5 Ways to Increase Manufacturing & Engineering Sales

Sales in manufacturing and engineering are a little different from other sectors.

It’s not just about explaining your product’s benefits to potential customers. In many cases, you have to start by explaining your products and how they work. It’s about making the complex simple, which is why many manufacturing sales reps struggle to sell.

But don’t despair. There are ways you can increase sales in your manufacturing business. In this article, we’ll look at five of the best strategies, from long-game customer service to implementing the right technology.

1. Putting customer service first

With complex problems and equally complex solutions, buyers don’t rush into decisions like they might in other sectors. They will need to understand their problem, identify different solutions, research the best options and compare how they actually work. After that, decisions need to be validated, and consensus must be gained from key stakeholders.

With that in mind, manufacturing and engineering companies need to play the long game when it comes to leads and sales. Don’t expect every interaction to result in a sale – and don’t put inquiries on the back burner because they’re not ready to buy.

Responding promptly, giving potential customers your time and providing clear explanations will build trust and confidence over time. Research by Mckinsey has shown that improving the customer experience can increase sales by 2 to 7%.

2. Creating a unique experience

Engaging potential customers is one of the central challenges to increasing manufacturing sales. You know that your products can help with their pain points, but how do you keep them around long enough to explain or demonstrate that?

The answer is the WOW factor.

When you need to stand out from the crowd at trade events, an interactive touchscreen experience ticks every box from a sales standpoint. The mere sight of a large touchscreen, video wall or touch table will catch people’s eyes and draw them in.

When customers interact with it, the possibilities are endless to engage and immerse them. 3D models are a popular feature, which can be pulled apart, manipulated, magnified and reconfigured to highlight a product’s different features or demonstrate how it works. Take a look and see what we can create…

3. Building an online presence

Given the complex nature of solutions, manufacturing and engineering sales often take place in person – at least to some degree. It’s only natural to focus your resources on trade events, exhibitions and sales pitches, for example.

But what happens after that? Buyers need to continue their research, most of which takes place online. Even if your business makes a stellar impression at first, that can soon fade due to a lackluster online presence – making it hard to convince stakeholders to buy into your solutions.

Here’s how to increase sales in manufacturing through your online presence:

🌐 Utilize your website – Your site isn’t just a placeholder for your brand. It can be another resource for buyers looking to find out more about what you do. All too often, sites provide basic information with a ‘contact us’ call to action. Making your site as engaging and informative as your sales pitches allows buyers to self-serve and takes them one step closer to making a purchase.

🏃‍♂️ Maintain an active presence – After connecting at a trade show, many buyers will follow you on the likes of LinkedIn, Instagram and X. It’s important that you nurture this lead with an active, consistent presence to stay at the front of their minds. Share engaging content that shows your product features and benefits, plus case studies and testimonials.

✉️ Generate leads – Online channels don’t just complement your physical presence. They can generate lots of leads on their own. It’s vital that your site is optimized for search engines and aligns with what your customers are looking for. You can also use pay-per-click advertising to target relevant searches.

4. Enabling your buyers

If you’re wondering how to increase sales in manufacturing, you might need to look beyond sales to see the solution. As we touched upon earlier, buyers have a long list of tasks on their journey to making a purchase. However, the average B2B buyer only spends 17% of that journey with potential sellers.

As one of those sellers, that means you only have a small fraction of their time to get them on side. Unless you try to help them with other parts of their journey, that is.

Buyer enablement is a strategy that aims to assist buyers throughout their journey to make their purchasing decision easier. Rather than selling the benefits of your products, you can explain how they work as a solution to a buyer’s problems.

The key here is personalization. No two buyers are exactly the same, so your content and sales pitches need to be tailored to each interaction. In doing so, you’ll not just show them a potential solution, but also how it works, how it can solve their problem, the potential outcomes and the value they’ll get compared to the costs.

This makes it easier for them to make an informed decision and get buy-in from stakeholders. You can find out more in our guide to buyer enablement.

5. Using the right technology

Technology is paramount if you want to increase sales for your manufacturing company. With the right approach, it can bring together your entire organization with a single source of truth and access to marketing and sales content that’s engaging, up-to-date and always on-message.

That’s what POP provides for countless manufacturing and engineering companies. Our sales and presentation software allows you to create interactive buying experiences that help customers make sense of complex information. It gives marketers the agility they need to engage customers early on and equips your sales team to have more consultative, productive conversations.

But that’s not all. POP’s platform has in-built analytics, so you can see how content is used and shared, showing you what resonates with buyers – and what doesn’t. That enables you to continually improve your strategy and increase sales for your manufacturing business.

We go beyond software provision with a Customer Success Blueprint to help you create the right experiences for your buyers. With the help of our Professional Services Team, you can craft compelling narratives around your products to show how they address buyers’ pain points – making the complex simple, so they can make smarter, faster buying decisions.