Top 5 Problems with Distribution Business Systems (And Why They Stunt Growth)

If you run a distribution business, you know that "growth" is a double-edged sword. More orders mean more revenue, but they also mean more data entry, more complexity, and more opportunities for things to crack under pressure.

At Cogent, we often see businesses that are brilliant at physical distribution—moving boxes from A to B, but are struggling with digital distribution, moving data from Sales to Ops.

When your People, Processes, and Systems aren’t aligned, friction occurs. Here are the top 5 problems we see in distribution business systems today, and how they might be quietly killing your efficiency.

1. The "Front Office vs. Back Office" Wall (Data Silos)

The most common issue in distribution is the "Great Wall" between your revenue teams and your operations teams.

• The Scenario: Your sales team lives in a CRM (like HubSpot) to manage relationships and deals. Your warehouse team lives in an ERP (like Orderwise, NetSuite, Business Central) to manage stock and shipping.

• The Problem: These two systems often don't speak the same language. A salesperson closes a deal in the CRM, but the Ops/Customer Service team has no idea until someone manually sends an email or hands over a piece of paper.

• The Cost: Speed. In the time it takes for data to hop over the wall, stock might be sold to someone else, or shipping deadlines might be missed.

2. The "Manual Entry" Trap

In an age of AI and automation, it is shocking how many distribution businesses still rely on human beings to copy-paste data from one screen to another.

• The Scenario: An order comes in via the website or sales team. An admin then has to manually re-key that order into the ERP for fulfilment.

• The Problem: Humans are tired, distracted, and prone to error. A simple typo in a postcode or a SKU number can result in a failed delivery or a wrong item shipped.

• The Cost: It’s not just the cost of the return; it’s the cost of the admin time to fix it and the damage to your reputation. Integration (like our OW Sync) isn't just a luxury; it's an error-prevention strategy.

3. Inventory Blindness (Selling Air)

Nothing destroys trust faster than selling a product you don't actually have.

• The Scenario: A salesperson sees "5 in stock" on their spreadsheet from this morning. They close the deal. But the warehouse shipped those 5 units an hour ago.

• The Problem: Without a frequent sync between your ERP and your sales tools, your sales team is essentially guessing.

• The Cost: You end up with the dreaded "backorder apology" email. Doing this too often labels you as unreliable in the eyes of your customers.

4. Reactive Customer Service ("Where is my order?")

If your customer service team spends 80% of their day answering "Has this shipped yet?", your systems are failing you.

• The Scenario: Customer data is locked in the ERP. When a customer calls Sales/Support, that agent has to put them on hold, call the warehouse, or log into a system they don't understand just to find a tracking number.

• The Problem: Information is gatekept. It’s not accessible to the people who need it (the customer facing teams).

• The Cost: High operational costs and frustrated customers who expect Amazon-like transparency.

5. Buying Software to Fix a "People Problem"

This is the most subtle but dangerous problem of all.

• The Scenario: A business notices efficiency is low, so they buy an expensive new piece of software hoping it will be a "silver bullet."

• The Problem: As we say at Cogent, slow growth isn't usually a systems problem; it's a misalignment problem. If you automate a broken process, you just get bad results faster.

• The Solution: Before you buy more tools, you need to map your process. You need to understand the "Who, What, and Why" before you touch the "How." This is the core of our Cogent Blueprint™, aligning the people and the process before configuring the system.

Ready to fix the disconnect?

If these problems sound familiar, you don't need more software, you need better alignment. Whether it's connecting Orderwise, NetSuite, or Business Central to HubSpot or simply mapping out your sales-to-fulfilment journey, we can help.