Find the best Distribution CRM

What is distribution crm?

A distribution CRM is a software tool for managing customers as well as products in a centralized location. This type of software comes with monitoring and reporting functionalities that help distributors manage customer information, track product orders, generate invoices/quotes, and automate marketing efforts.
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Pivotal CRM

Pivotal CRM is an on-premise customer relationship management (CRM) solution that caters to businesses of all sizes, helping them manage various CRM processes. It includes marketing automation, lead management, sales force automat...Read more about Pivotal CRM

3.57 (7 reviews)

NetSuite CRM

NetSuite CRM+ is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solution for small and midsize organizations. NetSuite caters to thousands of customers across a wide range of industries including wholesale distribution, manu...Read more about NetSuite CRM

3.93 (190 reviews)

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Genoo

Genoo is a cloud-based marketing automation solution for small to mid-sized professional services, software and technology firms. The solution helps marketers in email marketing, lead management, lead scoring, microsite building a...Read more about Genoo

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Salesnet CRM

Salesnet CRM is a cloud-based sales and marketing automation tool for businesses of any size with a focus on Sales Force Automation. Salesnet relies on dashboards, pipelines, forecasts, and reports to ensure that each member of th...Read more about Salesnet CRM

4.21 (12 reviews)

SysAid

SysAid is a cloud-based IT Service Management, service desk and help desk solution that helps users in businesses of all sizes across various industries resolve technology-related issues. Key features include help desk automation,...Read more about SysAid

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Oracle CRM On Demand

Oracle CRM On Demand is a cloud-based suite containing integrated, business applications that enable organizations to make decisions and manage costs of operations. The suite includes customer relationship management (CRM) solutio...Read more about Oracle CRM On Demand

4.36 (28 reviews)

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Keap

Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) is a cloud-based sales and marketing solution that offers customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation, and e-commerce functionalities in one suite. Keap helps small businesses across v...Read more about Keap

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NICE CXone

NICE inContact is cloud-based call center software that helps businesses to maximize the quality of leads and minimize the cost of client interaction. The solution comprises many features required to process inbound support reques...Read more about NICE CXone

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Service Pro

With MSI Data’s Service Pro, field service companies can grow their business by replacing manual processes with an all-in-one, cloud-based field service management software power tool. Service Pro is purpose-built for companies th...Read more about Service Pro

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SAP Customer Experience

SAP Customer Experience is a cloud-based customer relationship management solution that helps small and mid-size businesses manage communication and interactions with existing and potential customers. It helps businesses to manage...Read more about SAP Customer Experience

4.19 (212 reviews)

1 recommendations

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Fision

Fision offers an integrated marketing automation and sales enablement solution to help distributed field sales and local marketers customize and distribute timely, relevant and multi-channel campaigns. Fision's distributed ma...Read more about Fision

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Maximizer CRM

Maximizer CRM is an integrated customer relationship management (CRM) solution suitable for organizations of all sizes across various industries. This solution can be deployed on both on-premise and in the cloud. Maximizer CR...Read more about Maximizer CRM

4.02 (339 reviews)

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Omniprise

Omniprise is an on-premise as well as cloud-based customer relationship management solution designed to provide companies a view of all customer interactions on a real-time basis. The solution is suitable for businesses of all siz...Read more about Omniprise

5.00 (2 reviews)

LeadMaster

LeadMaster is a SaaS-based all-in-one lead management solution that offers capabilities to capture, track and follow up with leads. The solution comprises of integrated modules for sales force automation, customer relationship man...Read more about LeadMaster

4.09 (37 reviews)

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BlueFolder

BlueFolder's field service management software is a web and mobile-based software that helps increase equipment uptime, streamline preventive maintenance, eliminate tedious maintenance tasks, and maximize your techs' efficiency. ...Read more about BlueFolder

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HubSpot CRM

With its cloud-based, customer relationship management (CRM) platform, HubSpot CRM helps companies of all sizes track and nurture leads and analyze business metrics. HubSpot is suitable for any B2B or B2C business in a variety of ...Read more about HubSpot CRM

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ServiceWise

ServiceWise by TechExcel is a cloud-based IT Service Management(ITSM) solution that caters to businesses of all sizes and helps them to automate and streamline their IT services and help desk activities with configurable workflows...Read more about ServiceWise

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ContactWise CRM

ContactWise CRM is a customer relationship management (CRM) solution designed to assist businesses across various industries such as government, healthcare, banking and education. Key features include information reporting, busine...Read more about ContactWise CRM

