Finding a CRM that works alongside your distribution ERP

Distributors buy a CRM to act on what the ERP knows. The ERP records what each account bought. A CRM tells a rep which accounts are slipping, which quotes need a call today and what was said on the last visit.

An ERP is great at recording the sale and weak at everything around it. It won't remind an inside rep that a contractor's quote went out two days ago with no answer. It won't tell an outside rep that a customer who orders every three weeks hasn't ordered in six. It has nowhere good for visit notes, branch contacts or the reason you lost a bid to the supply house down the road.

Buy for that job. Before you look at features, write down the three questions reps most often call inside sales to ask. A good CRM answers those on a phone in the truck.

A working setup gives every rep a short list each morning. It shows quotes to chase, accounts that have gone quiet and visits due this week. Everything else stays out of the way.

Here is the setup we use most. Each account's last order date syncs from the ERP every night. When an account goes longer than its normal gap without ordering, a HubSpot workflow creates a task for its rep. You pick the gap for each kind of customer. Each quote becomes a deal with an owner and an amount. If it's still open after two days, the rep gets a reminder, and when it's lost they pick a reason such as price, stock, lead time or no response.

Managers get a dashboard of quote win rates by branch and rep, accounts buying less than last year, and new accounts opened. Reps don't type any of that in. It comes from the ERP data and the quote stages.

We've done this kind of ERP work for manufacturers too. A custom power systems manufacturer runs one sales process tied to its ERP, so customers and orders match in both. Photon Brothers sends sales orders from HubSpot into its inventory system, with an alert when product records don't match.