Wholesale Distribution
Wholesale distribution CRM for branch accounts, channel pricing and reorders
A distributor sells one catalog to contractors, dealers and retailers at different prices, through branches that each see part of the account. Senitix CRM keeps the parent account and its locations, the price book behind every quote, the approval on a special price and the next expected reorder where every rep and branch manager can read them.
Built for wholesale distributors and resellers in the United States, from electrical, plumbing and HVAC supply to industrial MRO, building products and foodservice, selling from one branch or many.
One account for every location, one price book for every channel
A distribution sales team sets Senitix CRM up around how its customers buy: a parent account for the customer's headquarters, a child account for each branch or job site, and the territory, home branch, customer tier, buying group and price book as fields. Each deal carries the product lines being quoted, every quote version and the approval behind a special price, and repeat orders can be tracked in a separate pipeline. Senitix CRM does not replace your distribution ERP, which keeps inventory, availability, shipping and invoicing.
In Senitix CRM
What Senitix CRM solves for wholesale distributors
See the whole customer across every branch
A customer’s headquarters, branches and job sites sit in one account hierarchy, so a rep who opens any location sees the rest of the relationship. Your own branches can be set up as departments, so role, department and record ownership decide which accounts a branch manager and each rep can open.
- Parent and child accounts for a customer's locations, each with its own contacts, owner and timeline, and buying-group membership as a field on each member
- Territory, home branch and customer tier as fields on the account, with the rep who covers it as owner; when territories change, a rep's accounts move to a new owner in bulk
- Gmail, Outlook or IMAP email filed on the account and deal it concerns, where Senitix AI can summarize a long thread and draft the reply, and nothing is sent until the rep confirms
Quote every customer from the price book that applies
Your catalog and every price book sit in Senitix CRM, and a quote is priced line by line from the book chosen on it, so a contractor, a dealer and a retail account each get the list meant for them. When a manufacturer raises prices, the book is updated once, and a report sorted by valid-until date lists the open quotes that need a new number. For structuring the books themselves, see our guide to managing price books by channel.
- A price book per channel or customer tier, such as contractor, dealer, retail and national account
- Each round of revisions kept as a numbered quote version, dated until it expires and sent as a PDF from the team's template
- The accepted quote continues into an order record without retyping its lines, holding the customer's PO number and PO date
Approve the special price before the quote goes out
Set the threshold once: any quote carrying a line discount beyond it waits for a named approver and cannot be sent until the decision is in. Who approved, when and with what comment is recorded on the quote itself, so when margin slips, the sales manager reads who agreed to what instead of scrolling through texts.
- Entry criteria the team chooses, such as the deepest line discount crossing a set level, and one or several approval steps, each with a named approver
- A quote whose discount or total changes after approval goes back for approval before it is sent
- Field permissions that hide cost and margin from any role without a reason to see them, so a rep quotes the sell price and a branch manager reads the margin
Catch the account that stops reordering
A regular customer rarely calls to say it has moved to another distributor; the orders just stop. The team keeps an expected reorder interval and a next reorder date on the account, refreshed in bulk from an ERP export, and a date-based automation opens a call task for the account’s owner before that date. With reorders in a separate pipeline, repeat business and new-account deals are read apart.
- Reorder interval, last order date and next reorder date as fields on the account, updated in bulk by CSV or Excel import
- A date-based automation that opens a dated task for the account's owner ahead of the next reorder date
- Separate pipelines for new accounts and reorders, and a report of accounts past their reorder date, grouped by territory
An example distribution sales pipeline
This is one way a distributor's sales team could lay out the road to a new account or a new product line in Senitix CRM, from “Opportunity identified” to “First order”. The team writes each stage's guidance in its own words and picks up to five key fields to show beside it.
Example stages
- Opportunity identified
- Qualified
- Quote sent
- Pricing review
- Account setup
- First order
Guidance on each stage
- Opportunity identified The customer's account sits under the right parent, its territory and owner are set, and the product lines it may buy are named on the deal.
- Qualified Estimated annual spend, the current supplier and the buyer who signs off are on the record; a poor fit is closed with a loss reason.
