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Choosing the Right CRM System for Your Cannabis Company

With rapid growth comes a complex challenge for many cannabis companies—keeping track of it all. The more complicated your supply chain and the more prospecting you do, the more chances you have for losing the sense of where everything is from (not something you can let slide in this heavily scrutinized industry) and losing sight into your prospects, your customers, what they’ve purchased, and their preferences. Keeping the growth going often requires a CRM (customer relationship management) system that works for you. But which one is a good fit for your company?

We posed that question in a recent episode of The Joint with guest speaker Tony Carrozza, the CEO of HyPerformance Sales Coaching. Carrozza works with businesses to drive greater top and bottom line growth in a variety of industries.

In the short video, Carrozza highlighted the unique challenges for cannabis companies as their products or services go through every part of the supply chain, from cultivators, to processor and extractors, test labs, distribution companies, packaging and dispensaries. And he noted that robust features and capabilities are needed to help companies meet state regulations, compliance requirements, as well as integration efforts in connecting their various processes and systems and ensure everything runs smoothly.

What to Look for in a Cannabis CRM System

Carrozza listed four main drivers for having a CRM system that has been designed for cannabis companies:

  • Dealing with state regulations and restrictions: The cannabis industry is dealing with a high number of regulations and restrictions. This ups the need for a CRM system that allows your company to adhere to regulations, maintain compliance, and generate the data required by governing bodies.
  • Integrating with other operational tools and systems: Today’s cannabis CRM products can be integrated with a POS (point of sale) system, online sales, or as a complement to already existing ordering, inventory, and compliance tools. The result: a coordination between the front end and back end operations of your cannabis business.
  • Marketing automation and integration: CRM designed for the needs of cannabis companies can also help you take advantage of marketing automation and integration as the most effective and efficient process for getting messaging and products in front of current customers and prospects on a continuous basis. It is the main driving force for lead creation and management.
  • Leveraging industry knowledge: It’s always good to be working with a partner or supplier who understands your industry and uses the same terminology. They can provide CRM software that has been developed and improved over multiple generations and have enhanced it with a cannabis client in mind.

Which CRM companies should you consider? Examples mentioned by Carrozza included companies that have their own feature sets and capabilities, so due diligence for the right fit is necessary. Among those worth looking into, according to Carrozza:

  • Baker: Calling itself the “leading CRM for the cannabis industry,” this company focuses on helping their CRM users develop and maintain a meaningful relationship with their prospects and customers.
  • PipelineDeals: Use this platform to visualize and understand your sales pipeline and also build and nurture your relationship with existing customers.
  • Soro: This company’s cannabis software helps streamline operations and solve problems for cannabis producers and processors. It integrates sales and fulfillment, inventory management, CRM, seed-to-sale traceability, and business-aware analytics into an easy-to-use software suite.
  • SpringBig: This is a dispensary loyalty marketing product and CRM in one. As a cannabis-specific CRM platform, it gives you customer service, sales, and marketing options for increasing customer satisfaction and retention.
  • Webjoint: With a stated mission to connect the cannabis industry through creative software solutions that benefit all aspects of the supply chain, this company provides retailers with business tools to maximize consumer access to cannabis.

Carrozza said the right fit for your cannabis company will depend on the particular needs of your business. Want to know more? He offered another helpful tip as companies research CRM systems—listen to “CRM for the Cannabis Industry,” the third episode of Kukuza Associates’ ongoing executive event series, The Joint, and find out.

Lauren Kershner keeps the marketing engine humming at Kukuza Associates. She joined parent company RoseRyan in 2016 and runs campaigns and programs, digital marketing and more. She also hosts The Joint, an ongoing event series for Kukuza Associates featuring hot topics in the cannabis space. See all Kukuza events here.

 

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