Why SugarCRM is the Right CRM for Manufacturing Firms

According to the U.S. Bureau for Economic Analysis, the manufacturing industry contributed $2.33 trillion to the country’s GDP (gross domestic product) in 2018. It’s a huge part of the global economy. The biggest firms have thousands of employees with dozens of locations all over the world.

Manufacturers transform raw materials into new products, which is a complex process. Because it is a very competitive industry with intricate sales cycles, manufacturers need every tool available to meet current customers’ expectations, grow their customer base, and create efficiencies so they can offer the lowest possible price. They must also provide a superior experience to their partners and suppliers along the way. Because of this, many of the world’s leading manufacturers have chosen SugarCRM to help them:

• Organize current systems and processes to create efficiency
• Provide a single view of the customer with all employees accessing the same CRM
• Gather real-time data about customers and sales forecasts to speed up decision-making internally

Let’s take a closer look at each of these challenges, and how Sugar can help.

Using Sugar to organize your current systems

Making information more accessible and visible across multiple functions and geographies is a key driver for deploying a CRM within a manufacturing organization. Sugar works for manufacturing firms because it is easy to integrate with ERP, project management, and customer service tracking software. Selling in this industry is a detailed process. Many firms work with demand generators, material specifiers, fabricators and distributors to get orders filled. Sugar helps organize complex supply chains, reduces prep work and enables everyone to be aware of the status of each order and project. Its flexibility means it also offers real-time integration with other common applications like finance and email, as well as more niche tools for the industry. For example, one SugarCRM customer, that supplies materials for new buildings integrated Sugar with Dodge Data & Analytics, an industry-specific service that has information about every construction project that’s currently in progress in the USA.

Sugar Provides a single view of the customer

Sugar provides manufacturers with easy-to-configure dashboards to track new business orders, gather real-time data on current orders, and to link supply chains. Dashboards allow geographically dispersed organizations to gather data in real-time so they can act more cohesively. From sales reps in Europe to customer service managers in the USA and the CEO who is always on the go – everyone is on the same page with Sugar dashboards and reporting capabilities.

Of course, to realize these benefits, all stakeholders must buy into using the CRM. CRM adoption is a challenge in any organization, but we’ve seen manufacturing companies have great success in driving employees to use Sugar. One uses Sugar to conduct regular sales meetings and relies on its data for one-on-one performance reviews. Another flew in independent reps for 15 hours of training and maintains a live SugarCRM “help desk” on Friday afternoons for any user that has an issue.

Using Data to Identify and Close inefficiency Gaps

Every regional sales team is a bit different, so using Sugar to give territory managers a macro view of their business helps drive informed decision making and prioritization. Most manufacturers sell several product lines and the performance of a product line in a territory is a top-concern for the business. Sugar makes it simple to collect data to give management a better picture of where they should be focusing their efforts to maximize the performance of their sales team. Sugar’s pipeline management allows sales managers to lead direct sales team better with real-time sales analytics and insights on every deal.

Resources on CRM For Manufacturing Firms

Check out our client success story on Paramount Global Services. PGS specializes in packaging products of all types, export and import transportation, information systems, as well as personalized supply chain solutions: Paramount Global Services Doubles Best Ever Quarterly New Business with SugarCRM.

An additional valuable resource for CRM for Manufacturing Firms is the CRM Playbook for Manufacturing, which you can download here.

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