Lending Items to Customers and Propsects

Do you offer customers trial use of a product you sell?   Do you need to retrieve that product from them at some point after their trial usage?   If so, Lend Items is for you.

Some common examples of lend items include:

  • Demo furniture
  • Expensive tools
  • Test equipment
  • Demo SBCs or printed circuit board assemblies
  • Sample cases that need to trade from sales rep to sales rep
  • Show room displays

Additionally, you can use the Lend Items module to track company assets, such as computers issued to employees.

Lend Items Webinar (August 2022)

Creating a Lend Item on the web portal

1. Navigate to the “Lend Items” screen from the Hamburger menu under “More CRM”.

2. Click the “New” button and fill out the initial form.  Field descriptions are below: 

Key fields include:

  • Manufacturer / Product line
  • Part number
  • Item name – how you refer to this particular item in your company
  • Serial number – a unique identifier so you can find this specific item in the future so it is not confused with another copy of the same model
  • Watchers – other people on your team that will be interested in the movements of the part
  • Notes – an area to describe the part in more detail

3. Attach images of the Lend Item after saving the detailed form above by selecting the empty picture icon and loading pictures of the lend item.

 

Issuing and retrieving the Lend Item on the web portal

1.  Click on the “transfer item” icon next to the picture.

2. Complete the transfer form.   Important fields: 

Transfer Type:  Transfer Type follows a sequence:

“Issued to Sales Rep” – when the sales rep has the item in his or her possession (like in the trunk!) prior to leaving it with a customer/prospect.  

“Delivered” – when the sales rep has put the item in possession of the customer/prospect.   Upon retrieval of the item from the customer, the transfer type changes to 

“Received by Sales Rep” – when the sales person takes back the product into his/her possession (like in the trunk!) and 

“Returned back (to my company)”

Follow up Date

This is the date that a follow up reminder will be sent in morning emails and on the follow up dashboard reminders.

Company and Contact

This is the company and contact at that company you’ve issued the item to.  

Location

The approximate location of where the customer has placed the product so that you can find it if the contact is not available when you return to retrieve it.

Item History

To see where an item has been previously issued, such as to a sales person or a customer/prospect, you can use the history button to see where the item has been.  You will see a running list of transfers to various customers and sales people.

Transferring Lend Items with the Mobile App

Currently you cannot create lend items on the mobile (something we are working on), however you can take pictures of the item and transfer it between sales reps and customers/prospects.

  1.  From the mobile “Hamburger Menu”, select “Lend Items”
  2. To transfer to and from sales reps and customers/prospects, select the left-most button next to the item you want to transfer.
Please note that the transfer process will suggest your next tranfer type move, so in most cases you just need to select your item, and click the save button.
Green icon is the selection to Issue the item to a sales rep or customer/prospect.
Blue icon indicates it is in transit and in possession of the sales rep.
Red icon indicates you want to transfer the item back to you (the rep) or your company.

 

Here is an example of the product from being in transit (Current Status) to being delivered to the customer “Rieke” by the sales rep.   


Here is an example of retrieving the product from the customer “Reike” and back into the company’s possession.
 

Adding Pictures of Lend Items from Mobile

A very fast, handy feature of Lend Items on the mobile is the ability to add pictures of the item from your phone.  

1. Click on the empty icon in list view, take your picture(s), and those images will be saved.