CRM alternative for wholesale distributors

Grow revenue with the customers you already have.

Every night, Acto analyzes your order data and tells your reps which customer is worth the next visit, and what to talk about once they're there. Right inside your CRM as a sidebar, or as a lean CRM alternative with its own app.

From order data to next step
Order data
Acto
“Miller: wear parts are due.”
Revenue decline
Order decline
Lost product categories
Missed reorder
Churn risk
Product suggestions
Product bundles
Likely reorder
Win-back
Revenue growth
Order growth
Low revenue by category
Substitute products
Margin decline
Margin growth
Open quote
Contact frequency
The problem

CRMs were built for new-business pipelines.

A CRM follows a contact until the deal closes. In wholesale distribution, that's when the real work starts: 60 to 90% of revenue comes from existing customers.

What a CRM tracks

New business
Lead and qualification
Who's interested, and how far along are they?
Quote and pipeline
Which deals are open, and how likely are they to close?
Closed
Won or lost. That's where the logic ends.

What matters in wholesale

Existing accounts
Buying rhythm
Who's ordering less often than usual, overall or by product.
Share of wallet
What similar customers buy that's missing from this cart.
Win-back
Who's gone quiet, plus the right product to bring them back.
What's at stake
4–17%

of customers walk away from a distributor every year.

At 10% churn, about two-thirds of your new business just replaces the revenue you lost. The warning signs are right there in your order data: a customer orders less often, a category goes missing. A CRM was never built to catch that.

And what about the CRM in the field?
49%

of conversations: the CRM gets little to no use in the field.

8%

of conversations: reps in the field actually use the CRM well.

6×

more planning runs on gut feel than on the CRM.

Source: Lagebild 2026, our study on wholesale sales (German)

Under the hood
What Acto calculates

Inside: built the way distributors do the math.

Buying rhythms, product categories, thousands of SKUs per customer. Algorithms, machine learning models and AI agents crunch every existing account before a single signal reaches your sales team.

How a signal gets built
Technische Zeichnung der Predictive Analytics von Acto: sieben Stufen vom Datenimport bis zum Rückfluss
Parts list
  1. 01
    Data import
    Order, customer and product data
  2. 02
    KPIs
    Algorithms
  3. 03
    Risks and opportunities
    Machine Learning
  4. 04
    Context
    Language model (LLM)
  5. 05
    Reasoning
    AI agents
  6. 06
    Output
    Outlook, CRM, Acto app
  7. 07
    Feedback loop
    Feedback from sales
The view
What field reps see

Outside: built the way field reps work.

Prepped for a meeting in two minutes. Reps only see the result: which customer, why, and what to bring up. In Outlook, in the CRM or in the Acto app.

Explore the field sales app
Acto-App auf dem Smartphone: Gesprächsleitfaden für Weber GmbH mit einem Risiko und einer ChanceActo app on a smartphone: meeting prep for Weber Painting with one risk and one opportunity
Field sales today
8%

Only 8% of our conversations with distributors went like this: “Our reps actually use the CRM on the road.”
In almost half, it gets little to no use out there.

With Acto

So simple, reps actually use it.

Acto is built for life on the road. Prepping a meeting takes about 2 minutes, reports get dictated, and everything runs in one app or right inside the CRM. Here's what a week with Acto looks like:

Monday morning

Plan the week

Build the weekly plan and see which customers need something right now.

Außendienstler am Küchentisch mit Laptop, daneben eine Auswertung zum Wachstum je ProduktgruppeField rep at the kitchen table with a laptop, next to a chart of growth by product categoryAI-GENERATED IMAGE

Spot the customers who'd otherwise slip through the cracks.

In the parking lot

Quick question

Revenue, orders, last purchase: type the question and Acto answers from your data.

Außendienstler im Auto auf einem Parkplatz, auf dem Smartphone eine Frage zum Umsatz eines Kunden mit AntwortField rep in his car in a parking lot, asking Acto about a customer's revenue on his phoneAI-GENERATED IMAGE

Answers in seconds. No digging through three different systems.

At the customer

Show up with a reason

Order history, opportunities and talking points are ready in the app.

Außendienstler im Gespräch im Verkaufsraum eines SHK-Großhändlers, daneben eine Upsell-Chance und die Kaufhistorie in der AppField rep talking to a plumbing and heating customer, next to an upsell opportunity and purchase history in the appAI-GENERATED IMAGE

Walk in prepared after about two minutes of prep.

After the meeting

Dictate the report

Visit report by voice. Acto pulls out the to-dos and syncs everything to the CRM.

