shipping information and notify the customer that his proposal is ready.

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Responding to an Order

The sales rep can find all the order information under Sales – Orders. This page includes all the orders submitted by a buyer and assigned to the sales rep. Selecting an order (for example,  FR1012402) will reveal more information about the order. Like responding to request for a quote, the sales rep will have to click on the “edit” button to respond.  The next page will show the order details like product quantities, taxes, processes, and a table that allows the sales rep to modify/update the order. Changing the order is done in the same manner as it was explained above. After this step is done, the sales rep can proceed by adding billing and shipping information in addition to estimate shipping costs on orders assigned to him and assign any type of discount he wishes. Once the sales rep completes the response, he can notify his buyer to let him know that the order is ready.

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Conclusion

The buyer seller interaction/negotiation is one of the 3 main B2B eCommerce use cases. This complex, multi-phased business process business should be carried out in the most efficient manner enabling representatives on both the buyer and seller sides to proceed with the activities and negotiations based on their assigned roles and responsibilities. As you can see, the Oro team designed a process that is robust but can still be customized and optimized to each customer needs. If you are a B2B eCommerce business where the buyer seller interaction/negotiation is cardinal to your business, you must look at OroCommerce as the eCommerce platform for you.

You can test these features as well as the rest of OroCommerce by logging into our demo. We are always eager to get your feedback, so please either comment on this blog or send us a question or comment via our forum.

Thank you!

The Oro Team

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