 |
 Has advance or presell salespersons who call on customers. They obtain customer orders, for delivery in the next 24 to 48 hours. This is most common for Soft Drink bottlers. It is known a Presell or Advanced Sales. Salespersons may key their orders into Hand Held computer systems, or write the orders on order sheets. Hand held orders, are transmitted to the central computer system at the office. Companies will also have sales persons who call on customers by telephone. This allows a sales person to contact many more customers, than by face to face calls. This method is used in all verticals. For the Bottled Water and Dairy industries, the bulk of sales are done in this way. This method is commonly called Tel. Sell. The companies sell a relatively small number of products. Soft Drink companies sell 250 to 700 products. Dairy and Beer companies generally have around 300 products. Bottled Water companies normally have less than 100 products. Pricing of the products can be very complex. The more competitive the market, the more complex the pricing. There may be deep discounting to promote high volume sales. Discounts may be tied to in store displays, larger shelf space, or running advertisements. Institutional sales may be based on bids, with fixed prices over a period of time. Dairies often structure pricing which can be adjusted each month based on the cost of raw milk. Taxes and deposits can complicate the calculation of invoices. Products can be subject to sales taxes, container taxes, excise taxes and value added taxes. Products which have returnable containers may carry a deposit, which is charged when the product is sold, and credited when the container is returned. The Garman system has been designed to handle all of these nuances. During the night shift, the route trucks are loaded with product to deliver the customer orders the next day. A dispatcher organizes the orders into truck loads. He must ensure that each truck has sufficient product to fill the orders, and that the driver will have enough time in the day to make each stop. He must also keep in mind other factors, such as driving time, specific customer delivery times, etc. Invoices, load sheets, and other reports are printed for the next day’s deliveries by the computer. | Back to Top |
Garman Routing Systems, Inc. |