We spoke with the CMO of Catalog Player, Xavier Solà, about the new product launched by Catalog Player to continue boosting your sales. He tells us the ins and outs of CP WhatsApp Sales, a tool that connects your ERP with the world's most widely used instant messaging app.
How did the idea of creating this new product called CP WhatsApp Sales come about?
The truth is that WhatsApp Sales it stems from a need that we had discussed a great deal with our clients. Regardless of the different means and channels they enable for receiving orders and sharing information, the reality is that their clients use the means they are most comfortable with or find it easiest to communicate with the company or its sales reps.
In this regard, WhatsApp has long been present in the day-to-day communications between the company and its clients, but the volume of transactions has not stopped growing. The smart thing, therefore, is not to deny reality and to adapt in order to make the most of the situation.
The result of all this is the launch of Whatsapp Sales, a tool that allows companies to work with this app to engage with their clients, without losing the rigour and professionalism that operations require and while remaining scalable, by automating a good part of the processes, including order receipt.
What type of client is already using WhatsApp Sales and what benefits do they receive?
The sectors that have most noticed the rise in the use of WhatsApp in their day-to-day operations have mainly been those in which the person dealing with the company rarely has computer equipment at their workstation beyond a mobile phone, or where the equipment they have is designed for specific processes at the establishment (checkout and payment, etc.). Therefore, they tend to be sectors in the HORECA channel or sectors in which the clients are retail establishments (fashion, accessories, parapharmacy, food, etc.).
Podcasts main benefits lie in the standardisation of a channel that exists in itself and that, no matter how many tools you propose, will not cease to exist. Standardising and normalising the use of WhatsApp in the company as just another means is the most coherent stance in such a situation and increases client satisfaction by not putting obstacles or tedious processes in their way, as well as the acquisition of new clients who are precisely looking for agility and simplicity in their suppliers.
On the other hand, sales resources are freed up since unassisted selling increases and, therefore, the sales rep can devote more time to value-added tasks such as acquiring new clients or making valuable visits to existing clients. With this, we move from the figure of an order-taking sales rep to a sales advisor who develops business and builds client loyalty.
Can you tell us about a specific success story?
For example, we have some success stories in the fresh food sector (fish, meat, fruit…), where it is very important to have highly agile communication with clients. Prices change from one day to the next, even within the same day, and keeping information windows open is proving to be a great competitive advantage for them. Moreover, with processes embedded in tools as easy to use as WhatsApp. Who doesn't know how to use WhatsApp? An extranet, an e-commerce site, email … are solutions that can be more tedious and less agile than WhatsApp. The only alternative to WhatsApp in terms of agility is the Call Centre, but it is much more costly and does not resolve the same situations and needs.
The result in all cases has been an increase in turnover and a decrease in administrative processes, errors and returns, since these were carried out manually when they arrived via WhatsApp anyway, but without integrating processes and systems, which is no longer the case for them now.
It seems that the WhatsApp Sales product has generated a great deal of interest among your clients. Is it a product exclusively for clients who use the Catalog Player platform?
We have realised that the need is so evident and so cross-cutting that we have decided that it will not be mandatory to contract CatalogPlayer in order to implement it. Naturally, those clients who have CatalogPlayer will enjoy the advantages of both systems fully integrated, but if a company wishes only the WhatsApp Sales system, it can contract it separately without any problem and at a very competitive cost, incidentally.