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Web+Center

Web+Center is a suite of open source, customizable help desk solutions for IT organizations in almost any industry. The web-based help desk application can be run on-site or in the cloud. With access to 100% of the source code, or...Read more about Web+Center

5.00 (1 reviews)

Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer service software that helps businesses provide effortless service across every customer touchpoint. Freshdesk empowers businesses to monitor customer conversations across email, phone, chat, soc...Read more about Freshdesk

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Buyers Guide

Last Updated: November 24, 2022

 

Those in the distribution industry, like any other business, stand to benefit by using customer relationship management (CRM) software—through increased customer satisfaction and sales, for instance. Also, as in other industries, our research finds that distributors want a CRM tool that offers features relevant to their field.

For distributors, customer relationships are tied very closely to the products they distribute; they fall in between the customer and the manufacturer whose products they're distributing. That's why the CRM tool they use should not just let them manage customers but also the products flowing to them.

There are plenty of software vendors that are aware if this need, and thus build or modify CRM tools to suit distributors' unique requirements.

In this buyer's guide, we'll look at the core features of distribution CRM software and what you should know before making a purchase.

Here's what we'll cover:

What is a distribution CRM?
Common features of distribution CRM
What type of buyer are you?
Key considerations

What is a distribution CRM?

A distribution CRM is a software tool for managing customers as well as products in a centralized location. This type of software comes with monitoring and reporting functionalities that help distributors manage customer information, track product orders, generate invoices/quotes, and automate marketing efforts.

bp'm online CRM dashboard

 

Tracking prospects, invoices, and payments in bpm'online

Common features of distribution CRM

Distribution CRMs offer certain common functionalities that cater to a wide range of distribution businesses: food distribution, consumer packaged goods, fuel delivery, and so on.

Let's look at these functionalities more closely.

Contact management Create a centralized database of customer data such as shipping address and phone number.
Interaction tracking Track communications with contacts via multiple channels, such as emails, chat conversations, and phone calls.
Lead management Capture and store details of potential clients, in a central location, and track their conversions.
Quote management Allow sales representatives to automatically generate price quotes of products for customers.
Order and invoice management Process orders and create invoices using shipping and billing details.
Inventory management Keep inventory records based on item size, color, and other attributes. Monitor stock levels.
Warehouse management Track how items are arranged and stored in the warehouse and optimize their storage for quick order processing.
Workflow automation Create and monitor tasks that sales agents need to complete as customers move along the sales pipeline.
Document management Store and track documents, such as bills of material, product quotes, and invoices in a centralized location.
Reporting and analytics Monitor and analyze the performance of your sales team with detailed reports and analytical dashboards.

What type of buyer are you?

The right distribution CRM depends on the size and specific requirements of your business.

Here are three common types of distribution CRM buyers and their chief concerns:

  • Small and midsize businesses (fewer than 1,000 employees): These buyers typically have limited budgets for software. As a result, they're primarily concerned with a solution's pricing. This makes cloud-based CRM tools preferable over on-premise tools, as cloud-based deployment requires significantly lower upfront investment.
  • Large enterprises (more than 1,000 employees): These buyers need a tool with advanced functionalities. Enterprise resource planning software that offers CRM as a built-in module is a viable option for these buyers. ERP tools typically also offer accounting and project management functionalities; this can serve cross-functional needs by allowing teams to use a single solution to manage different business processes.
  • Best-of-breed buyers: These buyers could belong to either of the above categories. They are typically looking to solve a specific business need with software. For instance, a wholesale distributor that wants software primarily to process customer orders more quickly might need distribution inventory management software, instead of a CRM tool. Likewise, if you're looking to improve after-sales customer service, you might go for help desk software, which is a part of the larger family of CRM solutions.

Key considerations

To choose the right manufacturing CRM for your business, you must take into account factors such as total cost and integration requirements.

Let's look at these more closely:

  • Total cost of software: Understanding the total cost of software means looking beyond its procurement cost (usually a one-time license fee for on-premise and a recurring subscription for cloud-based solutions). Businesses also need to account for costs incurred during installation, customization, maintenance and support, data migration, training, and so on.
  • Integration requirements: As you evaluate options, you need to consider a CRM's ability to integrate with the tools you already use, or intend to use. This will ensure seamless data flow between otherwise disparate tools, reducing effort and errors due to manually copying and pasting data, and should also speed up processes. Email marketing, project management, and help desk software solutions are some popular integration options.

Note: The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.