CRM for timber and wood products suppliers

A timber and wood products supplier sells sawn timber, panels, flooring, decking, veneer and engineered wood to builders' merchants, joinery shops, furniture makers, contractors and export buyers. Everything about the product varies: species, grade, dimension, moisture, treatment and certification. A CRM for this trade has to carry those details on the quote, because a wrong grade is not a small mistake, and it has to keep up with prices that move.

In PromptLab, a quote is built from your products and a customer price list, a sample board is tracked on the deal, and the confirmed order is a sales order on the account with its trade terms. The wider view is on the distributors page and the manufacturers page.

How does a timber supplier actually sell?

The buyer decides on the product, and the product is a list of attributes. A joinery shop wants kiln-dried oak in a particular grade and thickness. A merchant wants a pack of treated softwood in standard lengths, on a regular truck. An export buyer wants a container of one species, graded to a rule, with the paperwork to clear customs.

Timber is natural, so two lots of the same grade are not identical. That is why buyers ask for samples and why they come back to a supplier whose lots are consistent. The relationship is built on trust in the grade.

Prices also move with the market and the season, which makes quotes perishable. A price given on Monday may not hold on Friday.

What do buyers ask before they order?

• Species, grade and dimensions. Hold each as a product field, so a rep searching for "oak, FAS, 32 mm" finds the right product and quotes it.
• Moisture and drying. Buyers who build furniture or flooring ask how dry the timber is. Record the standard you supply to as a product field, and attach any test record to the account's Files tab.
• Treatment. Pressure-treated, thermally modified or untreated. This affects use class and price.
• Certification. Many buyers ask for chain-of-custody certification. State what your lots carry in a product field and keep the certificate on the account. Check the wording with your certifier before you promise it in a quote.
• Volume and delivery. Cubic metres per month, packs per truck, containers per quarter. These drive the price and the freight.
• A sample. A board, a veneer sheet or a decking offcut sent for approval before the order.

How do samples work for timber?

A sample for a joinery shop or a flooring buyer is a short stick or a board. It is cheap to send and easy to forget. The buyer judges colour, grain and finish, and then talks to colleagues, which can take weeks.

PromptLab has sample tracking on every plan, with samples on the deal. Log each one with the species and grade in the sample's custom fields, and set the deal's next follow-up date. A workflow can create a task when a sample changes status. How to track product samples shows the routine, and how to turn samples into orders covers the call after it.

How do you quote when prices move?

Quotes in PromptLab have the statuses Draft, Pending and Approved, but no expiry field. So put the validity in words. Write "Price valid to Friday" in the quote's Notes field, which prints on the PDF, and add a follow-up date on the deal for that day.

A customer price list sets the price for each account. Editing a list reprices every quote linked to it, so when the market moves, put the new prices in a new list and quote from that one. Old quotes then keep the price you agreed. How to manage customer price lists covers the routine.

For export, put the trade terms on the sales order. PromptLab stores any of the 11 Incoterms 2020 rules, and an account can keep its preferred terms, which fill in a new order. What is Incoterms explains them.

What pipeline stages fit a timber supplier?

PromptLab has one deal pipeline per workspace. Use a field to separate merchant stock orders from export containers and project supply, and a saved view for each.

What must the CRM track?

• Product attributes (species, grade, dimension, drying, treatment, certification) as product fields.
• A price list per account, with new lists for new prices.
• Samples on the deal.
• Quote notes for the validity and delivery window.
• Sales orders with trade terms, payment terms and planned delivery date.
• Seasonality. Merchants buy ahead of the building season. Note each account's usual peak, and book a call two weeks before it.
• Documents such as certificates and export paperwork on the Files tab.

How do you set this up in PromptLab?

1. 1

   Import accounts, contacts and products

   Bring them in from CSV or Excel. Add product custom fields for species, grade, dimensions, drying and treatment.

2. 2

   Create a deal field for the channel

   Add a field for merchant, joinery, export or project, and an expected close date as a custom date field.

3. 3

   Set up price lists

   Create a list for each key account and a standard list for the rest. Enter the prices in the app, and add a new list when the market moves.

4. 4

   Quote with a validity line

   Pick the products and the list on each quote, add delivery as a named additional cost, and write the validity in the Notes field.

5. 5

   Raise the order

   Create the sales order on the account with the Incoterm, payment terms and delivery date. Approving a quote does not create it for you.

6. 6

   Remind yourself before the season

   Create a task on each seasonal account two weeks before its usual peak, so you call before the merchant orders from someone else.

How does PromptLab compare for timber suppliers?

Swipe the table sideways to see every CRM →

Zoho CRM is the value pick among the big generalists, with paid plans from $14 a user a month billed annually. Quotes, sales orders and price books start at $23, and samples aren't modelled. monday CRM is friendly for building a CRM from boards, with quotes from its $12 Basic plan, billed annually, but no sales orders, samples or price lists.

Attio is one of the best-designed of the new AI-native CRMs, from $35 a seat a month, billed annually, with free seats for three people. Quotes, price lists, sales orders and samples are left for you to build. For a side-by-side look at one of them, see Zoho CRM vs PromptLab.

Frequently asked questions

What should a CRM for a timber supplier include?

It should hold product attributes such as species and grade, a price list per customer, quotes, sales orders with trade terms, samples, and certificates on each account. PromptLab includes these on every plan from $11.99 per user per month.

Can I put a price expiry on a quote?

There is no expiry field on a quote. Write the validity in the quote's Notes field, which prints on the PDF, and set a follow-up date on the deal.

How do I keep old quotes at the old price when the market moves?

Editing a customer price list reprices every quote linked to it. Create a new list for the new prices and quote from that one.

Can the CRM handle export orders?

A sales order stores any of the 11 Incoterms 2020 rules, payment terms and a planned delivery date, and you can attach export documents to the account's Files tab.

Is there a free trial?

Basic and Professional come with a 14-day free trial, with no card needed. There is no free plan.