How Wholesalers Can Boost Sales Rep Productivity with a CRM

More productive sales reps mean better sales performance. From automating manual tasks to forecasting customer preferences, here’s what you need to know about how Customer Relationship Management software can help your wholesale business and 10 ways a CRM can boost the productivity of your sales team.

Traditionally, sales reps had one thing to focus on—selling. That’s no longer true. Sales reps today have a long list of daily responsibilities, not the least of which are time-consuming administrative tasks.

According to a HubSpot survey, salespeople spend 21% of their day writing emails, 17% entering data, 17% prospecting for and researching leads, 12% going to internal meetings, 12% scheduling calls, and just one-third of their day actually talking to prospects.

Inefficient processes resulting in sales reps spending too much of their time performing tasks not related to selling are one of the fundamental causes of low sales rep productivity. That’s where customer relationship management (CRM) software can help.

Why your wholesale business needs a CRM

Better sales performance. CRM software allows your wholesale business to manage its relationships with suppliers, partners, and customers easily and efficiently—as well as the data associated with those relationships (i.e., contact information, communications, orders, notes, etc.)—all in one central, real-time hub.

In the simplest of terms, a CRM will help your sales reps sell more, engage with customers more effectively, and fill their quotas quicker.

And it’s the best-selling software in the world! According to Gartner, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the most extensive and fastest-growing enterprise application software.

6 ways a CRM can boost sales rep productivity and improve sales performance

1. Faster workflow

CRM software collects, manages, and stores data in a centralized hub, providing greater transparency for your entire team and allowing them access to vital information such as shared calendars, emails, and business insights and processes—all at their fingertips, anytime, anywhere.

With the help of a CRM, your sales reps will always be up to date with company developments and will find it easier to communicate and collaborate with other team members.

2. Close more deals

A key benefit of a CRM is better planning and time management.

CRM software tracks everything—scheduled calls, meetings, tasks, sales activity, and all communications with customers. This allows your sales reps to streamline their schedule and prioritize activities, ensuring that no customer is forgotten and no potential sales opportunity is missed.

By tracking all communications with your customers, a CRM helps also gives your sales reps an inside edge on knowing exactly when to contact customers; for instance, for an upsell or cross-sell opportunity or renewing a contract.‍

3. Perform better

In just a few clicks with a CRM, your sales reps can create detailed sales activity reports to track their progress, provide insights, and improve their overall sales performance.

With CRM software, the sales reporting process is fully automated and transparent. The system automatically captures data and gathers insights, allowing your entire sales team to see all sales currently in progress and which efforts are generating the highest quality leads.‍

4. Spend more time with customers

Gone are the days of your sales reps spending hours each week completing manual administrative tasks!

A CRM is the ultimate tool for automating daily operational tasks such as activity reminders, data entry, invoicing, and emails. The virtual elimination of manual, repetitive admin tasks not only drastically reduces the risk of errors (and the costs related to those errors) but also saves your sales reps a great deal of time and energy—time and energy they can spend instead on building customer relationships.

When sales reps spend more time with customers, they build greater customer loyalty and trust, which also leads to increased revenue.

5. Provide more personalized customer service

Knowledge is power. With CRM software, your sales reps can view a complete and comprehensive snapshot of their customers (including account details, order history, and communications) in one central place at the touch of a button. This allows them to better understand what their customers want (and when they want it).

The automated analytical data a CRM provides gives your sales team deeper insight into anticipating customer needs, how to target specific customers, and which of their customers are providing the most profit. This leads to better decisions by your sales reps, more personalized customer service, and higher customer retention.

6. Get more done

Quite simply, a CRM makes life easier for your sales reps.

With CRM software, all activities, such as emails, calls, meetings, tasks, notes, and more, are automatically recorded and tracked. Your sales team can even set the CRM to override scheduled activities when the system reminds them of higher-priority tasks coming, such as calls or meetings with customers.

With a CRM, nothing is forgotten, and nothing is left unattended, thereby reducing the potential for missed opportunities.

3 ways B2B Wave can help you with your CRM

• Make use of B2B Wave’s Bcc email setting to blind copy all your outgoing emails directly to your CRM. This will keep your CRM records updated whenever an order is placed in your B2B eCommerce storefront. You can see instructions on where to find the Bcc email address when you are not sending in HubSpot.
• You can also utilize B2B Wave’s handy Zapier integration to update customer contact information for a variety of solutions.
• If you’re looking for integration for a specific CRM solution, send us a message to see how we can help!

It’s time to consider CRM for your wholesale business

‍Customer relationship management (CRM) software has been around since the mid-90s and is now one of the fastest-growing sectors in the Software as a Service (SaaS) market.

BuyerZone reports that 91% of companies with more than 11 employees use CRM software.

CRM will help your wholesale business develop an in-depth understanding of who your customers are, what they buy, and how loyal they are to your brand. This also makes it a highly effective tool for increasing revenue because the more your sales reps know about your customers (and the faster they know it), the better your company’s overall sales performance will be.

Today’s CRM software solutions not only manage sales pipelines and project sales forecasts but also optimize daily business workflows and reduce operational costs for small and medium-sized businesses and large corporations alike—all while providing extraordinary customer experiences that build customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty.

Sounds like a win-win!

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