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Handshake is a registered product of Handshake Corp.
Handshake logo
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Handshake is a registered product of Handshake Corp.
Handshake Customer list
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Handshake is a registered product of Handshake Corp.
Handshake Catalog
So I recently came across this product “Handshake1" and I am impressed by what I have seen. They advertise “never write another order by hand” and I can see why. Everything you need is on your iPad to write an order and send it to your office as well as your customer. Customer information, sales history, catalog (item list) and a variety of reports are all easily available. You can even use this App when you are ‘offline’ without access to the internet. The App also supports barcode scanning so you can quickly add items to an order or reference inventory in the warehouse.
Handshake makes it easy to showcase your items by using the product database to create a high-definition catalog complete with multiple view options. This App tracks your quantities and fulfillment times. But this is more than just an ‘order’ App, it is also your customer intelligence manager containing your entire customer list and other names searchable by any number of criteria such as zip code, shipping address or ID. (Figure 2) You can easily review the order history for your own customers. Yes this product allows you to trim customer lists to just the specific customers for a given territory, representative or other criteria. Keep your Sales Reps’ noses out of their fellow Reps customer information; there is no customer stealing with this App.
Because Handshake is tracking a variety of metrics you can view critical performance measures from right inside the App. See total sales, average order quantities and values, and sales by customer, territory or sales rep.
If you are in retail or wholesale, a current product catalog containing the basic information about your items is critical to your sales success, but a cutting edge catalog with high resolution images, multiple views and details on each product including inventory and availability dates can turn a possible sale into a sure thing. (Figure 3) You can further refine this catalog by creating meaningful groups to facilitate browsing or companion sales. Of course the sale doesn’t end with the selling process; you have to always ‘do the paperwork.’
But with Handshake the ‘paperwork’ is as simple as the App itself, because the paperwork is your electronic order which you start by pulling up a customer from the customer list. Then browse your items in the product catalog, search or scan the barcode of an item, whatever works best for that order. Once you have the basics of the order in place you can apply discounts, set-up special conditions, establish or change the shipping information, collect payment data and even add a relevant photo to the order. Once you are finished you can transmit the order to your customer and sync the data back to the home office for processing and accounting purposes.
So about now you are asking, does this great sounding App work with my accounting system like QuickBooks? Handshake and QuickBooks can be integrated without any special coding. You can sync new customers you create in your Handshake App to QuickBooks. At the same time customer updates in QuickBooks will update your Handshake customer profiles. You can create your Handshake product catalog from your QuickBooks items, and then bolster those items with other critical information and graphics within Handshake to turn your item list into a full feature catalog. When you create orders with the Handshake App you can sync those order to QuickBooks automatically. Even if you are working without benefit of the internet, your Handshake orders will update QuickBooks the next time you have internet service available. But Handshake integrates with more than just QuickBooks; you can link it to Sage, Xero Salesforce and several other products. In addition Handshake offers an open, transparent API if you want to custom program special connectivity.
There are all kinds of ‘cool’ features that work inside of Handshake depending on your subscription level. For example you can create complex pricing schemes based upon customers, quantities, and specials or discounts. You can also configure product variants with their own SKU and prices. It’s even possible to manage inventory with Handshake and sell ‘down to zero’ without ‘selling negative’. There are way too many options to discuss them all within the confines of this short article, you will just have to explore the App for yourself.
Handshake offers three different levels of subscription service, each offering a variety of options and pricing considerations based upon needs and numbers of users; you should be able to find the subscription that works best for you. But you can also give Handshake a try for 15 days free.
So the next time you are at a customer’s place of business and find yourself pulling out the old ‘order forms’, or jotting down an order on a memo pad, just think how slick you would look pulling out your iPad and preparing an order in seconds that is sent to the customer for immediate confirmation. Think of how much time you will save not having to call into the office to find out the quantity of a specific product on-hand for delivery, or when a particular item could be delivered. And that doesn’t even deal with the struggles of the back office trying to read your horrific handwriting as they attempt to interpret your scribbled order written on that soiled napkin.
The future of order writing has arrived; you can leave your customer with a professional order, confirmed delivery dates, and accurate pricing, and close that order with a Handshake.
1 - Handshake is a registered product of Handshake Corp. 627 Broadway, Lvl 9; New York, NY 10012