Manufacturing Sales Challenges

The US manufacturing industry is expected to continue to grow in the next few years, despite all the challenges. The USA still manufactures 18% of the worlds good, including highly complex products such as electric vehicles, aircraft, and biotechnology-derived drugs and therapies. Here are some common sales challenges in the manufacturing industry along with the solutions to overcome them.

Forecasting Demand for Products

Today, there are still many manufacturers who have difficulty forecasting future demand. The main problem is that they do not have advanced reporting tools that allow them to estimate how many items they should sell in the next few months or the following year. As a result, their products fail to meet the customer demand and they suffer lower sales.

Quarterly.ai’s Sales Management Console can help manufacturers analyze sales reps’ behavior; which products they are demonstrating, when their customers usually make purchases, how many products they buy at different times etc. In addition to utilizing software to make accurate forecasts, manufacturers also need to consider external events such as currency exchange rates, rising fuel prices, current market trends, and so on. Quarterly.ai can make sure the sales and marketing teams are always up-to-date on these matters through access to public information from news sources, as well as from private data brokers (e.g. Hoovers, Discoverorg.com, LinkSV and elsewhere.)

Increasing Sales

Any manufacturer would want to be able to increase their ROI. There are several ways to do so including higher sales, increased revenue, greater profits, reduced overhead or production costs, higher employee retention, and better customer satisfaction. Manufacturers need to set multiple benchmarks for their goals. For example, instead of setting increased sales as a goal, they can increase sales during certain months in particular territories. Manufacturers can also change their marketing strategies by utilizing digital marketing, because the costs are cheaper than conventional methods (including placing advertisements on TV, newspapers, or billboards). This can be done by optimizing website content, posting advertisements through search engines and social media, and personalizing email marketing campaigns. In addition, manufacturers must be able to provide their new and existing sales reps with regular training to help increase their potential. Manufacturers need to consider using competency management software to bridge their workforce skill gaps.

Quarterly.ai helps manufacturers with each of these sales challenges. Quarterly.ai can measure sales velocity (time taken by a given rep to close a sale, as it travels through the various stages from interest to signed contract), and help management coach sales reps. Because Quarterly.ai tracks time and duration of calls, meetings and emails, it is exquisitely sensitive to detecting fluctuations in buying cycles. In addition, Quarterly.ai’s management console integrates with digital marketing solutions and CRMs, enabling managers to get a 360 degree view of their marketing campaigns, lead generation, and effectiveness on revenue forecasting. Lastly, Quarterly.ai can provide on-point coaching to the sales rep, customized per rep, enabling them to hit their marks more consistent, achieve quota regularly, and provide higher employee retention and increased customer success.

Managing Sales Leads

Another challenge often faced by manufacturers is managing and prioritizing sales leads. Many of them treat their leads in the same way, but this isn’t the right method. Every sales lead must be treated specifically since they have different characters, preferences, and needs. Manufacturers also often find it difficult to identify potential leads so they often focus on unpromising opportunities and forget to follow up with high potential leads.

Quarterly.ai’s intelligent assistant, context-relevant coaching, and management console with analytics and management recommendations can help manufacturers understand their sales leads better. This makes it easier for them to identify qualified prospects so they can focus on the best opportunities, know the status of sales leads in real time without having to ask the sales team, and distribute leads to the right salespeople.