Custom CRM and portal development
Custom CRM and portals for distributor sales operations
We build custom CRM and portal software around how a distributor actually sells: reps, retailer and dealer buyers, samples, quotes, orders and reorders, connected to the ERP that already holds your inventory and pricing. We start in food, beverage and CPG distribution, where that path is most recognizable, and with one workflow and a small group of your people.
Building a buyer portal on its own, or connecting the ERP you already run, is welcome too.
The problem
The workflow lives around the systems, not inside them
These are situations distributors describe in public when a rep, a retailer buyer and an ERP all touch the same order. David has lived several of them running beLoved. Yours may be different.
Samples are tracked in a rep's head or a spreadsheet
A sample goes out and a follow-up gets promised. Whether it becomes an order often depends on whether the rep remembers. Tracking retail samples is its own worksheet.
Retailer and dealer buyers call for what a portal could answer
Order status, a reorder, an invoice copy: each one becomes a call to a rep, who looks it up in a system the buyer cannot see.
Pricing exceptions live in someone's memory
Contract price, a promotional rate, a one-off approval. When the rule is not written down anywhere both systems can see, the next person guesses.
The CRM and the ERP tell two different stories
Inventory and invoicing sit in the ERP. Activity and relationships sit somewhere else, and the two drift apart instead of agreeing.
Note on the copyWe do not claim this is true of every distributor. Many teams already have this under control with the tools they run today. The question is whether it is true for you, and if a packaged tool would serve you better, we will say so.
What gets built
A workflow layer built around your ERP, not instead of it
A custom CRM and portal here is the list of things your reps, buyers and order staff do every week, connected to the ERP that keeps the numbers.
| Field and inside sales reps | Prepare for a call, log a visit, send a sample, place an order and see its status. |
|---|---|
| Retailer or dealer buyers | Reorder, check pricing, track a shipment and pull an invoice through their own portal. |
| Order, fulfillment and finance staff | Approve exceptions and reconcile with the ERP. Every change leaves a trail. |
| Brand or principal users | Where a distributor represents outside brands, see rep activity and coverage on their own lines. |
| The CRM | The record of each account, its samples, its reorder pattern and the rep who owns it. |
|---|---|
| The ERP | Stays the system of record for inventory, pricing and invoicing. We build around it and sync with it, and do not replace it. |
| The buyer portal | Where retailer and dealer buyers order, see account pricing, track shipments and pull invoices without calling a rep. |
| Sample follow-ups and order confirmations attach to the account they belong to. |
Attributed example: built and run by David
beLoved: a distributor's own lead, sample, order and reorder path
beLoved Health is a distribution company David runs. He built the system it runs on, which used to run on Salesforce; the move off it is documented in the system's own records.
The same system holds quotes, inventory, brand and rep routes, and wholesale order history with account selection, payment locks, calculated totals and shipment summaries, described here from the distributor's side.
- Stop 1
Lead
A new retailer or dealer is recorded once, with its locations and the rep who owns it.
- Stop 2
Sample
The rep logs a sample from the account. The follow-up is scheduled, not left to memory.
- Stop 3
Order
The first order is built against live inventory, with totals calculated and payment rules enforced.
- Stop 4
Reorder
The retailer reorders through its own portal. The rep sees it on the account the same day.
Exceptions noted
What this does not show. This is one distribution company's system, built and run by one of us. It is not an independent audit, and we have not measured rep time, order volume or savings. It does not show a connector working against every ERP, or a finished Salesforce migration delivered for another company. It shows a rep-to-reorder workflow that moved off Salesforce and is in use.
How it goes
Discovery, one workflow, a pilot, then a decision
Each step produces something you keep, whether or not you continue with us.
- 01
Discovery call
We learn your rep, buyer and order process, and the ERP and systems around it. You get a short written summary.
- 02
Map one workflow
A map of one workflow, such as sample-to-order: who does what, in which system, and where the ERP boundary sits.
- 03
Scoped proposal
A fixed scope for a pilot: what gets built, for whom, how it is judged and what it costs.
