The B2B market is becoming more competitive with manufacturing companies. Expectations of buyers are quicker response, personalized communication, and clear order processes. But many mid-market manufacturers continue to use spreadsheets, siloed ERP systems, or legacy CRM solutions that fail to provide them with the full capabilities they need to manage their complex distribution channels and business-to-business sales cycles.
That’s where Dynamics 365 Sales CRM services can prove to be a great solution. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales delivers a modern CRM solution for manufacturers to support a relationship-based B2B sales approach, manage distributors, and gain real-time sales pipeline visibility.
Let’s take a look at how mid-market manufacturers in the United States are leveraging Dynamics 365 Sales to enhance their sales processes, boost distributor relationships, and capture more B2B business.
Manufacturing Sales Challenges
Manufacturing sales are very different to traditional retail sales. Manufacturing companies generally have longer procurement cycles, many involved in the transaction, and complex transactions unlike the high volume transactions that are common in other industries.
Common challenges include:
- Managing Complex B2B Sales Cycles.
Technical evaluations, product customisation discussions and pricing negotiations are activities that are commonly part of a manufacturing deal. Without a unified CRM system, it can be challenging to keep track of communication with various stakeholders.
This course covers Distributor and Channel Management.This course is on Distributor and Channel Management.
A lot of manufacturers utilize distributors and partners to distribute products in other regions. Without a centralized customer relationship management (CRM) system, it can be difficult to monitor the performance of distributors and manage relationships with them.
2.No Pipeline Visibility.
Sales leaders have a hard time in determining sales pipeline status. It becomes complicated to forecast revenue when sales activities are spread out in email, spreadsheets, and ERP systems.
- Limited Customer Insights
Customer interactions, such as service history, orders, and communication, are often disjointed and manufacturers do not have a clear view of these interactions.
These are just some of the problems that call for a modern, manufacturer mid-market USA CRM solution that ties sales, distributors and operations together.
Explore how Dynamics 365 Sales can help B2B Manufacturing.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales aims to overcome these challenges by delivering a single platform for Microsoft sales CRM B2B.
Key capabilities include:
- CRM systems that are centralized.
- AI?driven sales insights
- The ability to integrate with ERP systems seamlessly.
Maintaining a relationship with distributors and partners.Relationship with distributors and partners.
Enhanced visibility and forecasting of pipelines.
It is also seen as the best CRM for manufacturing sales teams as it integrates with Microsoft 365 products like Outlook, Teams, Excel, and SharePoint.
Sales teams can move between opportunities, interact with customers, and work with team members all without having to switch apps.
Managing Distributor Relationships
For many manufacturing companies, their distributor relationship is the lifeline. Multiple distributors per territory can be highly complicated, though.
With the manufacturing integration capabilities in Dynamics 365 Sales, manufacturers can:
- Track distributor performance
- Develop and coordinate channel sales opportunities
- Monitor regional demand
- Work out deals with distributors
Distributors can be interacted with by sales teams in the CRM, including logging, assigning leads and tracking deal progress.
This means that salespeople, either in-house or through distributors, have the same understanding of opportunities and the needs of customers.
Also, manufacturers could develop partner portals for distributors to sign up deals, update opportunities and access documentation on products.
Pipeline Visibility & Sales Forecasting
The fact that Dynamics 365 Sales allows you to see your pipeline in real time is one of its key benefits in manufacturing.
Sales leaders can access dashboards that provide the following information:
- Opportunities by stage
- The number of games played and the amount of money to be won.
- Sales by region (Performance)
- Distributor pipeline activity
Such information helps decision makers in management to decide on planning production and stock.
The advanced forecasting tools also enable organizations to accurately forecast revenue, taking into account past sales data and pipeline trends.
AI Sales Insights
AI is increasingly playing a pivotal role in today’s sales platforms. There are built-in AI capabilities in Dynamics 365 Sales that enable sales teams to uncover opportunities and boost their win rates.
Examples include:
- Customer engagement analytics that gauge engagement with customers
- Lead scoring that favors high value leads
- Deals at risk when it comes to opportunity insights that help shine a light on deals that may be at risk.
With these AI features, sales departments can prioritize their efforts for the most promising deals.
This can greatly enhance the efficiency of sales and conversion rates for manufacturers who have long sales cycles.
How to connect to ERP Systems.How to connect to ERP Systems.
ERP systems like Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain or other manufacturing ERP systems are essential for manufacturing companies.
An advantage of Microsoft CRM for B2B manufacturing company settings is the capability to tie in with ERP systems.
With this integration, sales teams can gain access to:
- Product catalogs
- Pricing information
- Inventory availability
- Order history
Integrating with ERP will allow for sales reps to be able to give customers a true quote and delivery time in the CRM.
This enhances the customer experience and helps eliminate delays due to manual coordination between departments.
Real Manufacturing Example
- Think of a mid-market, industrial equipment company in the USA.
- It is sold via regional distributors and has hundreds of B2B accounts.
The organization had a number of problems that they needed to address prior to implementing Dynamics 365 Sales:
Sales teams used spreadsheets to monitor opportunities.Opporunities were monitored by sales teams in spreadsheets.
- There was inconsistent communication between the distributors and the customers.
- There were problems with the forecasting of pipelines by leadership.
- The company’s results when using Dynamics 365 Sales for manufacturing were:
- All distributor and customer interactions in a single place.
- Real time visibility into sales opportunities
- Sales and Operations more effectively work together.
Improved revenue prediction
The company experience a marked rise in their deal conversion rate and enhanced engagement from their distributors within the first year.
For Mid Market Manufacturers, benefits include:
A modern CRM platform will be a huge competitive advantage for mid?market companies.
Key benefits include:
- Improved Sales Productivity
Sales teams save time on finding data and more time on customer interactions.
- Stronger Distributor Collaboration
Manufacturers can synchronize resources on their internal teams and with distributors by tracking opportunities together and communicating.
- Better Sales Forecasting
Real-time visibility into pipeline health and revenue projections.
- Data Driven Decision Making
Using CRM analytics, businesses can uncover growth opportunities and improve their sales strategies.
- Scalability for Growth
Dynamics 365 Sales helps manufacturing companies grow and thrive in new markets by providing the tools and capabilities needed to manage larger teams and more intricate distribution channels.
Conclusion
As the business landscape shifts and changes, modern CRM platforms are making their way into manufacturing firms’ businesses to keep them competitive.
Dynamics 365 Sales for manufacturing offers the tools that manufacturers require to manage their distribution partners, get visibility into the pipeline, and utilize AI-driven insights.
In the United States, mid-market manufacturers can benefit from Dynamics 365 Sales for numerous reasons, such as improving how sales teams work, enabling them to close more sales, and build more robust customer relationships with the support of Dynamics 365 Sales consulting services.
