{"id":98832,"date":"2014-04-07T21:51:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T04:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.successwithcrm.com\/blog\/the-necessity-of-crm-systems-for-manufacturing-businesses"},"modified":"2014-04-07T21:51:47","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T04:51:47","slug":"the-necessity-of-crm-systems-for-manufacturing-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/the-necessity-of-crm-systems-for-manufacturing-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"The Necessity of CRM Systems for Manufacturing Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span><\/p>\n The main idea of CRM solutions for manufacturing companies is the fact that they allow companies to have a detailed overview of their customers’ needs and requirements. At the same time CRM enables them to improve their relationships\u00a0<\/span>with customers which certainly turns out to be a benefit for both parties. \u00a0With CRM it will be easier for the organization to understand their customers and make smarter decisions, more quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n The manufacturing industry needs to concentrate on customer relationships. That may be the dealer network in many cases. On one hand CRM helps to increase the level of productivity. On the other hands it is the best way to improve different business processes. That is why\u00a0CRM in the manufacturing industry is one of the most important tools nowadays<\/span>. Every strategy is mainly aimed on increasing profits as well as giving sales a boost. Prospective customers (dealers) are farther down their buying process with access to Internet resources so the sales team has to be geared up and prepared. Additional t<\/span>oday’s\u00a0customers also call for more attention and higher qualify services. These facts should all be taken into consideration.<\/p>\n When asked to review prospective companies for Success with CRM Consulting solutions, we come across many types of software in manufacturing businesses mostly\u00a0with core purpose of accounting or ERP. There are several alternative types of software to CRM. However there are lots of problems which occur very often while using it. \u00a0Whereas CRM is designed to be adaptable and to have a core purpose of getting, keeping and growing profitable customers. \u00a0A business-to-business company needs to track all the necessary information about sales, marketing and customer service for one system. \u00a0That same\u00a0CRM system will also point into or show views of related customer information from the accounting or ERP system.<\/p>\n Many manufacturing companies are selling to some form of dealer or distributor networks and in essence the dealer is the first level customer. \u00a0As the dealer network grows so goes the manufacturing company. The manufacturing company must understand their dealer needs and business requirements. \u00a0Often this requires an effective Quote-to-order process that is tightly integrated with CRM sales opportunities. The most current quote updates the sales opportunity used for sales forecasting.<\/p>\n Accounting departments don’t want to have their system ‘polluted’\u00a0<\/span>with lots of prospective account records and having to support a quoting process. \u00a0But the sales department must have an easy method to select the correct products from a product catalog with guided selling, create quotes on the fly and generate a proposal that is whisked off with an important quoting email.<\/p>\n Business has always been about speed and quickly delivering an important quote to your dealers\/customers is a CRM system requirement.\u00a0<\/span>Unless you are manufacturing a rather simple product there is probably a need for intelligent quoting – a need to make it ‘idiot proof’ (as one GM told me). \u00a0Endeavor CPQ<\/a> saves you time – time and again. \u00a0Eliminate inefficiencies in your sales process to reduce quote turnaround, speed up product deployment and close deals faster by bringing all of your departments, processes and data in line.<\/p>\n Guided selling<\/strong> helps to ensure accuracy around produce and pricing in the real time as selection are being made. Additionally alerts<\/strong> can be used to guide a sales person to a desired up-sell or cross sell product. New sales reps can get up to speed much faster with these capabilities from CRM. Guided selling shrinks the selling cycle, increases deal size and expand the reach of your sales network.<\/p>\n Better yet is that the person receiving the quote can ‘understand’ what is being quoted in their terms but is still linked to your product IDs. \u00a0Too many times we see a prospective client using a Quoting system that generates a technically correct quote but is not clear to the buyer. The use of integrated product images, supplementary product descriptions and linked support literature helps the quote get more easily and faster understood.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n A manufacturing company typically will have inside sales support and field sales teams building relationships daily with prospective and current customers. Web access 24 x 7 x 365 is a must for mobility. Today the mobile sales reps can use cloud based CRM solutions while on the road with a smart phone or tablet. A cloud-based solution allows the manufacturing company to forget about the headaches of file management, data backup and software updates.<\/p>\nHaving a detailed overview of customer needs and requirements<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Non-CRM designed systems don’t cut it in today’s world<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Speed in business: CPQ: Configure-Price-Quoting and Guided selling is needed<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Speed comes from mobility<\/strong><\/h3>\n