The manufacturing industry has not been without its challenges in recent years. From Brexit, to COVID-19, to the rising cost of living, the effects on the supply chain have been numerous and negative.
But where difficulties arise, so do opportunities. And while Salesforce may not directly solve everything that can affect the manufacturing sector, it can certainly assist in both streamlining business processes and offering a better quality of service to the customer.
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is the world’s most popular CRM (customer relationship management) platform. The flexibility and versatility it offers makes it the perfect tool for both large-scale and smaller manufacturing businesses. Salesforce gives you a detailed and holistic view of everything: collating and storing data on supplies, customers, purchasing trends and more.
Here are seven ways that Salesforce can benefit manufacturers:
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Accelerate Your Lead Discovery & Conversion
Lead generation requires significant time and effort. And often the return on investment is poor, as a lot of that time and effort is spent in the wrong places. By collating all information into a centralised location, Salesforce makes it significantly easier to discover quality leads.
Added to this, the many features of Salesforce (like easy quotations and follow ups) increase the chances of conversion – and provide room to cross-sell and up-sell to your prospects.
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Accelerate Your Sales Performance
While a higher lead conversion will naturally boost sales, the capabilities offered by Salesforce enable you to take this a step further. A high number of customers follow a natural purchasing pattern. Salesforce uses this data to not only bring up relevant products to relevant customers, but to suggest similar and complementary products too.
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Increase Efficiency and Output
The excellent organisation provided by Salesforce will naturally increase any manufacturer’s output. The platform’s centralised data location removes any duplicate entries and automates repetitive processes where possible. Previous customer and order quantity information enables better forecasting, and remote access makes Salesforce an effective, adaptable tool for remote working teams.
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Offer Better Customer Satisfaction
Attentive customer service goes a long way in any industry. It keeps loyal customers loyal and can be a decisive factor for first-time customers looking to repeat their business. With detailed data on customers’ buying behaviour, preferences and requirements, Salesforce can cater to any customer’s every need. Customer queries can also be managed in Salesforce, keeping all communication on the same system and easy to find.
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Enhance Your Forecasting
Touched on in Point 3, Salesforce makes accurate forecasting a dream to achieve. Order the quantity you need at the time you need it by making use of the platform’s capabilities. Salesforce uses purchasing patterns to determine peak order periods, sales estimates, and any changes in any buying behaviour.
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Gain Complete Visibility of Your Supply Chain
Building on the efficiency of Salesforce, the platform can provide both details on and workflows for your warehousing, inventory, ops, order processing and logistics management. This total overview is an essential tool for increasing productivity and decreasing costs.
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Integrate Salesforce with ERP
Salesforce can fully integrate with your ERP, allowing information to flow across both platforms and further improving efficiency across your manufacturing business.
Setting Up Salesforce for Your Manufacturing Business
Looking to implement Salesforce in your manufacturing business? We at Purus would love to help. Please reach out to us with any questions or requirements and we will be happy to assist you further.
Our Salesforce consulting services include:
Find out more about what the right Salesforce partner can do for you, and speak to a Purus Salesforce consultant today. Get in Touch