Most safety distributors know their top customers by name. Fewer know, at any given moment, which of those customers are buying more than last year, which are quietly buying less, and which are buying gloves from you but hearing protection and fall protection from someone else. That's the information that drives growth, and the app puts it on one screen.
The exec dashboard
The exec dashboard shows sales, margin, cash, receivables and pace on one screen. Rep pace to goal shows each rep's month against goal, and company goal shows the company month, year to date and year at this pace. For an owner or GM, it's the quick morning check that tells you whether the month is on track, and whether to worry about margin or receivables before they become problems.
Every Monday, the weekly rep review email sends each rep their own accounts and the GM desk gets everyone, so the whole team starts the week looking at the same numbers.
Top accounts up and down
Top accounts up and down shows the top ten accounts buying more than last year, and the top ten buying less. In safety, both lists tell a story. An account buying more may have added a shift, landed a big contract or started a new safety initiative. That's the time to propose a crib program or a fall protection inspection service. An account buying less may have cut staff or shifted PPE spend to a competitor. Either way, a conversation is due.
Category gaps
Category gaps shows the categories each customer buys from you and the ones they buy elsewhere. This may be the most useful report a safety distributor can have, because PPE programs are broad and customers often split them up. A typical plant might buy:
- Gloves and eye protection from you,
- Hearing protection from a national catalog,
- Fall protection from a specialist,
- First aid from a van service,
- Gas detection from the manufacturer directly.
Every one of those is a growth opportunity at an account where you already have the relationship. Category gaps tells the rep exactly which conversation to have next.
Reports customers see
Customers get their own reports in the app: spend, usage and category reports. For a safety manager, those reports are gold. They show which departments use the most PPE, where consumption is rising, and how spending tracks against budget. Many safety managers spend hours building this kind of report by hand for their own management meetings.
When you bring those reports to an account review, you aren't just a vendor reviewing a price sheet. You're helping the safety manager understand their program. You can point to a department where glove consumption jumped and suggest a more durable style, or show how standardizing safety glasses cut the number of SKUs they buy.
A strong safety account review takes about an hour and covers four things: what they spent and how it's trending, how usage compares by department or site, which categories they still buy elsewhere, and what you'd suggest to lower their total PPE cost. Every one of those is backed by the app's reports. The customer leaves with a clearer picture of their own program, and you leave with a list of next steps to grow the account.
Ready to walk through it with your accounts in mind? Book a demo.