Außendienstler mit Smartphone im Gespräch mit einem Kunden in einer Metallbau-WerkstattField rep with a smartphone talking to a customer in a metal fabrication shopAI-GENERATED IMAGE

The report's done before the next meeting starts.

Two ways to run it

Inside the CRM you already have. Or on its own.

Both run on the same analysis, refreshed every night and tuned to your terms and rules. As a sidebar in Salesforce, SAP, Dynamics and Outlook, or standalone in the browser and as an app.

KUNDENAKTE · IHR CRMACTO-SEITENLEISTESALESFORCE · SAP · MICROSOFT DYNAMICS · OUTLOOKODER EIGENSTÄNDIG: IM BROWSER UND ALS APPCUSTOMER RECORD · YOUR CRMACTO SIDEBARSALESFORCE · SAP · MICROSOFT DYNAMICS · OUTLOOKOR STANDALONE: IN THE BROWSER AND AS AN APP
Option · standalone

No CRM: in the browser and as an app.

For distributors who find a traditional CRM too heavy, or who don't have one at all. Acto plans the week by potential, preps every meeting in about two minutes, and turns a dictated recap into the visit report.

Explore the field sales app ↗
Option · with your CRM

In your CRM: Acto as a sidebar.

Your team keeps working in Salesforce, SAP or Microsoft Dynamics. Acto sits right next to the customer record, and in Outlook too, with the reason this customer needs attention now and the talking points for the conversation.

All integrations ↗
Built for wholesale

More than a digital Rolodex. A tool that thinks ahead.

Acto isn't a CRM. A CRM waits for someone to type something in, and in field sales, that rarely happens. Acto goes straight to where wholesale revenue actually comes from: the customers already buying from you.

Focus on what matters

Buying rhythm, gaps in the product mix, churn: Acto shows what changed for each customer and why it matters. No required fields. No pipeline babysitting.

Know-how stays in-house

Visit reports and field experience feed into every new meeting prep. What a rep knows about a customer doesn't retire when they do.

Easy to use

Prepping a meeting takes about two minutes, and reports get dictated. When it's this little effort, people actually use it.

Learns as it goes

Acto learns your terms, your abbreviations and how your business works. When a rep rejects an alert and says why, that reason shapes the next analysis for that customer.

Here's what that looks like
Example · Siebert, restaurant customer
Data plus experience
Order data · ERP
Zero orders for three weeks
Signal: missed reorder
Visit report
“Closed for vacation until mid-month”
Dictated after the last visit
House rule
A summer slowdown in food service isn't a red flag
Set by your sales team
Context
With context
Siebert hasn't ordered in three weeks. No need to panic: they're closed for vacation until mid-month.
Reminder set for their first day back
Without context
“Siebert is about to churn. Call them now.”
False alarm: a sales call in the middle of their vacation
Case studies

Same reps. Same routes. More revenue.

Distributors using Acto grow revenue per rep with more upsell and cross-sell, less churn, and more time in front of customers.

Böllhoff: measured against non-users during the pilot. Plate: plus 35% less time between orders.
FAQ

Questions about Acto and your CRM.

  • Is Acto a CRM?

    Not a traditional one. Acto focuses on existing customers: who needs attention, why, and what's worth bringing up. That's why smaller distributors in particular use Acto as a lean CRM alternative.

  • Do we have to replace our CRM?

    No. If you're on Salesforce, SAP or Microsoft Dynamics, Acto shows up there as a sidebar, and in Outlook too. Your team stays in the tools they already know.

  • How does our data get to Acto?

    Via export, SFTP or database, depending on your system. We recommend connecting through an exchange server. That way your ERP stays untouched and never takes on extra load.

  • Will our field reps actually use it?

    That's the question we hear most. It's exactly why Acto is built for the minutes between meetings: prepped in about two minutes, visit reports by voice. In the pilot, we set daily usage as a target up front.

  • What happens if we switch ERPs?

    The handoff is seamless. Acto keeps running on your current system and gets switched over to the new ERP once the migration is done. No second data project in the middle of your migration.

  • Where is our data stored, and who can see it?

    Your data is stored in Frankfurt, Germany, and processed in compliance with GDPR. Language models run in data centers inside the EU. Predictive models are trained exclusively on your company's business data, with no personal data and no mixing with other customers. The language models are general-purpose models and are never fine-tuned on your data.

Book a demo

Which setup fits your sales team?

Give us 30 minutes. We'll look at your systems and your field team, then show you how similar distributors run Acto: inside the CRM or as a standalone app.

— free consultation
— demo with examples from your industry
— live in 4 to 6 weeks
Book a call