The Value of Being a Leader: Functionality and Real Usability
But why is this distinction so important, and what makes Epicor stand out in such a competitive market?
Blog
Our latest thoughts on all things CRM and ERP
Manufacturers Aren't Rejecting CRM. They're Rejecting CRM That Ignores ERP.
I was recently on a call with a sales leader who had written off CRM three years ago. He'd been burned before by a system that lived on its own island, disconnected from the Epicor Kinetic environment where his actual business ran. He assumed real integration wasn't possible. Not without six figures and six months of consultants. When I showed him what we had, he called it "lightning out of the blue sky."
How Manufacturers Leverage Field Sales Intelligence for Strategic Customer Relationships
In manufacturing, your ERP system excels at tracking transactions, orders, and shipments. But what about the relationships behind those transactions? When executives prepare for critical customer meetings, they need more than sales figures - they need context, history, and insight that can only come from your field sales team.
From Field Intelligence to Organizational Advantage: Why Sharing Matters as Much as Capturing
We have written about getting sales reps out in the field and giving them systems to capture what they learn while it's still fresh. But capturing field intelligence is only step one. Sharing that intelligence systematically across your organization is step two - and it's where the real competitive advantage emerges.
Your Sales Team is Hitting Every Target - So Why is Revenue Down?
Relying on single KPIs can sabotage your sales success. Discover why CRM dashboards with balanced scorecards are essential for driving real results, not just activity.
The Great Outdoors: Why the Most Productive Manufacturing Sales Happen Outside the Office
The most productive selling in manufacturing doesn't happen behind a desk. It happens in the field - on factory floors, in engineering offices, over lunch with customers, and during plant tours where real problems and opportunities reveal themselves. Your top sales reps already know this. Face-to-face meetings drive manufacturing sales in ways that Zoom calls and email exchanges simply cannot match. A single visit to a customer's factory yields more actionable information than ten virtual meetings. Lunch with your customer's engineering team unlocks more opportunities than any email thread ever could.
Maximizing Trade Show ROI - or How to Waste a $250K Investment
Your company just invested $250,000 to exhibit at your industry's premier trade show. Flights, hotels, booth design, show support staff, swag, meals, the works. All your best customers walked by. All your best prospects stopped to talk. Three days of concentrated, high-stakes opportunity. Now your team is flying home with 512 badge scans and a tote bag full of business cards. What happens next will determine whether that quarter-million-dollar investment generates meaningful return or joins the long list of "seemed like a good idea at the time" marketing expenses.
The Quoting Speed Problem: Why Most Manufacturers Take Too Long to Quote Custom Products
You just left a great customer meeting. They need a quote on a make-to-order product. The opportunity is real, the timing is right, and they're evaluating multiple suppliers. How fast can you get them a quote? For most manufacturers, the honest answer is five days or longer. Not because their teams aren't working hard or don't care about winning the business. But because they don't have the right tools for the job.
From Order Takers to Account Growers: Why Account Managers Need Better Visibility
"How do I get my account managers to stop just taking orders and start maximizing account value?" Every manufacturing sales leader has either asked this question or heard it in strategy meetings. It's one of the most common frustrations in B2B manufacturing sales.