By Paul Hogendoorn
Most manufacturing companies I know have only a handful of customers, and the sales process is a matter of keeping your customers happy and winning bids that come their way by offering the most competitive proposal.
The sales effort, in most manufacturing companies, is done collectively by relationship managers, engineers, estimators and project planners. There’s little, if any, effort spent on ‘new customer acquisition’, because the business opportunities generally came to the manufacturer, and the manufacturer generally didn’t have to go out to find new customers.
But that’s changing for many these days.
Business development now includes finding new customers for the products the company produces or has the ability and capacity to produce – and that involves a skill set and experiences that most manufacturing companies don’t have. They may have great people in the sales management, customer relationship, and engineering and estimating roles, but prospecting and pursuing new opportunities from outside their current circle of existing or known accounts is not their strength or core competency, and it may not even be something they are comfortable doing.
So, how do you build up an effective sales team (or empower even a single salesperson), if you don’t already have one? That’s the challenge many manufacturers are now facing.
Here are my top 4 tips for manufacturing companies facing this challenge:
- Know the difference between “easy sales” and “hard-to-make sales”. Most companies (including non-manufacturing companies) naturally gravitate towards the hard-to-make sales, without even being aware of it. This happens for one of two reasons: The first is when a company is convinced of the merits and advantages of its products or offerings over its competitors, and the second is when the company is convinced, they have a solution for something their target market and customer doesn’t already recognize they have a need for. If this is you or your company, you are “selling uphill”, and your sales effort is exponentially harder – its more time consuming, costly and frustrating, than it needs to be.
- Marketing is not talking, teaching and convincing; it’s listening, learning and adapting. Many companies believe that marketing activities are supposed to fill the opportunity hopper by getting your name, product and service out there, and then your sales department follows up on all the leads and is tasked with converting them to sales. This only works if you have deep pockets and a long runway, and it’s a near certain guarantee for disappointment and failure for small and medium size manufacturing companies.
- Look for problems, because problems are just opportunities in disguise. A solution that solves someone’s known and recognized problem is an easy sale; its far easier than first having to convince your target market that they have a problem just to be able to then have to convince them that you have a solution they’re still not really convinced they have. Find the existing and understood problem, whether its technical, financial, schedule or operational, and show how your company can solve that for them. A second advantage of big and near-unsolvable problems is that they thin out the list of competitors; let the scope and complexity of the problem deter others, but not you. Its your best point of differentiation.
- Be where your target customers will be, and then be prepared when they come looking for a new supplier or solution provider for the problem they are looking to solve. Don’t send your pitch team when you really need to send you listening, learning and adapting team.
And lastly, I’d suggest considering hiring an entrepreneurial coach. Why? Because most manufacturing companies I know have entrepreneurial roots, but over time and through years or even generations of success, many have lost their entrepreneurial instincts, or they’ve gone a bit rusty. The long-term hope of the company shouldn’t be placed on a marketing budget, or a new sales strategy, or a financial or institutional consultant; the best bet (IMO) is on the entrepreneurial acumen of its leader and its leadership team.
If this is a topic of interest to you, contact me at [email protected] to set up a quick discovery call, or check out www.tpi-3.ca/blog for more insights on growing your business.
