Why Manufacturing Sales Reps Struggle to Sell & Customers Struggle to Buy

If you’re an advanced manufacturing sales representative, you may have encountered issues when selling to customers. Or maybe you’re a manager who’s noticed this problem within your sales team. Whatever the case, you’re not alone.

Struggling with sales is common amongst sales reps for manufacturers. In this article, we’ll explain why that’s the case, how buyers are facing similar challenges, the reasons behind it, and some potential solutions.

Struggling to sell in manufacturing

First and foremost, there is a reason why selling is harder in manufacturing. In other industries, you might have a product with some clear benefits. A classic example in job interviews is selling a pen. You talk about how the pen writes, its design, and maybe its price point.

However, manufacturing and engineering businesses come up with more complex solutions to their customers’ problems. The products you’re selling aren’t typically a new version of something buyers are used to. They’re unique, innovative and completely novel.

As a result, they don’t just need to be showcased to potential customers. They require explanation and more in-depth demonstration.

Naturally, this means manufacturing sales representatives need more technical expertise about the products they’re selling. But they also face a longer sales cycle with the extended decision-making process.

Buyers are facing similar challenges

It’s important to remember that buyers are in the same boat as sales reps, in many ways. They’re also impacted by the complexity of products being sold.

Using the same pen example as above, they would know to check what it looks like, how it writes, and how much it costs. Simple enough. In contrast, with manufacturing solutions, they will need to familiarize themselves with your products, the different options available, and how they solve the problems they’re facing.

Buyers also face an extended decision-making process, typically requiring consensus from different stakeholders – as well as comparing all the potential solutions. If they don’t understand the product, this can take even longer with all the additional research.

What’s behind the struggle?

We’ve discussed the complexity of products in manufacturing and how this impacts buyers and sellers. But this isn’t something either party can sidestep or overcome – solutions are complex out of necessity. So, what’s the real crux of the problem?

In most cases, it comes down to the tools manufacturing sales representatives are equipped with. Traditionally, they used presentations like PowerPoint, which have a number of problems:

• Difficulty creating interactive presentations, leading to poor engagement.
• Linear and static structure causes further disengagement, with no way of tailoring conversations to each customer.
• Requires lots of time and skill to make presentations visually compelling.
• Presentations are often simplistic or bland, leaving a bad impression on your brand.
• Lack of analytics to understand customer engagement and tailor future presentations.

However, more recently, we’ve seen the advent of sales enablement tools. These tools have several advantages over traditional presentation software, such as:

• Offering a centralized content library and a single source of truth for both marketers and sales teams.
• Facilitating smoother collaboration between sales and marketing, ensuring that sales teams can quickly access the most relevant materials.
• Seamless data flow and consistency across systems with integrations with CRMs, DAMs, and PIMs
• Providing enhanced analytics on content usage and engagement, offering valuable insights into how content performs.

However, quite often there are drawbacks, such as limited customization, difficult setup, and a sales-only focus, which prevents them from solving many of the challenges faced by buyers.

Introducing buyer enablement software

As you can see, some sales enablement software falls short for manufacturing sales representatives and their customers. Why? It doesn’t actually solve key challenges like educating buyers, shortening the sales cycle, and making presentations truly engaging.

This is where buyer enablement software can help…

Buyer enablement software does practically everything sales enablement tools do, plus more. It also helps buyers throughout their purchasing journey with:

🎓 Educational Content: Provides buyers with relevant information, resources, and insights to help them understand their options and make informed decisions.

🛠️ Personalized Experiences: Tailors content and interactions based on buyer preferences, behaviors, and needs.

⚙️ Interactive Tools: Includes tools such as calculators, configurators, and product comparison features to assist buyers in evaluating products or services.

📊 Feedback and Engagement Tracking: Monitors how buyers interact with the content and tools to better understand their needs and adjust strategies accordingly.

🔓 Self-Service Capabilities: Allows buyers to access information and resources on their own schedule without the need for direct sales interaction.

Sales enablement platforms focus on equipping sales teams with resources and tools to improve their effectiveness, while buyer enablement platforms focus on empowering buyers with the information and tools they need to make purchasing decisions.

Another difference is who they’re used by. Sales enablement tools are used by sales professionals and support teams, whereas buyer enablement tools are designed for the end users or prospects engaging in the buying process.

Finally, there’s the content on offer. Sales enablement platforms provide internal resources, training, and performance analytics for sales teams, while buyer enablement platforms offer external resources, personalized content, and interactive tools for buyers.

Both types of platforms are essential for creating a seamless and effective sales process, with sales enablement tools enhancing the capabilities of sales teams and buyer enablement tools improving the buyer’s journey.

At POP, we go one step further…

As well as providing a state-of-the-art buyer enablement platform, we have a tried and tested Customer Success Blueprint to help clients get the most out of their investment. Our team works with your key stakeholders to truly understand not only your business, but the needs, challenges, and goals of your buyers.

Using these insights, we can ensure that all experiences are tailored to them, with compelling narratives that link your products and services to their pain points and objectives. The result? Your sales and marketing team have the tools to not just sell, but also empower buyers to make confident purchasing decisions.

If you’d like more information, don’t hesitate to contact us on 0117 329 1712, email hello@popcomms.com or arrange a demo.

If you’d like more information, don’t hesitate to contact us on 0117 329 1712, email hello@popcomms.com or arrange a demo.