Customer relationship management (CRM) software is essential in today’s distribution sales landscape — but most solutions on the market weren’t designed for the distribution business model. There’s a growing demand for distribution CRM software that integrates with ERP systems without extensive customization.
As distributors adapt to changing dynamics, distribution CRM software has evolved to become much more than a tool for logging activity and tracking sales performance.
As distributors adapt to changing dynamics, distribution CRM software has evolved to become much more than a tool for logging activity and tracking sales performance. A robust, user-friendly CRM platform enables businesses to document and analyze interactions across both digital and traditional channels, offering valuable insights for strategic decision-making and customer engagement. This approach empowers sales teams to be more efficient and focused, aligning their efforts with customer expectations and emerging market trends.
In this CRM for distributors buyer’s guide, we’ll discuss the key benefits of CRM software, the most important factors distributors should consider when evaluating solutions, how to improve user adoption, and how to maximize the impact of your CRM with battle-tested sales workflows.
When CRM software works well, it has significant impact across your organization and a ripple effect that extends to your customers and vendors.
CRM software offers comprehensive customer scorecards, tracking individual customer interactions, preferences, and transaction history. This allows businesses to anticipate customer needs more effectively, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction and retention.
Automated workflows in CRM systems streamline the sales process. These systems can follow up with prospects, send reminders for pending actions, and manage communications, significantly reducing the time taken to close deals and improving overall sales efficiency.
CRM tools facilitate the sharing and analysis of customer data across departments. This collaboration enables more effective marketing campaigns, targeted lead generation, and improved customer support, all driven by shared insights and data.
When paired with a comprehensive business intelligence solution, CRM software provides valuable insights into product performance and customer preferences. This information can be leveraged to improve interactions with vendors and suppliers, ensuring better product availability and more effective supply chain management.
With access to business intelligence, CRM systems analyze historical data, inventory trends and customer online behaviors. This analysis helps target potential new markets, refine product offerings, and tailor marketing strategies to take advantage of emerging opportunities.
By analyzing sales data and customer feedback, CRM systems help optimize product offerings and pricing strategies. This leads to more targeted sales efforts, increased efficiency, and stronger profit margins.
CRM software offers real-time data analysis, providing a clear view of both the sales pipeline. Leading solutions are also using AI and historical data to facilitate more accurate sales forecasting, helping businesses plan more effectively and adapt quickly to market changes.
CRM systems include tools for monitoring and managing sales performance, such as scorecards and KPI tracking. This helps in setting clear goals for sales teams, tracking progress, and identifying areas for improvement.
These benefits contribute to an efficient, customer-centric, data-driven business environment, empowering organizations to stay competitive and responsive in a dynamic market landscape.
While most companies rely on enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to manage critical functions, these are primarily designed for internal operations.
They are ideal for managing finance, HR, inventory, purchasing and other processes, but they aren’t built to support sales, marketing and customer support — especially in a complex distribution business model. Many ERP systems include basic CRM functions like contact management and email services, but they lack the depth and sophistication of dedicated CRM solutions. They may not enable remote access for a sales team on the road or connect to other departments, leaving your company with a limited view of the customer journey.
They also are not designed to be business intelligence solutions. While ERP systems gather a wealth of data, most distributors need additional BI tools to consolidate information into reports and actionable insights. They may even need to hire a data analyst or a consultant to prepare a report each time they need to analyze product trends, evaluate pricing, or forecast sales for the upcoming quarter.
In a sales landscape marked by growing consolidation of distribution giants and increasingly competitive pricing, the integration between an ERP, CRM, and business intelligence is critical. Modern CRM solutions equipped with BI capabilities enable distributors to forecast product and category demand more accurately. This precise forecasting is crucial for effective communication and collaboration with suppliers. It allows distributors to set realistic expectations and helps suppliers understand anticipated demand patterns.
Without a deeply integrated CRM and BI solution, distributors risk basing their forecasts on outdated or incomplete data, such as the previous year’s sales figures. This approach fails to account for variables such as the shifting nature of customer demand or any active deals in the pipeline. An integrated system ensures that forecasting is not only based on historical data but also incorporates real-time insights from ongoing customer interactions and market trends.
The unfortunate reality is that as mission-critical as a CRM is for distributors, research from consulting groups over the past two decades shows between 30-70% of all CRM implementations fail.
There are many factors contributing to CRM failures, but some of the most common culprits are higher than expected costs, low user adoption, and lack of integration with existing systems.
In an industry where ERP systems are central to business operations, the importance of integration can’t be overstated.
Distribution CRM software has evolved considerably beyond ERP add-on tools, but most modern solutions are designed to meet the needs of a range of industries. They weren’t designed for distribution sales operations, and they don’t integrate with ERP systems without extensive customization.
This makes them extremely expensive and time-consuming to implement — a cost most companies don’t anticipate until it’s too late. In addition to the upfront costs, which can be tens of thousands of dollars, these custom integrations can add months to the original implementation timeline. There’s also no guarantee this patchwork of custom integration will work as intended.
Distributors also need to invest time into training their teams to use solutions that can be overly complex, navigating through many features and functions they don’t need. They’ll spend considerable time building workflows that work for their business model, which all adds to the time it takes to see the return on their investment in the software.
