5 Challenges for sales professionals in manufacturing (and how to deal with them)

Your customer knows you more than you think

You may feel nostalgic for the time when prospects filled out a form on your website and waited for a phone call from you inviting them to a demo. Maybe a few people still reach out to you this way, but the majority of your customers are already one step ahead. They make sure they are well-informed before they contact you. They typically know which technology they want, have compared products from different suppliers, and read reviews from similar buyers.

The role of sales has therefore also changed drastically. Buyers shy away from hard sales. Instead, they need someone to inform and guide them in their decision-making. A salesperson is now, in a sense, a consultant who assists the buyer in their purchase. But online presence is also crucial in this process, whether through social media, e-commerce, or a customer portal. Customers want 24/7 access to information that helps them with their purchase.

Your pricing is complex

Manufacturing companies are seeing an increasing demand for customization and variety. Companies must be more flexible to meet their customers’ specific requests. Companies that traditionally manufacture and stock based on sales forecasts are increasingly forced to move toward custom orders and follow a Build-To-Order (BTO) model, where customized products are only made based on an order.

This naturally makes your pricing more complicated. Customers want quick information from your sales organization, and they want to know the right customized price as soon as possible. If that process doesn’t run smoothly, a poor customer experience will result, and at worst, you risk losing the sale. In such a context, manually creating quotes with traditional office software (email, word processors, spreadsheets) is slow, inconsistent, and prone to mistakes. A high-performing Configure Price Quote (CPQ) system, integrated with your CRM and ERP systems, is no longer just a nice-to-have but a must-have.

You’re short on staff

Due to rising customization and variable pricing, the sales process is becoming increasingly complex and labor-intensive. The personalized approach your customers expect requires a significant investment of time and energy from your sales organization. Additionally, it's no secret that the manufacturing industry is facing a shortage of skilled workers. This shortage is felt across all departments of companies, including the sales organization.

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help this problem. There was already an aging workforce and a need to quickly train younger employees, but now a global pandemic has caused an increased turnover of employees seeking better opportunities in a job market with a labor shortage.

The solution here isn’t straightforward, but a high-performing CRM, ERP, and CPQ system can certainly provide relief. A complete solution like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales helps sales teams track information about customers, prospects, and other contacts, move more quickly from lead to order, and respond faster to emerging customer inquiries.

You don’t know what the customer wants (or when they want it)

Responding quickly to a customer’s request is good. Responding even faster and anticipating that request is better. By the way, do you have any idea how many sales you miss because you don’t know what the customer wants and when they want it? There’s a lot of data to collect: how customers respond to (online) campaigns, how they use loyalty programs, how often they’ve bought in the past, how often they’ve contacted the helpdesk, and what they do on your website and social media.

All that data is valuable input that can give salespeople more insight into a customer’s needs. Unfortunately, that data is often scattered across the organization. With a solution like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, you can bring all that information together in one overview. Moreover, by using artificial intelligence, it's possible to make helpful predictions and recommendations based on your data.

Your sales team doesn’t communicate with marketing

More than in a B2C environment, sales and marketing teams in manufacturing often work in silos. And that’s obviously a shame. Information from the sales team often trickles down to the marketing department in bits and pieces, making it difficult for marketing to develop the right tools. On the other hand, sales also lacks insight into the activities of the marketing team, and they often fail to respond to important Marketing Qualified Leads.

Of course, this is primarily an organizational problem. But technology can play a facilitating role here too. For example, with a shared sales and marketing platform, both teams have enough insight into all customer interactions. A platform like Microsoft Dynamics 365 makes it possible for sales and marketing to come to shared insights and ensures that both teams speak with one voice and can address customer needs together.