- Quote sent The quote was priced from the account's price book and marked Sent, with a valid-until date and a dated follow-up.
- Pricing review Every change in terms is saved as a new quote version, and a line discount past the agreed threshold has an approver's decision on it.
- Account setup The credit application's outcome, the payment terms and the ERP account number are recorded on the account.
- First order The accepted quote and the customer's PO number are on the deal, and the account's owner has a dated reorder check-in.
An example, not a default: nothing arrives configured, and a distribution sales team builds these stages itself. Rename, reorder or drop any of them (a team that sells cash on delivery can skip account setup), and open deals carry their stage history with them. The guidance is what the team agrees on; the product never holds a deal back.
FAQ
Wholesale distribution CRM questions
What is a wholesale distribution CRM?
A wholesale distribution CRM is a customer relationship management system shaped around the way distributors sell: customers with many locations, rep territories, a price book per channel, versioned quotes, approved special pricing and the reorders that follow a first order. It works beside the ERP rather than replacing it. The ERP records what was ordered, shipped and invoiced; the CRM records who is buying, what they were quoted, who approved the price and what happens next.
What is the best CRM for wholesale distributors?
The one that fits how you price and sell, so compare on specifics: account hierarchies for customers with many locations, a price book per channel, quote versions with valid-until dates, approvals on special pricing, reorder tracking and a clear line between the CRM and the ERP. Senitix CRM covers each of those. It has no packaged ERP connector, and it is a browser application, with no native mobile apps yet. What each plan includes is on the pricing page.
How do distributors manage customers with many locations in a CRM?
With a parent account and a child account for each location. In Senitix CRM, a national account’s headquarters, its branches and its job sites sit in one hierarchy, each with its own contacts, owner and activity, and opening any of them shows the rest. Buying-group membership can be a field on each member account, so a report groups the pipeline by group. Customers do not log in: Senitix CRM is your team’s workspace, not an ordering portal.
Can a CRM hold a different price book for each customer tier?
Yes. A distributor keeps a price book per channel or tier in Senitix CRM, such as contractor, dealer, retail and national account, and each quote is priced line by line from the book chosen on it. A special price for one customer is a line discount on the quote, which goes to an approver when it passes the team’s threshold. Volume discount schedules and customer-specific contract prices are not part of quotes today, so contract and matrix pricing stay in your ERP.
How do you manage sales territories in a distribution CRM?
Make the territory a field on the account and the rep who covers it the account’s owner. Reports then group open deals, quotes and reorders by territory, and when territories are redrawn, an administrator moves a rep’s accounts to a new owner in bulk. An automation can assign each new lead to a named rep, with a condition on the territory deciding which one; dedicated assignment rules are coming soon. To draw the territories themselves, see our sales territory planning guide.
How do you track reorders and spot lapsed accounts?
Give each account an expected reorder interval and a next reorder date, and keep them current in bulk by importing a CSV or Excel export from the ERP. A date-based automation then opens a call task for the account’s owner ahead of the date, and a report lists the accounts whose date has passed, by territory and home branch. With reorders in their own pipeline, a regular customer going quiet shows up apart from new-account deals.
Does a distribution CRM integrate with our ERP?
Not with a ready-made connector. Senitix CRM has none today for the ERP and accounting systems US distributors run, QuickBooks and Xero included. Data moves by CSV or Excel import and export, a full data export can be scheduled, and an order created in the CRM is entered or imported in the ERP. Other integrations run through connected apps that Senitix registers, so each one starts with a conversation with our team, and outgoing webhooks are coming soon. The CRM integration guide walks through the options.
Which reports should a distribution sales manager review each week?
Start with open deals and quotes by territory and home branch, quotes past their valid-until date with no answer, deals with no next activity, accounts past their next reorder date and loss reasons. Where reps carry quotas, the forecast grid totals open deals by forecast category, sets them against each rep’s quota and keeps a manager’s adjustment apart. Every report reads the team’s own fields, so its numbers are only as reliable as the way reps fill them in.
Start with one branch and its price book
Start free today, or talk to us about setting up your account hierarchy, channel price books, pricing approvals and reorder follow-up around the way your branches sell.
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