Manufacturers Use CRM to Drive Sales and Improvement Service

In today's International economy, creating a competitive Edge is Imperative for any manufacturer looking to grow market share and deploying CRM is one way manufacturers can work smarter and expose concealed sales opportunity. Through time, Sunbridge Software Services has helped many Manufacturing organizations use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to increase their sales, marketing, and service effectiveness; and in this past year alone we helped employ Microsoft Dynamics CRM across many different manufacturing sectors such as, chemical, food processing, electronics, and medical equipment.

I Want to equate this uptick in CRM deployments to Productivity gains across the US manufacturing sector but it's probably more attributable to a mentality of “working smarter" by streamlining operations and re-inventing their competitive edge in this ever growing international economy.

Complex customer information and interactions at multiple levels. User's need to talk about and access information quickly and easily; oftentimes, they need to look at it from different angles so as to make informed decisions. In Sunbridge Software Services's expertise deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM for manufacturers you will find some common important drivers that resonate across nearly all our CRM deployments. (1) Defining internal taxonomies around a manufacturer's customer connections (2) coordinating the data in a structured way across these relationships, and (3) providing order processing systems integration with CRM. When these are in place, the ability to identify measurable results and realize a quick return on investment will soon be in sight.

Here is a brief description about each one of these key drivers.

1) Internal Taxonomy

What Joe describes a client, Bill may refer to as a distributor. And even worse, Sally refers to as a manufacturer's rep. They all might signify the identical thing but unless your internal processes are aligned using a frequent set of definitions it will not be possible to quantify results across different customer relationships. A CRM deployment project can function as a critical juncture where a manufacturer may take advantage of this opportunity to reevaluate or redefine their inner business definitions.

2) Relationship and Information Organization

Customers may take the form of a Distributor or End User. Both customer profiles are important but you may market to them differently based on their own relationships. If Distributor A has twenty End User customers and Distributor B includes two hundred End User customers you might be more inclined to provide co-marketing funds to one versus the other. What products or product classes is each Distributor effective selling? When was the last time someone achieved a Site See or fulfilled with a key Distributor? What competitive products do all these Distributors provide and how does that weigh into territory management? Customers, Dating Types, Inventory, Product, Competitors, and Activities are only some examples of the kinds of relationships which need to be in harmony in order to drive quick and easy access to information and assess the role each connection plays in your organization.

3) Order Processing / ERP Integration

Manufacturers oftentimes have high volumes of quotes and orders. In this scenario, it is very beneficial to incorporate a manufacturer's order processing system using Microsoft Dynamics CRM. For a CRM user, the quotation and order information is invaluable when determining overall lifetime value of a customer. How can sales compare this year vs. this past year and so are there any identifiable trends? Providing visibility Quotes and Order provides a salesperson or a customer support representative with enlightening information into product history. Providing visibility into customer order information will drive CRM user adoption by expanding the usefulness of the client data being tracked.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is elastic, easy-to-use, and currently has over one million users adopting it as their CRM platform. Powerful platform to help many manufacturing companies better manage the Connections, workflows, and business needs in order to ceate and Maintain a competitive edge.