When we are talking about manufacturing industry their management are more focused about production and operations management and not on sales and marketing efforts which is also one of the important part in any business organisation.
When we are talking about sales and marketing in digital terms , Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the term used by us . CRM aids any organisation to surpass customer related information across different department and accommodate customer data from all possible channels .
Lets look at some of the amazing benefits of CRM system in manufacturing industry :
Features Of CRM
Every mostly used CR solution has the following inbuilt feature in it :
- Contact Management : It enables person to enter customer data , documents , records such as calls , emails , website visit , past order history .
- Lead Management : Helps managing sales leads which has come from different sources relating to sales assignment .
- Order History : It enables any organisation to track the customer past order history records , their past interaction thus offering them with the relevant product according to their personalised needs .
- Milestone Notification : This is basically the progress report of the sales forecasting and person can track the progress report right from leads tills its conversion to its clients .
Are There Features Related To Manufacturing Industry ?
Yes , no doubt these features directly helps manufacturing industry in many ways . Manufacturing department will be able to accurately predict the level of production required for present as well as future demand which they can get prediction on the basis of sales forecasting .
CRM is although always concerned with sales forecasting , but in manufacturing sales department can provide you with the requirement of production volume needed in coming week , month or quarter .
CRM is capable of handling both new leads and handling existing relationship . By having a track record of the order history together with automated follow up with the leads helps predict the future sales by sales department . By this a manufacturing industry management can accurately predict how much inventory and labour is required to fulfil the sales need .
Even in case of non-sales function in manufacturing industry , manufacturer can use CRM to keep record of manufacturing software for maintenance tracking , technical work and more . Not only CRM will assist in tracking sales , it can also be used for getting contact information from various companies in case of last. minute breakdown .
Is ERP Not Capable Of Handling This ?
ERP system is develop to handle business efficiency through internal department management which aids better working process , employee productivity enhancement and smoother workflow operations . CRM on the other hand focuses solely on customer management .
A fully equipped ERP system for manufacturing industry are being able to handle accounting , sales order and inventory . Some ERP also comes up with build in CRM module . So some of the companies think they can get all things through ERP using that module , but just for an explain a sales person will by chance get a chance to enter into your accounts or order management module and will get all the information which might not be of any use for your sales employee . Also as the sales employee are less trained , the result might be unexpected from your side thereby affecting your other department functions also.
It is also a security issue to give sales employee a access to internal department ERP , say for instance financial records . Anyways lucky you can contact a CRM consultant who can assist you with choosing the best ERP-CRM integration solution or can develop a custom CRM solution for you .