Order Management in the Manufacturing Business
Zoho CRM for Everyone is available on the Early Access mode for customers upon request. Request access to gain hands-on experience with this new version.
Introduction
Manufacturing companies are responsible for creating and delivering goods to wholesalers, retailers, and customers. The main operations involved are production, supply, quality control, and distribution. These operations need to work seamlessly to achieve efficient order management and guarantee customer satisfaction and revenue growth.
Effective coordination between different teams within the manufacturing company is crucial for seamless order management and successful deal completion. Each team plays a critical part in this process by ensuring clear and timely communication. This is where CRM for Everyone comes into the picture. CRM for everyone is a single-integrated platform where the sales team works in collaboration with other customer-facing teams to close successful deals.
Successful order placement in Industrial Innovators
Industrial Innovators, based in Johanesburg, is a manufacturing business dealing with production of commercial & residential generators for power backup. Let's see how they use CRM for Everyone to manage order placements with their sales team as the front runner collaborating with other teams in successfully closing deals.
The teams involved in the processes create their own teamspaces. The teamspaces created for this business are: ( see screenshot below )
- Sales team to manage order initiations
- Product team to produce required orders
- Supply team to procure required raw material
- Legal team to perform audits and quality checks
- Delivery team to deliver orders on time
- Support team to provide post-delivery support
- Each teamspace can create team modules to manage the various processes involved to place an order. For example, the Product team can create a product specification module, the Delivery team can create a delivery schedule module, etc.
- One member of a team module can be assigned as the admin who oversees the processes. The team module admin can assign other CRM users in his organization as Requesters. A requester is a person who can request actions to be performed in other modules. In this use case, Amelia Burrows from the sales team is assigned as the requester to carry out various processes while closing the deal.
Let's explore how the sales team collaborates with other teams to effectively finalize a deal with Cityscape Homes. Each step in the process is described in detail below.
Lead management through order placements
The sales team is the first point of contact for leads to place orders. The sales team manages lead generation, customer interaction, and requirement gathering.
The sales executive, Amelia Burrows, is contacted by the maintenance manager from Cityscape Homes, about purchasing generators for residential homes in a gated community.
Help material such as brochures and product comparison documents would help the sales executive perfect her sales pitch, and hence, she requests the marketing team to provide the help material.
Marketing team checks the request and attaches the help material and notifies the sales executive by tagging her in the comments.
The sales team in turn uses this information to convince Cityscape Homes to move forward with the deal.
Product specification documenting
If the lead from Cityscape Homes like what they hear, they agree to move forward with the deal. They then provide their product requirements to the sales executive.
The sales executive, Amelia Burrows, documents the lead's requirements and saves them in the CRM system.
She places a request to the product team to check the lead's requirement and provide a product specification document for the available generators matching the lead's requirement.
The product team checks the request and attaches a product specification document and notifies the sales executive by tagging her in the comment.
The sales executive saves the product specification document to the CRM system and also shares the same with the lead.
Amelia Burrows next confirms with the lead which product they want to purchase. Upon receiving their confirmation, she moves the lead as a contact to the quotation stage of the pipeline.
Quotation and Contract Drafting
The next stage is where the sales team provides product quotations to the contact from Cityscape Homes.
If Cityscape Homes are satisfied with quoted prices, they move on to complete payments. If not, the sales executive and the contact from Cityscape Homes negotiate on a suitable quotation to complete the purchase.
As the next step, the sales executive, Amelia Burrows, makes a request to the Legal team to provide the contracts for the purchase.
The legal team checks the request, attaches the drafted contract, and notifies the sales executive by tagging her in the comment.
Amelia Burrows shares the contract with Cityscape Homes, and if they agree to all terms and conditions in the contract, the contact completes the payment and places the order.
Product planning And Shipment coordination
The sales team requests the product team to provide an ETA for when the products will be ready.
Product team and supply team work together to finalize the product design and production plans.
The product team checks the request, attaches an ETA document detailing when the products will be ready, and notifies the sales executive.
Amelia Burrows next requests the supply team from the warehouse to provide shipment details for the products.
The supply team checks the request, attaches the shipment details, such as the courier used to deliver the products, the billing information and shipping information, and notifies the sales executive of the same.
The sales executive, Amelia Burrows, in turn provides this information as an approximate timeline to Cityscape Homes.
Delivery & Support
Finally, the sales team works with the logistics and delivery team to plan and execute delivery schedules.
The sales executive, Amelia Burrows, makes a request to the delivery team to provide the delivery schedule.
Delivery team checks, attaches the delivery schedule and notifies the sales executive by tagging her in the comment.
Amelia Burrows updates Cityscape Homes through the CRM system about the delivery schedule for the products they’ve purchased.
Post-delivery, the support team contacts the Cityscape Homes for feedback on areas of improvement and provides support if required.
Conclusion
Order management in a manufacturing company is successful when the sales, legal, finance, and product teams work together effectively. CRM for Everyone allows this to happen by combining their knowledge and ensuring smooth communication and coordination on their platform. This approach can ensure that the business can improve productivity, minimize mistakes, and offer excellent customer service. This leads to successful deal completions and business expansion.
Related Articles
Inventory Management
Zoho CRM extends beyond the traditional sales related functions and supports complete sales cycle management by integrating Inventory Management features. This allows businesses to manage their pre-sales and post-sales accounting activities in a ...Consent Management
Zoho CRM's consent management settings helps you get consent from your prospects and customers. We provide a system where you can customize the consent form, include it in your email templates, set consent related preferences, and most importantly, ...FAQs: Inventory Management
How can I create inventory templates? Zoho CRM has a gallery of predefined inventory templates, you can choose any sample and use it for your business purpose. Alternatively, you can build a template of your own and customize it as needed. Follow the ...An introduction to process management
Process management systems — An Overview Every business organization formulates strategic goals for themselves in order to serve their customers and maximize their revenue. In order to meet these goals, multiple divisions and departments are ...Decision Guide for Territory Management
Assumptions This document assumes that you are already aware of the basic concepts of territory management. For an understanding of the feature in Zoho CRM, take a look at the help document - Territory Management Overview. Introduction Territory ...