If you’re leading a B2B sales team and thinking about new tools, you already know the drill: too many platforms overpromise and underdeliver. You don’t need a magic bullet—you need a system your reps will actually use, that makes their lives easier, not harder. If Apparound is on your shortlist, you’re in the right place. Here’s what to really watch for before you commit.
1. How easy is it for reps to actually use?
The #1 killer of any sales platform is complexity. Fancy features don’t matter if your team finds the system clunky or confusing. Apparound sells itself on being intuitive, but here’s what to look for:
- Onboarding and learning curve: Can a new hire figure out the basics in under an hour? If you need a week of training videos, that’s a red flag.
- Navigation: Are the core tools—quotes, proposals, product info—easy to find? Or are they buried in endless menus?
- Mobile experience: Most field reps live on their phones/tablets. Is the mobile app smooth, or is it a stripped-down afterthought?
- Customization: Can you hide the stuff your team doesn’t use, or are you stuck with every bell and whistle turned on?
Pro tip: Grab a free trial and have your least techy rep kick the tires. If they get lost, so will everyone else.
2. Quote and proposal generation—does it save time or waste it?
The big sales pitch for Apparound is “quote-to-order” efficiency. That’s great, but dig deeper:
- Quote builder: Can reps build and send quotes without needing a cheat sheet? Does the system pull in product info, pricing, and discounts automatically?
- Templates: Are proposal templates flexible, or do you have to call IT every time you change a logo?
- Approvals: How easy is it to set up discount approvals, special terms, or manager sign-offs? Bonus points if you can do this without creating workflow spaghetti.
- Mistake-proofing: Does it flag errors (like expired pricing, or mismatched products), or let mistakes slip through?
What works: The drag-and-drop quote builder is genuinely useful, and bulk editing can save time for teams with lots of line items.
What doesn’t: If your deals are complex (lots of custom terms, bundles, or services), be ready for some fiddly setup to get templates working just right.
3. Content management—will your team actually keep it up to date?
Apparound comes with a built-in content management system (CMS). That sounds great, but in reality, most sales teams ignore the CMS after launch. Here’s the real test:
- Updating brochures, price lists, and docs: Is it as easy as uploading a new PDF, or do you need to reformat everything?
- Version control: Do reps get the latest documents automatically, or do they end up with five versions of the same brochure?
- Offline access: Can reps pull up the latest spec sheet when they’re stuck in a basement without Wi-Fi?
- Content targeting: Can you show different content to different teams (e.g., product lines, regions), or is it one-size-fits-all?
Skip the marketing hype about “rich content experiences.” What matters is: Does it take 2 minutes or 20 to update your sales deck?
4. Integrations—does it play nice with the rest of your stack?
No sales team lives in a vacuum. You probably already have a CRM (Salesforce, Dynamics, HubSpot, etc.), an ERP, and a dozen other tools. Ask:
- Out-of-the-box integrations: Are there plug-and-play connectors, or does every integration need custom work?
- Data sync: Does it push updates back to your CRM, or just pull data in? (You want two-way sync, or you’ll end up with double data entry.)
- APIs: If you’ve got a developer, are the APIs decent, or will you spend months on docs?
- Email and calendar: Can reps send quotes and get reminders right from their Outlook or Gmail, or is it a separate universe?
What works: Apparound has pre-built connectors for big CRMs, but if you use something less common, be prepared to roll up your sleeves.
What doesn’t: “Integration” sometimes just means CSV exports. Check before you believe the sales slide.
5. Product catalog and pricing flexibility
B2B pricing is rarely one-size-fits-all. You need to handle bundles, discounts, region-specific pricing, and maybe some oddball exceptions.
- Catalog management: Can you easily update products, SKUs, and pricing yourself, or do you need vendor support?
- Bundles and configurations: Is it easy to create bundles, cross-sells, or configure-to-order products?
- Discounting: Can you set up rules (e.g., max discount by role), or is it the wild west?
- Currency and localization: If you sell internationally, can it handle multiple currencies and languages, or does it start to creak?
Apparound is solid for basic catalog management. If your pricing is highly complex (think telecom, manufacturing), get a demo focused on your edge cases.
6. Analytics—do the reports actually help you sell?
You want insights, not just dashboards for the sake of dashboards. Here’s what to look for:
- Pipeline visibility: Can you see where deals are stalling and who needs a nudge?
- Quote and proposal tracking: Who’s opening your quotes? Are deals stuck waiting for approval?
- Sales performance: Can you slice data by rep, product, or region without exporting to Excel every time?
- Custom reports: How hard is it to build the report your VP asks for next week?
What works: Apparound’s real-time dashboards are decent out of the box, and managers can get daily digests.
What doesn’t: Don’t expect deep-dive analytics or fancy forecasting—think “helpful summaries,” not “data science.”
7. Support, reliability, and updates
It’s easy to get dazzled by features and forget the basics. Don’t.
- Support response times: How fast do you get a real answer, not just a ticket number?
- Uptime: Is there a public status page? What’s their actual track record, not just “99.9% uptime” promises?
- Mobile and browser compatibility: Does it work on the devices your team actually uses, not just the latest iPad Pro?
- Update frequency: Are improvements regular, or do you have to beg for bug fixes?
Ask for real customer references. If support is slow, your team will quietly stop using the platform.
8. Pricing, contracts, and the “gotchas”
Nobody likes surprises when it comes to contracts.
- Transparent pricing: Are fees clear, or do you get nickel-and-dimed for every extra seat or integration?
- Contract lock-in: Can you start small, or do they want a multi-year deal?
- Implementation fees: Is onboarding included, or a separate line item?
- Exit plan: How easy is it to export your data if things don’t work out?
Don’t be shy about pushing for a pilot or proof-of-concept before you sign on the dotted line.
What to ignore
Every sales platform throws around buzzwords like “AI-driven insights” and “next-gen enablement.” Here’s what you can safely ignore for now:
- AI features: Unless your team has nailed the basics (quotes, follow-ups, content), “AI” mostly means glorified reminders.
- Gamification: If your reps need points and badges to sell, you’ve got bigger problems.
- Overly complex workflows: The more steps you add, the more ways things break. Stick to what your team will actually use.
Bottom line: Keep it simple, test with real reps, and iterate
Apparound has some genuinely useful features, but nothing beats trying it with your actual sales process. Skip the feature bingo. Get hands-on, involve your team, and see what sticks.
If it saves your reps time, helps them sell, and doesn’t create new headaches—you’re on the right track. If not, move on. No tool is magic, and you’ll learn more by testing than by reading sales decks.
Keep it simple, stay skeptical, and don’t be afraid to walk away if it’s not a fit. Your sales team (and your sanity) will thank you.