Manufacturing is going through one of its greatest periods of change since the Second World War. Technologies used in the sector and consumer demands are transforming drastically. Manufacturers that are proactive on navigating economic headwinds, supply chain instability, sustainability challenges, and the workforce skills gap are at the forefront.
The Only Constant in Manufacturing is Change
The manufacturing sector is constantly impacted by rapidly evolving external factors. Over the last 5 years, the sector has seen many challenges-
While manufacturers were quick to adapt to the volatile market disruptions, there are several gaps to address and untapped opportunities to capitalize on. Salesforce at the forefront of understanding and designing solutions tailored for the rapidly evolving manufacturing sector.
Why Manufacturers Need CRM Software?
The global manufacturing sector is currently operating under increasing levels of disruption fueled by changing customer preferences and demand uncertainties. Manufacturers who embrace digitization and innovation are leading the industry into the future. But are they fully capitalizing on the opportunities that manufacturing innovation brings?
CRM software in manufacturing can uncover previously unexplored territories for growth. Salesforce, a powerful and reliable CRM tool is ushering in a new industrial revolution that is driven by means of connectivity. Salesforce’s manufacturing cloud builds upon the company’s customer centric operations- from sales to service. Let’s explore how businesses in the sector can leverage Salesforce CRM to drive innovation and revenue growth.
1. Speed counts- In the Factory Floor and for Customer Service
Historically, speed was only associated with the production line. Players in the sector have realized that agility and responsiveness are no longer limited to the factory floors. To drive manufacturing innovation, velocity is expected at every level of the organization including decision-making, consumer insight, sales agreement, and product innovation.
For decades, manufacturers relied solely on their product to gain an edge. This is no longer viable; it is customer and partner experiences that create a market differentiation for manufacturing companies. With Salesforce manufacturing cloud, manufacturers can take advantage of Service Cloud’s ability to deliver smarter, faster, and more personalized service across any channel or device to grow customer loyalty and satisfaction. It offers a streamlined process for handling inbound leads, automatically routing them for efficient management. Additionally, Salesforce contributes to maintaining meaningful conversations by effortlessly segmenting all customer and employee interactions, enhancing overall communication effectiveness.
2. Fostering Strategic Partnerships with Channel Partners
For manufacturers, channel partners are as vital as the end-customers. Strengthening channel partner relationships is critical to ensure operational efficiency. Manufacturers can leverage features like rebate management in the Salesforce marketing cloud to foster mutually beneficial relationships by driving partner behaviors with incentive programs. These incentive programs not only contribute to increased sales but also provide a competitive edge. Integrating loyalty and rebate programs with a CRM platform allows for valuable insights into partner preferences and purchasing behaviors. Based on this, manufacturers can design compelling programs that demonstrate a genuine understanding of their channel partners’ businesses.
3. Charting Unseen Horizons with Accurate Forecasting
Today, customer demands and buying patterns are highly dynamic. This makes creating demand and production forecasts extremely challenging. Manufacturing companies rely heavily on the accuracy of forecasts to plan their procurement and production. Underestimating or overestimating forecasts can result in substantial losses for manufacturers and potentially lead to customer attrition.
With Salesforce Einstein analytics, it is easier than ever before for manufacturers to understand customer buying patterns and forecast sales and unleash manufacturing innovation in the long run. Salesforce Manufacturing cloud enables you to contextualize/ integrate data from multiple systems and internal records seamlessly for accurate forecasting. Manufacturers can also gain insights on revenue and profitability and service lifetime value through the tool.
4. Conversations to Conversions in One Place
With Salesforce sales cloud manufacturers can seamlessly manage all their sales conversations in one place. It allows manufacturers to access data on leads, potential opportunities and all the communications within one system. The analytics feature in Salesforce accurately identifies cross-sell and upsell opportunities. The CPQ (cost, price, quote) service within Salesforce can be integrated with sales cloud to automate the process of creating quotes and proposals for clients, making it easier and faster.
5. Creating Unique Customer Experiences and Increased Satisfaction
Good customer experience is the bedrock of success for any business today. Salesforce CRM implementation can elevate customer experience by uncovering insights and growth opportunities for businesses in the manufacturing space. Manufacturers can seamlessly maintain all the leads, opportunities, communications within a single system and their analytics can help in maintaining customer satisfaction. Also, Salesforce Service Cloud can help in handling all the customer queries at once. This shortens response cycles to customer queries and minimizes customer waiting time. As customer information is stored and accessed from a unified system, it can facilitate faster communication with customers more frequently and efficiently, resulting in better customer relationships.
How Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud Can Prepare you for Disruption?
Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud provides objects, features, tools, and apps built specifically to meet the unique needs of the manufacturers. The platform allows collaboration and transparency between sales, operations, and partners.
With challenges such as supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, demand volatility, and trade tension looming in the sector, data driven decisions are more important than ever before for manufacturers. Here’s how the Manufacturing cloud can set you up for disruptions in the industry –
1. Modernize Commercial Operations
Siloed processes in sales and revenue management often result in significant losses for many manufacturers. Integration data from both the processes on one platform provides a single source of truth based on the customer data. Several businesses in the sector also struggle with sales processes that take a long time to close. Stalled processes often translate to dissatisfaction among prospects and even loss of customers to competitors. The platform offers several features such as Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ), Automated workflows, Rebate management, and analytics and AI to help manufacturers speed up and optimize their commercial operations.
2. Transform Service Experience
Salesforce manufacturing cloud empowers businesses to optimize processes and unify insights for seamless omnichannel integration. Manufacturers can easily deliver seamless timely and informed omnichannel customer experience using the platform. Using the service cloud, service teams and field agents gain real-time 360 view and service flexibility to connect with customers across multiple devices. They can consolidate service requests across channels, automate case management and accelerate resolutions.
3. Simplify Partner Engagement
Manufacturers are increasingly moving from a transactional business model to a collaborative one. As such, driving greater channel partner visibility, self-service engagement, and performance it vital. Ease to work with goes a long way in building successful partner relationships. Salesforce is a unified, automated and trusted partner platform with self-service capabilities to boost productivity and decrease costs for manufacturing companies.
4. Translate Data into Actions and Insights
Salesforce analytics for manufacturing dashboards comprehensively analyzes all aspects of business to help manufacturers to be cognizant of order management, sales agreements, and contracts.
Looking for a Salesforce CRM implementation partner to enhance your manufacturing value chain?
