B2B wholesale marketplace businesses distribute hundreds, if not thousands, of high demand products to different kinds of customers across various industries. It can be challenging to manually input customer data, take note of products each customer orders, and interact with customers, all at the same time.
Key Takeaway - The sales and distributor marketing life cycle of wholesale distributors is complex. Wholesalers must deal with a constantly changing wholesale distribution channel and customer base.
These challenges facing wholesale business owners can be managed with the help of AI-powered technologies. This is where CRM for wholesalers comes in. Wholesale CRM has the capabilities to transform your wholesale distribution business in many ways.
Understanding who your customers are and what they want is a great way to increase customer retention and customer satisfaction while boosting engagement. CRM for wholesale distributors can help wholesalers improve customer service and outperform their competitors.
The big question - How Does Wholesale Work exactly? Becoming a wholesale distributor requires the right strategy and planning. Learn How to Become a Wholesaler and How to Run a Wholesale Distribution Business in this in-depth guide to wholesaling.
So, how can customer relationship management software improve your wholesale customer experience management and increase wholesale sales? Here are the top benefits of CRM for distributors.
What is Wholesale CRM?
Wholesale CRM is a software or eCommerce platform that unifies the operations of sales, marketing, and customer interactions. CRM software helps wholesale distribution companies obtain helpful customer insights.
Leads can become customers with the use of this real-time data. Along with providing marketing and sales management capabilities, it automates labor-intensive customer-centric operations.
D2C, B2C, and B2B eCommerce businesses build their B2B sales processes to acquire new customers. However, the consumer journey in the wholesale industry is unique in itself. Wholesale businesses focus on building relationships with repeat customers.
The sales team's ability to develop new leads and maintain existing relationships is made possible with wholesale CRM software. CRM's functions for wholesale businesses include managing client contact information, keeping track of customer contacts, and assembling sales data.
CRM offers a centralized, 360-degree view of each customer's services and transactions. This provides a more complete, accurate image of the customer and their relationship with your business, which should be kept in mind for all interactions and communication with them.
Let’s look at the benefits of using wholesale CRM software.
6 Benefits of Wholesale CRM for Wholesale Distributors
Wholesalers can automate their business process flows with systems like wholesale ERP software, wholesale inventory management software, and wholesale distribution software. CRM software also offers tremendous benefits for wholesalers and distributors.
Let’s take a look at these benefits:
- Customer satisfaction
- eCommerce analytics and reporting
- Sales automation
- Customer segmentation
- Marketing automation
- Increased profitability
Customer Satisfaction
Understanding who your customers are and what they want will go a long way in impacting your customer experience strategies. Wholesale CRM will help you interact with your customers better.
Most CRM system comes with a ticket management system and streamlines the way you respond to customers’ queries. With a robust response and feedback system in place, customers can trust your brand to give them what they want, when they need it.
Customer relationship management can assist you in responding to consumers buying preferences. For instance, wholesale food distributors’ requirements may be different from what dropshipping wholesale suppliers needs.
Wholesale CRM helps you customize sales activities like providing promotions and sending email campaigns. Integrating your CRM software with your back office departments will provide seamless and more efficient business systems.
CRM shows every customer encounter, the stage of the sales process they are in, and any potential follow-up steps. This helps to increase communication throughout your business and keep customers happy and satisfied.
Analytics and Reporting
Wholesale CRM software provides customer data and analytics information. One of the most significant advantages of CRM is that it enables you to track the actions of your consumers from their initial engagement with you until they become a customer.
Wholesalers can get information about consumer behavior, buying habits, and the customer’s stage in the sales and eCommerce funnel. Having access to customer information also makes it easy to create a customized eCommerce marketing and sales campaign.
Smartly designed CRM dashboards automatically organize and show data in charts and graphs. The sales team can gain a more comprehensive understanding of consumer trends and then use this report to generate actionable insights that can boost customer service, sales, or business productivity.
Sales Automation
CRM systems can undoubtedly improve customer experiences. They can also be helpful for wholesale businesses as a whole, particularly in terms of sales. Sales teams, for instance, can access CRM dashboards that offer essential real-time data.
Wholesale CRM can track data such as customer and prospect records, projections and predictions, and customer and prospect activity. As a result, sales teams are better able to manage sales pipelines, identify the best times to approach customers, and understand more about their needs.
CRM software can help a business estimate customer demand more correctly by automatically tracking and reporting past sales, customer patterns, and prospect touchpoints. This enables more precise planning for following sales cycles.
The sales team can make pertinent product recommendations to customers based on their demands. CRM can help you make these recommendations based on the frequent orders made by customers.
CRM enhances sales forecasting by offering a precise and thorough picture of sales outcomes. You can see the outcome by team members, products and brands, peak and off-season efforts, and by any other manner, a distributor could track the results of a firm.
Customer Segmentation
The segmentation of customers based on factors like location, age, and past purchases can be automated by more advanced CRM systems. Wholesale CRM allows you to sort customers by data you’ve collected about them over time.
For instance, in the event of a product recall, businesses may find it advantageous to create automatic mailing lists to notify all customers who purchased the affected product. They may also find it valuable to notify all consumers within a specified geographic area of a new in-store product.
By removing the need to manually enter contact information or review each client profile, automatic customer segmentation can save time. Customer segmentation in a CRM can be useful for marketing teams as it allows for the development of focused campaigns.
Marketing Automation
The CRM system can assist in managing each customer segment's preferences by centralizing all the data. CRMs design eCommerce email marketing campaigns for certain audiences and monitor the performance metrics that go along with them.
With the help of wholesale CRM software, the business can reach a broader audience of customers online. Your marketing team can also promote a wider range of items with pricing information, unique features, and offers.
A CRM keeps track of all prospect activity, letting your marketing and sales team know when to follow up with particular prospects. With a CRM system, it is easier to send out automated emails and responses based on the actions of a customer, the segment the customer is sorted into, and the needs of that particular customer.
Need help with growing your wholesale distributorship business? Learn how to create the Best Marketing Strategy for Wholesale Business in this guide.
Increased Profitability
It is a known fact that the average customer acquisition cost is higher than the cost to retain an existing customer. By keeping your customers happy and satisfied, CRM systems can boost customer retention and lifetime value.
CRM allows you to keep track of all interactions and determine the most frequent requests as well as which consumers need additional assistance. Both the consumer and the representative can benefit from CRM systems' enhanced eCommerce customer service.
A wholesale CRM will give your sales team a central location to manage leads, prospects, and customers throughout any period. You can organize your sales and marketing efforts and establish performance-based goals with the right CRM.
In the long run, a superior customer experience will keep your customers returning to you. As a result, you get a high ROI and increased profitability.
Frequently Asked Questions About Wholesale CRM
Let’s answer some questions about wholesale CRM.
What are the Four Types of CRM?
The four types of CRM include:
- Analytical CRM
- Operational CRM
- Collaborative CRM
- Strategic CRM
What is a CRM Used for?
CRM is a tool that organizes all of your business's interactions and relationships with current and potential customers. It is also used to improve customer experience and customer service strategies.
What is the Difference Between POS and CRM?
CRM helps to organize customer data and improve customer experience and service. A POS system, on the other hand, is a tool that streamlines payment processes and transactions. Both systems can be integrated with an ERP tool and help scale up your wholesale business.
Staying on Top
CRM for wholesale distributors is a game changer. Imagine being able to manage customer orders and transactions while keeping them satisfied with your services and brand. Wholesale CRM tools like BlueCart streamline your B2B interactions and provide the ultimate omnichannel customer experience.