Proton for growing distributors
Grow the business with the team you have
Proton cuts manual work, so a growing business doesn’t have to mean a longer day or another hire.
From growing distributors on Proton
“Proton has helped us to greatly reduce ramp-up time for our new sales staff. Today, it’s around 60 to 90 days — just a third of what it used to be.”
“Just the ability to summarize and share call notes easily with the branch has been huge. We used to edit and summarize them manually, now it’s just three clicks. It’s probably gained us a day each week.”
“Proton’s added one day’s worth of sales per month.”
“The ‘due to reorder’ feature has made our sales team much more proactive in discussing new sales opportunities with customers, rather than just reacting to incoming orders. This has helped us increase the order size per invoice.”
“Beforehand, depending on the amount of SKUs, it could have taken a week, two weeks to gather all the relevant information and images. Now with the PIM, farm to table, it could be a matter of hours.”
“Proton is a sales stimulant, helping us grow our business through recommended products.”
“Seeing how Proton’s three key components — CRM capabilities, AI-driven insights, and website integration — overlap was eye-opening. Integrating these drives revenue and enhances communication.”
Customer story
Dakota Riggers’ sales manager estimates 5–6 hours saved a week
At Dakota Riggers, a family-owned distributor approaching 50 employees, Sales Manager Casey Nickell estimates Proton saves him 5–6 hours a week on call notes, research, and meeting prep.
The team uses Proton PIM, CRM, and Pronto together: product data gets enriched once, reps can find answers, and the next person can see the customer’s history and follow-up.
Customer story“There’s a better cadence of following up on things … Now everybody knows, hey, these quotes are outstanding.”
Casey NickellSales Manager, Dakota RiggersThe platform
Everything you need to grow, in one platform
Every module runs on the same connected data, so start with the problem costing you most and build from there.
Know who to call and what to sell
Find spending gaps, at-risk accounts, and cross-sell opportunities. Give each rep a plan for who to call and what to discuss.
Talk to your business data
Ask Pronto, your built-in AI teammate, in plain language about your customers, inventory, products, orders, and more. It uses the data connected to Proton to answer, and you can keep asking follow-up questions. Your team gets the information they need without waiting for a report or an expert.
- Nitrile glove purchases down 28% vs. last quarter
- Last glove order: 12 cases, six weeks ago
- 40 cases available · stock checked in the ERP
Take the typing out of quotes and orders
A customer emails a list or sends a PDF. Your rep checks the matches, handles anything flagged for review, and approves the draft before it goes to the ERP. Less time copying line items means more time to help customers. For quotes that need price guidance, early-access Pricing AI recommends a customer-specific price within your margin rules. Your rep decides whether to use it.
“Can you quote these 14 lines? Same pricing as last time if you can.”
Know who to call, what to sell, and when to follow up
Proton CRM brings account history, notes, quotes, and next steps together. It uses buying patterns to flag overdue reorders, potential product gaps, and declining accounts. Reps get a place to start each day, and someone covering an account can pick up the conversation.
Help customers buy and know what to stock next
Proton eCommerce AI uses buying history from online, phone, and counter orders to recommend relevant products on your existing site, without a rep making every suggestion. Inventory AI, in early access, forecasts demand from the same sales history, and purchasing approves any drafted purchase orders.
Brass ball valve, 1 inDue to reorder
PTFE tape, ¾ inBought together
Thread sealant, 8 ozOrdered by phoneAdoption
Getting your team to use it is our job
We train your team on the work they already do, starting with a problem they want solved.
Questions growing distributors ask
Yes. Proton helps your existing team spend more time selling and serving customers by handling repetitive work. A rep can start with account context and suggested opportunities already in front of them; a CSR can review a drafted quote instead of retyping an email. Start with the bottleneck holding growth back, then add workflows as the business grows.
Proton turns your ERP data into useful next steps: customers to call, quotes to follow up, and product information your team can find quickly. It’s an AI platform for distributors, so CRM, product data, and quote and order workflows can share the same foundation. Our in-house engineers connect your ERP—including legacy or custom systems—and configure Proton around the work you want to improve.
Proton analyzes buying history to surface customers whose spending has dropped, products they’ve stopped ordering, and categories where there’s room to sell more. Reps get those opportunities alongside account context and follow-up reminders, giving them a useful starting point for the day. They still bring the relationship and judgment. Proton helps them arrive with a reason to call.
Yes. Proton reads customer emails and PDFs, matches requested items to your catalog, and builds draft quotes and orders. It flags uncertain matches and missing details for your rep to resolve. Our engineers configure the ERP handoff during implementation; after a rep reviews and approves a draft, it follows that workflow. Less retyping gives your team more time to respond to customers and follow up on quotes.
Yes. Proton PIM finds specifications and images, fills missing attributes, and helps organize product information in one place. Your team chooses the sources and standards it trusts, then reviews and approves the proposed changes. We can begin with one or two priority categories and expand from there, giving sales and digital teams better information with less time spent hunting for individual specs.
We start by making Proton useful in a rep’s actual day. Call preparation, customer opportunities, and follow-ups give them a reason to open it. Then we train them using your accounts and sales process, with an internal champion who can help reinforce the habits. Customer Success supports adoption after launch, while your managers keep the team focused on the work and results that matter.
Proton leads implementation, and our in-house engineers handle the ERP connection. We’ve successfully integrated with every ERP our customers have brought us, including legacy and custom systems. Your team provides a project owner, system access, workflow decisions, and time for data validation and training. We put those contributions into a clear project plan, with a scope, timeline, and named responsibilities built around your first workflows.
We agree a starting point and a few practical measures tied to your first workflows. For quoting, track time to prepare a quote, follow-up coverage, and conversion. For sales, look at call preparation time, meaningful customer conversations, and growth in existing accounts. Then we review progress with your team, so you can see where time is being saved, which opportunities are moving forward, and what to improve next.