The frustration of using a solution that wasn’t built for them may be enough to push sales reps back to old familiar tools and bad habits. Traditional CRM solutions often has limitations on the number of users who can access it, so companies restrict it to their outside sales team.
With the impact of CRM software extending across your organization and affecting both sales and long-term business growth, it’s a choice that deserves careful consideration.
Callico Distributors is a family-owned, third-generation wholesale distribution company providing janitorial, food service, office supply and packaging supplies to resellers throughout New England. With a large number of products and significant warehouse space, Callico helps other distributors serve an array of customers without high shipping and storage costs.
Before implementing White Cup CRM and BI, the company had to hire data analysts to produce meaningful reports from its ERP system, which was expensive and time-consuming.
“We didn’t have any insight into purchasing behavior, and we couldn’t report on accounts receivable or accounts payable. We didn’t have any executive reports. We were just blind in a lot of ways.”
Since implementing White Cup BI, the company has increased profitability using data to make more strategic, growth-driven decisions. It also uses White Cup CRM to set smarter sales forecasts, improve customer engagement and monitor sales performance.
Distribution CRM software benefits your entire organization by improving visibility into opportunities and streamlining processes. Helping everyone understand what’s in it for them and involving key people across your company in the decision will help them overcome any objections.
Educate your team on how a CRM will make everyone better at their jobs, helping your company hit its targets, improving marketing, enabling better customer support, and more.
For instance, when your sales team can see critical information about customers without compiling or requesting reports, they can be more prepared for meetings while focusing on what they do best. (And your IT team will love knowing they won’t be bombarded with daily reporting requests.)
Most companies have at least a few people who are early adopters of technology. Look for the sales rep who routinely upgrades to the latest version of the iPhone or the one who is already using AI to write better emails (or sonnets to their significant other). They can help get the rest of the team excited about the possibilities.
Make sure you’ve clearly defined what success looks like for your team. Set specific, measurable goals and determine what key performance indicators you’ll use to monitor progress. Set company-wide sales goals and have individual goals for each sales rep.
Implementing a CRM is a big reason to celebrate — and a sign of bigger wins to come.
Build some excitement around the rollout of your new solution with a party. Have some incentives for early wins, such as setting up dashboards and workflows or sending the first email campaign.
A CRM with built-in business intelligence and easy-to-read dashboards is a great way to showcase your company’s wins. Start your company meetings with pipeline management discussions and focusing on top accounts. Use sales rep scorecards to have more personal conversations about individual goals.
Your sales reps may be accustomed to using familiar tools. Removing legacy systems once you’ve implemented your new CRM will eliminate the temptation to go back to old habits. A CRM that truly is easy for everyone to use will help ease the transition.
The best CRM solutions empower your entire team to work together to increase customer engagement and attract new opportunities. Here are some specific examples of workflows to help your team maximize the ROI of your CRM.
While much of your team’s focus is on selling more to existing customers, your team may also receive prospects from several sources, including trade shows, website inquiries, and digital advertising. A lead nurturing workflow is a series of emails welcoming the prospect and sharing more information about what you offer with the ultimate goal of driving them to become a customer. With a CRM that includes marketing automation, you can quickly build a series of emails using templates and schedule them to send when a contact meets certain criteria, such as requesting information or being added to a list from a trade show.
Failing to follow up on an open deal is the fastest way to lose that sale, but it happens more often than you’d think.
<h4>Research from Zendesk <strong>shows 80% of sales require five follow-ups to be successful, yet almost half of all salespeople never follow up after an initial outreach.</strong></h4>
Your team can create workflows to send automated reminders to take action on open deals, including trigger notifications for a rep to follow up with customers by email after a meeting and automated emails to customers with quotes awaiting signatures.
With business intelligence built into your CRM, you can see which customers are becoming less engaged and send specific outreach to entice them. Create a list of customers with declining sales, select an email template, and send the email within minutes.
If your website allows customers to buy online, you might be surprised to learn that only three out of 10 people who attempt a purchase actually make it to checkout, according to website tracking software Hotjar. With an integration between your CRM and eCommerce platform, you can quickly identify those potential buyers. Your team can send automated abandoned cart emails and personally follow up with others based on attempted purchases or orders. These emails are overwhelmingly successful, with average open rates of about 40% and click-through rates at more than 23%.
<h4><strong>Only three out of 10 people who attempt a purchase actually make it to checkout.</strong></h4>
You know your customers love you, but other prospects may not. Quality customer reviews boost your credibility. Consider creating workflows to send emails to new customers asking them to write a review.
Most sales teams have a regular cadence of reports they’re required to submit on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. Sales leaders often review these reports with individual team members during performance reviews. Compiling them is often a tedious process, requiring support from the IT team and proficiency using Excel or similar programs. A CRM with built-in business intelligence eliminates the need to create many of these reports by displaying critical information in dashboards. You can also schedule these reports to be sent to specific recipients on a regular basis so you’re not scrambling at the end of the month.
The right CRM software isn’t just a tool. It’s a strategic investment in your customers and your company’s future success. It empowers your whole team with actionable insights, fosters collaboration and aligns your sales and marketing strategies with market demands. When your team can see the full picture of every account and contact, from the products they considered on your website to their purchasing history from the past year, you can take a more consultative approach to selling.
As you consider your options, it’s helpful to have a conversation with a CRM provider to see how the software can support your company’s goals. Schedule a consultation with our team to discover:
