Technical sales take months and involve many people. The CRM should remember all of it.
Early accessCubeCRM for manufacturing & engineering
CRM for manufacturers and engineering firms - technical enquiries, long sales cycles, samples and trials, distributors and key accounts.
- Manufacturing
- UK hosted, set up in person
- 01234 672 617
Manufacturers and engineering businesses sell through long, technical conversations: an enquiry with a drawing, samples and trials, several rounds of revisions, and a buyer, an engineer and a finance director who all need to agree.
Much of that happens in email and on site visits, and much of it is lost when the salesperson moves on. CubeCRM holds every enquiry, specification, sample, quote revision and conversation on the customer record, tracks long opportunities with a next step at every stage, and manages distributors and key accounts alongside direct customers. When the business needs orders, stock and production as well, CubeCRM shares its data model with CubeERP.
- Every
Sample and trial with an outcome
- Months
Long deals tracked step by step
- Same
Data model as CubeERP
What goes wrong
The problems that keep coming up
Not every business has all five. Almost every business we speak to has three.
Technical enquiries in inboxes
Enquiries with drawings and specifications arrive by email to individuals, and the detail stays in that inbox.
Samples and trials forgotten
Samples are sent and trials run, but follow-up depends on memory. Months later nobody remembers the result.
Long cycles and many buyers
Deals take six to eighteen months and involve engineering, procurement and finance. Opportunities stall when one of them is neglected.
Distributors as a black box
Sales through distributors and agents are invisible until the order arrives, with no view of what they are working on.
Reorders taken for granted
Repeat customers are assumed to be safe until orders drop, by which time a competitor is already in.
What we do about it
How CubeCRM is set up for manufacturing
Configuration, not a separate edition. Everything here is in the same product - it is switched on and shaped during setup.
Specifications on the enquiry
Drawings, specifications and correspondence attached to the enquiry and the customer, with revisions kept.
Samples and trials tracked
Samples sent, trials running and results recorded against the opportunity, with follow-ups scheduled.
Long opportunities
Multi-stage deals with a next step at every stage and alerts when a deal has not moved.
Distributors and agents
Distributor accounts with the end customers they are working, registered opportunities and performance by territory.
Reorder patterns
Invoiced sales synced from the accounts package, with alerts when a regular customer’s ordering drops.
Room to grow into ERP
When you need sales orders, stock, production and despatch, CubeCRM upgrades to CubeERP on the same records.
In practice
Two situations from this sector
Typical situations, anonymised. These are the kinds of problem businesses describe before they change anything.
- Case 1
Trials with no outcome
Before
A specialist coatings manufacturer sent dozens of samples a year to prospective customers. Results were rarely recorded, and many trials simply faded.
With CubeCRM
Samples and trials are now tracked against opportunities with follow-up dates and recorded outcomes. Conversion from trial improved, and the reasons for failed trials fed back into product development.
- Case 2
A distributor pipeline nobody could see
Before
A pump manufacturer sold mainly through regional distributors and learned about projects only when orders arrived.
With CubeCRM
Distributors now register opportunities, which appear against their account. The manufacturer can support larger projects earlier and see which distributors are growing.
How it happens
What getting started involves
The same five stages whatever your sector. Discovery and training can be done at your office, because sitting with the team tells us more than any questionnaire.
- 1
Discovery
A short, structured session on how enquiries arrive, how you quote, and where customer information lives now - the inboxes, the spreadsheet, the old CRM and the notebook in the car. We come back with what works as standard and what needs configuring.
- 2
Setup
Pipeline stages, fields, quote templates, email connection, teams and permissions set up to match how you sell - not a demo account with your logo dropped on it.
- 3
Data import
Contacts, companies, open opportunities and quote history brought across from spreadsheets, inboxes or your previous CRM, with duplicates merged. You check it against what you had before anybody switches over.
- 4
Training & rollout
Short, role-based training so the sales team learns the pipeline and the office learns enquiries and cases - in person where it helps. Guides and screen recordings left behind for new starters.
- 5
Ongoing support
UK support from the people who built the platform, with a named contact, agreed response times, and a product roadmap you can influence.
Questions
What this sector asks first
If you need sales orders, stock, production planning and job costing now, yes - CubeERP includes everything in CubeCRM plus the operational side. If your immediate problem is sales and customer relationships, start with CubeCRM and upgrade when you are ready, without migrating anything.
Invoiced sales can be synced from Xero, Sage or QuickBooks, and other systems can post order history through the API, so it appears on the customer record.
Yes. Files of any type can be attached to enquiries, opportunities, quotes and customers.
Yes. Customers can be anywhere, with currencies and addresses recorded properly. Hosting and support remain in the UK.
Where to start
The parts that usually matter most here
B2B CRM Software
A CRM built around companies, sites and buying groups rather than individual consumers - for long sales cycles, repeat business and accounts with many people in them.
Sales Pipeline Software
Every opportunity on one board, by stage, with value, likelihood and next step - so the whole team can see what is live and what is stuck.
Account Management Software
Plan, grow and protect your most valuable customers - with account plans, contact coverage, renewals and every conversation on the same record.
Quoting & Proposal Software
Branded quotes and proposals built from your own price list, with every revision kept, automatic chasing and online acceptance that closes the deal.
Related
Sectors with similar problems
- Wholesale & DistributionCRM for wholesalers, distributors and trade suppliers - account management, call cycles, reorder patterns and trade pricing across a large customer base.
- Construction & ContractorsCRM for contractors, sub-contractors and specialist trades - tender enquiries, estimates, main contractor relationships and repeat clients.
- Technology & IT ResellersCRM for IT resellers, software companies, telecoms providers and technology suppliers - pipeline, renewals, recurring revenue and long B2B sales cycles.
If your process really is unusual
Some requirements are specific to one business rather than one sector. Those get built against the same documented API everybody else uses - not bolted on to the side of a database nobody is allowed to look at.
Manufacturing
Show us how you win work today
Bring one enquiry that went well, one that went nowhere, and whatever you use to track them now. That tells us more about whether this fits than any list of features.
