The Fourth Industrial Revolution is well underway, sparking explosive
innovations as technologies become increasingly ingrained in people’s
lives.
But…
Manufacturing as a whole has remained stubbornly resistant to this shift.
For the most part, the manufacturing industry feels the urgency of change. ?
- According to one global industry survey, 86% of manufacturers consider
digital transformation to be a high-priority or critical matter over the next
24 months, with the vast majority looking to increase process efficiencies,
improve demand planning, and move their planning process to the cloud.
- The same survey shows that the manufacturers that feel most prepared
for the next decade already have at least half of their sales and operation
systems in the cloud and are expanding aftermarket services !
Salesforce reports that 74% of manufacturing executives believe that data-driven
services will be their primary revenue source within 10 years.
In order to understand the game-changing nature of CRM in manufacturing, here are the main challenges that can be resolved with Salesforce ?
- Legacy tools and Siloed operations
- Low rate of customer engagement
- Lack of supply chain visibility
- Lack of an integrated system
- Poor sales forecast
- Partner management
So how can Salesforce help manufacturers?
1. Become the Nostradamus of forecasting
Ok, maybe not Nostradamus…
But by completely tracking customer orders, Salesforce CRM can produce a reliable sales forecast.
With the Einstein analytics capability, companies can determine each customer’s buying behavior, identify peak order periods, and long-term patterns, and generate accurate sales estimates for future planning.
Teams will have more transparency and flexibility with a single source of truth for all the information on forecasting. Designated users can take into account various elements that influence forecasting to deliver accurate and timely forecasts.
Better forecasting can help with resource planning and allocation by considering dynamic changes in demand and market needs.
2. Eliminate human error
Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud allows companies to connect Sales and Operations departments together!
That way, businesses can instantaneously and automatically submit sales orders into a unified system that are then sent straight to fulfillment.
Eliminating extra manual steps removes the possibility of human error, which can be costly.
That way you’ll avoid having an employee coming to you and saying
In other words, automating and connecting the process creates reliable data for Sales and Operations to work together!
3. Track leads and improves conversion rates
Implementing an automated system that tracks leads through the sales process gives greater insights to businesses about what is successful and where there is room for improvement.
A company can then better understand what type of sales strategies work with prospective customers!
Any attrition in the sales journey can be identified and trigger an alert so manufacturers can find out what is happening at that point in the process.
Once the problem is identified, sales teams can adjust so that prospects don’t fall out of the pipeline at that point anymore.
And this leads to more sales and adds revenue to the bottom line.
4. Keep sales agreements organized
The sales agreement feature helps both manufacturer and buyer to keep the negotiated terms organized and get the most recent updates on the same.
All the required aspects related to product details, quantities, pricing, schedule, and delivery that both parties have agreed upon are covered in this agreement. With an automated digital process for contract management, any changes to existing agreements can be made instantly and accessed by all.
What’s exciting here is that having a single source of truth ensures that your operations are all unified, legal liability is diminished, and departments are executing to the same specifications.
5. Have Einstein by your side ?
Einstein Analytics is a completely customized platform that can be used to gain insight into Sales Agreements, product performance, and pricing.
With Einstein Analytics, businesses can keep track of:
- Their accounts
- Their income contributions
- Monthly forecasts
- Comparative analysis of anticipated and actual sales.
This tool can be helpful for reviewing an individual’s or team’s performance by using target dashboards against the revenue targets!
These performance results can be beneficial to take further actions on planning and strategizing future activities.
Data can also be customized for sales managers to get insights on the data belonging to the users below their hierarchy level within minutes. Einstein Analytics can work as a one-stop solution for all the data analysis required for business.
To Wrap-up
While many manufacturers have been cautious about adopting new technologies, and protective of their long-standing processes, there is a real business benefit to deploying this technology across the organization.
Manual processes are time-consuming and often lead to errors that can be costly.
Transitioning to an automated system that delivers information in real-time is far more reliable and accurate. Adopting Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud helps companies stay competitive and is a real game changer for the manufacturing industry!