The Product Catalog page defines your product lines and models, standard, additional and shared features and options.

Overview
The SalesPro Product Catalog is very much like a paper catalog... it stores all of your product information, with options and features, pictures of each product and of course, all prices. UNLIKE a paper catalog, the Product Catalog in SalesPro guarantees data and pricing integrity when it comes to writing quotes because it's completely integrated into the Sales Department.

When a product is selected on a sales order, the exact product information and pricing is copied from the Product Catalog to populate the order. This integration guarantees that sales staff cannot select options or features that do not belong to any product. It also guarantees that an order exactly matches the catalog, which makes it much easier for customers to read and understand.

Sales Styles
SalesPro supports two styles for selling your products: A basic 'Off-the-Shelf' style which is best if your products can be sold in any combination or quantity, like picking items off of a store shelf. It also means that each product is complete in and of itself; there is no need to define separate options (standard or otherwise) to sell the product. Think of it like you are picking out furniture... once a table is built, you can't swap out the style of the table legs... the table is what it is. This database is using the 'off-the-shelf' style.

The 'Options & Features' style stores exact details about your products and should be used if you'll be quoting and selling only ONE product on each sales order. It also means your products have standard options that are included in the base price, but you also offer additional options which may increase or decrease the price of the product. This style not only lets you describe the general product, but then defines the standard options which make up the base product model. Think of this style like someone who sells new cars; you get a quote from the sales person with a "final price" with the standard options listed. But if you'd like to swap out the basic radio & CD player for a high-tech one, it'll cost you x number of dollars more.

Standard options do not have additional prices; they're considered more of a description of the overall basic model. However if an option has an upgrade available for it, there will most likely be a cost associated to the upgrade. Those upgrades (or downgrades) are added on the 'Additional Options' tab, and they MAY have a different price associated to them, or they may not if there are simply multiple choices on a standard option.

If additional options are available for every model in the product line, you can enter them on the "Shared Options" tab, which means you only have to add each one once, but all models in this product line can use them.

For more information on setting up the Sales Style, see the Administration/Sales Styles topic.
 

Product Sheets & Catalogs
So, how many times have printed a complete catalog, then found you needed to make a price or description change, effectively making your stack of newly printed catalogs obsolete? With SalesPro, you may never print your product catalog again! Using the SalesPro Report Designer, you can setup product sheets and catalog designs that will display your product data exactly the way you want it. All reports in SalesPro can be saved in .PDF format, which means you can simply email product information to your customers and also post on your website as downloads.

Gathering Your Product Information

The most important task in setting up the Product information is getting organized.  If you already have a paper catalog (or digital), you can use that to gather the information or at least as a starting point.  The recommended steps for gathering data are:

1. Define your Product Lines - Make a list of all Product lines and try to be consistent in how you name them so that your finished Product Catalog looks professional.  The sample database displays three Product lines:  Service Carts, Tilt Carts, and Wire Carts.  Note that each word starts with a capital letter and there are no abbreviations. Try to keep the wording consistent and meaningful as well.  Note the Product Lead Time for each Product Line, as you'll be prompted to add a Product Lead Time each time you add a new Product Line.  Click here to learn more about Product Lead Times.

2. For each Product Line, make a list of Product Names - The Product Names need to be unique within each Product Line.  They can include a unique Model number and name, or whatever it takes to make the Name recognizable when selecting it from the Product Name drop-down list on the Orders (or Order Items if you're using the off-the-shelf style). You can also decide on the 'Base Model Description', which is how the 'Base Model' (first) line item is displayed on an Order when using the Options & Features style and which is used as the Item Description drop-down list with the off-the-shelf style.  Create a descriptive Catalog Description and a Price for each product as well, which is all of the information you need for entering each Product.

3. Gather Product Images - You can have up to 6 images with each product, but you might find it's easier to start out with 1 or 2 and then add more if you decide to print product catalogs with more graphics.  Keep the image size consistent so that the quality of the images are the same when printed, but don't use digital images in the original size from a camera as they tend to be very large and will greatly increase the size of your database, not to mention your replication packages.  A recommended maximum size is no larger than 400 x 600 pixels; smaller sizes will be even more efficient.

4. Options & Features Style Only - For each product, list the Standard Options, which are the options that are included in the Catalog Price, and that may or may not have alternative options (at a higher or lower price) available for them.  The Standard Options will go into the Standard Options tab for each Product, and the Additional Options will be entered into the Additional Options tab.  As you gather Additional Options, make note of which are available for every product in the Product Line; they should be entered in the Shared Options tab, where they'll only have to be entered once but are available to all products in that Product Line.  Decide on how to group the options, which is what's in the Product Feature field. It'll be easier for users to find options if the Feature list is distinct enough to be descriptive, but not so detailed that it creates too many entries to search through in the drop-down lists.

While gathering all of this information can take a lot of time, it's easier to enter the data when all of the information is in front of you.  You also may find it's easier to enter all of the Products first, without the Standard, Additional and Shared Options, then go back and review if your Product Lines make sense and are what you want before entering all of the Options & Features.

Updating Prices

From time to time you may find you need to adjust all of your Product Catalog prices in order to meet industry rates or adjust for economy changes.  Of course you can go through all of your Product Catalog records AND the associated items and adjust each amount manually, or you (as System Administrator) can use the utility on the Price Adjustment tab on the Product Catalog to automate your changes.  Please note that this utility adjusts all prices by the same rate; however, since you can choose to run the utility against selected Product Lines, you can run it more than once to adjust a Product Line independently of the others.

Click the "Change Product Catalog Prices" button to open a dialog where you can decide HOW to adjust all prices.

Enter or choose the following:

• Enter Adjustment Rate - Enter the rate for adjusting the prices.  For example, if you want to raise your pricing by 10%, enter 1.10.  To lower your prices by 5%, enter .95.

• Update ALL Product Lines - Leave this checked to alter prices across all Product Lines, or uncheck it and choose only the Product Lines you want to adjust.

• Update Product Catalog / Catalog Price - Check this to have the utility alter the "Catalog Price" field on the Product Catalog records.

• Update Product Catalog / Alternate Prices - Check to this have the utility alter any "Alternate Price" fields on the Alternate Pricing tab.  If you don't use Alternate Pricing, you can uncheck this option.

• Update Product Items - Check this option to have all of the Product Items updated with the Adjustment Rate.  NOTE:  This option is NOT available if your database is set to use the "Off-the-shelf" Product Catalog Style, as there are no Product Items with that configuration.

Click OK to start the utility; if you've chosen to alter Product Items, you'll be prompted to continue at that point.  A dialog will tell you when the utility is finished.  Click the Utilities, Reload Data option on the Product Catalog toolbar to refresh the data so you can see the changes.

This utility can be used at any time to adjust prices up or down, and does not affect any Quotes or Orders already in the system.  Please be aware that if you have remote users, however, that adjusting the part or all of the Product Catalog will result in larger replication packages as all data will be marked as "changed".