- 04
Working pilot
A small group of reps or buyers use it with real data while the ERP and your current tools keep running.
- 05
Your decision
You compare the pilot with the baseline and choose: stop, extend it, or plan a wider rollout.
- 06
Rollout and support
A staged rollout to more reps or accounts, with maintenance agreed in writing.
Ownership and maintenance
The questions that decide whether this is a good idea
- 1.Who owns the code?
- You do. The code we write for you lives in your repository. Where we build on an open-source foundation, we name it and its licence before you commit.
- 2.Who maintains it after handoff?
- That is settled before the pilot, in writing: who upgrades it, secures it and answers when it breaks, and what that costs. It can be us, your team, or both.
- 3.Does the ERP have to change?
- No. The ERP stays your system of record for inventory, pricing and invoicing unless you decide otherwise. We build the workflow layer around it.
- 4.Where does customer-specific pricing live?
- That is one of the first questions we answer with you: whether a price or exception belongs in the ERP or the CRM. We test the answer in the pilot.
- 5.Will it connect to our ERP?
- We look at the ERP you actually run and test that integration during the pilot, including what happens when a sync fails. We do not claim a connector to every ERP.
- 6.Where does AI fit?
- Inside the workflow, such as flagging a reorder pattern or a pricing exception for review, with a person handling what it flags.
- 7.Distributors rate custom systems worst. Why would we build one?
- That figure is real enough to take seriously, and it mostly measures who maintains a system after it is delivered. We went looking for where the number comes from and what it actually describes: why distributors rate custom CRM lowest. It ends with the test worth running before you decide, and most of the time that test says buy.
A short decision aid
Seven things to know before you talk to anyone about this
You can gather these in an afternoon. They make every later conversation shorter, with us or with anyone else. If you are comparing products, the guide to choosing a CRM for wholesale distributors gives you a scorecard to run against any vendor. Before you trust a shortlist, it is worth knowing who wrote the “best CRM for distributors” list you are reading: we checked, and four of the six pages ranking for that phrase were published by a vendor that placed itself first.
- 01Who uses your CRM or order system every week, and what each of them does in it
- 02Which ERP you run, and what it is the system of record for
- 03The workflow that costs the most rep time each week: prep, samples, orders or follow-up
- 04How retailer or dealer buyers reorder today, and who they call when it breaks
- 05Every place customer-specific pricing lives, and who can change it
- 06Who would maintain a new system, and whether you have engineers
- 07What result would make you stop the project
Questions buyers ask
Plain answers
- How long does a pilot take?
- It depends on the workflow and its integrations. We set the length in the proposal, after the mapping step, and not before.
- What does it cost?
- We quote a fixed scope for the pilot once the workflow is mapped. We do not publish a price list, because the scope decides the cost.
- We already run a packaged ordering or portal tool. Is this still useful?
- Sometimes. If it already handles your exceptions well, we will tell you that. If reps and buyers still work around it for pricing or reorders, that gap is usually where a pilot starts.
- Do you replace our ERP?
- No. We build around it. The steps are the same whether you are replacing a CRM, building a portal on its own, or starting with neither in place.
Who you would work with
The two people who would do the work
Distributor Workflow is a site of The Goodstack Company. There is no separate sales team. The people who scope a pilot are the people who build it.
Engineering and delivery
David
David runs beLoved Health, a distribution company, so he sells into the same retailers and distributors you do. He built the system beLoved runs on after moving it off Salesforce: accounts with their locations, rep routes, samples and the follow-ups that go with them, quotes, wholesale ordering against live inventory, invoicing and affiliate payouts. He writes the code here and runs the pilots.
Product and design
Vidur
Vidur is the co-founder of Goodstack and leads product and design. He designed the original Goodstack and ran the studio with David. On this work he owns what a rep sees on a phone in a stockroom and what a buyer sees when they reorder, and he has SOC 2 experience, which matters as soon as a buyer portal holds another company's pricing.
Start with one workflow or one exception
Tell us which ERP you run, who reorders through you, and the workflow or exception that costs the most time. We will reply with what we would look at first.