Plato in VTH Magazine - Intelligent and Automatic: Optimizing Sales with AI

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Many thanks to the VTH for the opportunity to present the potential of AI in technical wholesale and for the publication in the trade magazine Technischer Handel (issue 09/2024)

The VTH represents the interests of technical distributors in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. With around 230 members and over 400 sales outlets, the VTH promotes the exchange between trade and industry in order to ensure the competitiveness of the sector and implement innovative solutions. As part of the presentation at the VTH annual conference, we had the opportunity to highlight specific use cases of AI in technical retail and discuss the challenges and opportunities of digitalization. The VTH offers a platform for its members to exchange ideas about technologies such as AI and thus ensure the future viability of the industry. We would like to thank you for the opportunity to be part of this exciting discussion and are pleased to share an overview of the article here for other wholesalers.

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Key Findings of the Article:

1. AI-based Sales Intelligence: Companies can leverage decades of collected data and make faster data-based decisions about cross-selling or churn. This improves customer loyalty and increases sales.
2. Mobile ERP Access: Seamless ERP integration saves up to five hours per week per employee. The mobile sales app enables efficient access to the ERP from anywhere in a holistic application.
3. Industry-Specific Sales App: Wholesalers need product recommendations combined with adapted CRM functions to manage their sales and communicate effectively between internal and external sales. 

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Introduction: Plato as a Pioneer for AI Adoption in Wholesale

Miguel Cabrera, Head of Data Science & AI at Plato and former Chief Data Scientist at Shopify Germany, emphasizes that many wholesalers have concerns about their data quality when using AI, which is unfounded. The key to successful AI adoption often lies in the well-structured order history in the ERP, which almost every retailer has. 

Plato takes over data cleansing as a digital service here: The software searches ERP systems, segments customers and products using predictive and generative AI and expands sales, customer and product data with external data if required. Article masters are also structured using generative AI to enable complex analyses such as accessory or alternative product suggestions later on. Plato extends the existing ERP system with industry-specific AI software for wholesale distribution. As shown in the illustration, the employee can then work in a holistic AI software.

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AI-based Sales Intelligence

Optimizing customer care in sales through the use of AI-based churn alerts and cross-sell recommendations offers technical wholesalers decisive advantages. Sales employees can target customers who are experiencing a decline in sales in certain product groups, such as fastening technology, and who are often difficult to identify due to the large number of customers and products. This data-driven approach makes it possible to identify potential customer churn at an early stage and take targeted measures to improve service quality. 

Sales employees also benefit from personalized, AI-generated up- and cross-selling recommendations that help them to identify important customer conversations and optimize support. By combining machine learning and generative AI, Plato creates text-based recommendations that support sales staff with cross-selling opportunities. This not only increases sales, but also stores the expertise of long-standing employees in the AI and passes it on to new employees, which shortens the training period and strengthens the company as a whole.

Another example is the segmentation of customers using AI based on historical sales and customer data. This not only enables sales teams to identify potential growth opportunities, but also to respond to changes in purchasing behavior and make personalized offers.

Such data-driven approaches, like the detection of anomalies in sales or the identification of cross-selling opportunities, mean that even B and C customers receive the same level of support as A customers. Automation through AI saves time and increases sales, as sales works more efficiently and all relevant customers are optimally supported. 

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Mobile ERP Access

Cloud-based quotation and order creation enables sales employees to access the ERP from any location in an intuitive app and make sales processes more efficient through automation. With the help of generative AI, quotations and orders can be created automatically and automatically transferred to the ERP. This close connection between cloud technology and ERP systems saves up to 5 hours per week per sales employee, as time-consuming tasks such as product searches and quotation creation are significantly accelerated.

ERP data utilization is a central component of this increase in efficiency. AI uses internal ERP data and enriches it with external information to generate deeper insights. This optimized data enables sales to conduct more precise and personalized customer interactions. For example, AI can automatically generate product recommendations based on previous shopping baskets, making the ordering process much easier.

By integrating eShop data, product images and texts into the product search, customer inquiries can be processed faster and more precisely. The AI also takes on tasks such as data cleansing and data enrichment to ensure that the ERP data is fully usable and to provide sales with additional information.

The biggest advantage lies in the seamless integration of these technologies into everyday working life. Employees use the intuitive functions of the software more often than conventional ERP interfaces, as the AI automatically makes suggestions and simplifies processes. This leads to greater acceptance and direct added value for the entire sales team.

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Industry-Specific Sales App

The use of AI-based CRM systems specifically for wholesale offers numerous advantages over conventional CRM solutions, which often originate from other sectors such as plant engineering or the software industry. Technical wholesalers are often faced with the challenge of working with an extensive product range and a high number of quotations and orders, which quickly pushes traditional CRM systems to their limits. 

A key feature of Plato's software is the combination of conventional CRM functionalities and AI-supported recommendations. This provides sales employees with targeted suggestions for action, enabling them to approach customers in a more efficient and personalized manner. This saves time and optimizes the sales process, as employees spend less time searching for information and instead receive directly actionable recommendations.

Plato's AI-supported sales app proactively sets up B2B sales and improves collaboration between back office and field sales. The back office receives automated suggestions for the “next best action” and can quickly create offers and emails and integrate them into the ERP system. This saves time and makes it possible to respond proactively to customers. External sales uses AI analyses to prioritize customers with high sales potential and carry out targeted visits. This data-based strategy increases efficiency and customer loyalty by enabling both teams to work together optimally.

These systems also offer advantages for sales management, as they provide a better overview of the sales team's activities. Tasks can be delegated efficiently and linking AI recommendations to specific tasks ensures that no sales opportunities are missed. AI also supports sales management by suggesting how to manage individual employees so that the workload is evenly distributed and each employee is optimally supported.

Finally, AI-based CRM solutions enable flexible integration into existing systems. This flexibility allows companies to customize the software to their individual needs and effectively support both small and large sales departments. Through modular expansion, companies can gradually expand Plato and adapt it to their specific requirements without replacing their existing system landscape. Overall, Plato's AI-based wholesale sales app offers a comprehensive solution including CRM functionalities to make sales more efficient, serve customers more proactively and maximize the potential of sales teams.

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Conclusion: AI Must be Closely Integrated into the Work Process and ERP

The use of AI in technical wholesale offers enormous potential for increasing efficiency and customer loyalty. Wholesale is at a turning point - similar to how Shopify and Amazon revolutionized their industries in the 2000s, wholesale companies have the opportunity to completely redesign their sales. With AI and digital technology, wholesale is being led into a new era of excellence. Companies now have the chance to secure competitive advantages in this area and actively shape the future of retail. The course has been set for transformative change. The examples presented here illustrate how sales processes can be optimized and the competitiveness of technical retailers secured. You can find a more in-depth analysis of this situation in the trade magazine Technischer Handel (issue 09/2024). 

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Contact us at benedikt.nolte@platoapp.ai to get access to the article and discuss your individual situation regarding AI adoption.

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