Manufacturing is an industry grounded in technology. And while many businesses are in constant pursuit of ways to improve their production line, less consider how to fully use technology to handle the stages prior to this, like marketing and sales. It’s time for B2B manufacturers to take advantage of new technology and properly implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to enable sales growth.

Giving your sales team access to digital resources allows them efficiency and accuracy and ensures that they can meet changing customer demands, as businesses now expect a more personable B2C-like experience. Additionally, manufacturers need to adapt to move to digital sales channels such as eCommerce. In 2020, Statista found B2B eCommerce to be worth $14.9 trillion, more than five times larger than its B2C counterpart, proving that technology implementation is effective. With bigger financial opportunities available, and 87% of B2B buyers willing to spend more for a better customer experience, changing the model of operation will make a huge difference to your business.

Previously, this would have been time-consuming and inefficient; but with a CRM aligning data from various departments into one location, creating a single source of truth, sales processes can be transformed. Businesses now have the opportunity to use a single technology platform to improve sales efficiency, reduce costs, and move online for increased market reach.

The impact of changes in buyer behaviour

The modern B2B buyer doesn’t just want a simplified experience; they expect it. Forbes reports that 96% of customers will take their business elsewhere if they receive poor service; but with the right technology in place, this can be avoided. CRMs offer the ideal omnichannel experience, bringing all the information you need into one location to improve the CX.

An ecommerceDB study found the UK eCommerce market has reached an annual revenue of £104 billion, and predicts 3% growth annually until 2025. This growth highlights the significance of self-service and the necessity to implement it into your business’ customer-facing divisions. CRMs help align your different sales communication channels, so you can assist customers however they choose to shop. This can be in-person, on a video conference or through ecommerce; and your preparation will attract customers looking for a simple experience. McKinsey found B2B buyers tend to use 10 or more channels, and complete most research themselves before speaking to a salesperson.

With CRM implementation, you have access to information regarding prospects’ behaviour on your website, and can create a more B2C-like experience. This might be as simple as offering price transparency, personalisation and increased convenience. With 89% of B2B researchers using the Internet before engaging on a specific brand’s site, give them a reason to come to yours.

All this has significant implications for the sales process, the way that sales should be conducted and how you meet buyer’s expectations during their purchase. First though, you need to get the basics right.

Getting the basics right

Like its traditional counterpart, digitising your sales process begins with establishing a basic platform grounded in the possession of relevant data - because there’s no sale without the understanding of customer requirements. This starts with communication. As B2B customers now use various platforms for research including telephony and emails, you need to ensure the information between them is available in one location. This allows consistency and professionalism with every interaction. Key areas that benefit include:

Tracking customer behaviour
Making information easily accessible
Quickly responding to queries
Generating quotes
Stock-checking product availability
Delivery tracking

Increased sophistication to support the full buyer journey

Once you have the essentials in place, you can focus on developing your sales process. This includes sharing data with marketing and customer operations to generate more sales.

Allowing each department access to the same information means your customer can pick up their buyer’s journey at any time, and continue from the same point. As modern B2B buyers want a more personable, B2C experience, a single source of truth allows each of your department to provide the buyer with a consistent experience that shows you understand their requirements. The customer should be considered as more than just a recipient of sales; the collaboration across departments builds a more well-rounded understanding of their requirements, and helps the changes of achieving their custom.

A CRM tracks the information needed for a well-rounded understanding of your customer, including their behavioural patterns and browsing habits. This is made possible by merging across the departments in your front-office. For example, sales can use customer service feedback to tailor the customer experience when arranging meetings, marketing can use information to create personas that their campaigns are aimed toward, and customer service can link the findings to chatbots, ticketing systems, and other after-sale tools. Tools can also be used to upsell, like product packages that are often purchased together.

Expand to new channels

Like all aspects of the manufacturing industry, the market model is changing. The introduction of CRMs and other digitalised sales tools has reduced distributors’ ownership of the end-customer relationship, largely in part to Covid-19 and the necessity of the customer finding their own resolutions.

B2B end customers now want to engage directly with manufacturers to cut out the middleman and receive a more efficient, simpler service. One key way to ensure this is worthwhile for your customer is by providing a customer portal. This will be home to a range of services like order tracking, invoice payment and account details, made accessible from any location, outside the customer service team’s hours. This can be extended into an eCommerce platform to enable prospects to buy directly from you.

However, direct end-customer contact can alienate your channel partners by taking on some services they traditionally would provide. Although convenient for your customers and your own business, this can reduce the necessity of other companies. One way to avoid this conflict is to build a digital marketplace that will help match suppliers to buyers based on the customer’s own requirements. Successful examples include:

Toyota

The Japanese vehicle manufacturing conglomerate has an official eBay store to sell genuine parts for Toyota and Lexus vehicles. It helps the company serve customers with older vehicles more easily, and allows access to eBay’s customer portal for account management, order tracking and other essential services. The store is a great success, with more than 100,000 items sold and 100% positive customer feedback.

Satair

In 2019, Satair revolutionised the aerospace industry with the introduction of a digital spare parts marketplace. The service has seen a six-fold increase in the number of available parts.

HP Enterprise

In 2015, HPE created an eCommerce marketplace that offered one of the most advanced online purchasing experiences available. Users were able to order parts, devices and everything they needed through the company’s official partners, merging simplicity for the consumer with no loss of profit for the suppliers.

Digitising the sales process for B2B manufacturers

A CRM should mimic the reality of your world.

By digitising your customer interactions, they can be harnessed to improve the sales process, i.e. attracting better leads through better customer interactions.

CRMs like HubSpot are ideal for the manufacturing sector, as they transform the sales process and allow an omnichannel experience for increased efficiency.

By connecting different departments of your front-office together, you create a more consistent customer journey, facilitate their complex requests and help you store their data for a more streamlined experience - one that McKinsey say leads to 30% better sales efficiency.