Salesforce Capabilities for Manufacturing Sales Enablement
Salesforce is the CRM of choice for many companies worldwide, including those in the manufacturing industry. According to 2024 Statista data, manufacturing companies form one of the largest segments of all Salesforce customers across professional service industries. So why do many steel fabrication Australia companies prefer Salesforce over other CRM? Manufacturing Cloud, a dedicated Salesforce product for the manufacturing industry, can be one of the reasons. This solution provides advanced automation capabilities for workflows specific to manufacturing sales and customer service. This blog focuses on some key capabilities of Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud that enable manufacturers to streamline their sales workflows.
Sales Agreement Management
It is known how mid-size manufacturers can implement ERP and sales agreements in manufacturing business define how and under which conditions a manufacturer provides its services and goods to a customer. Using Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud, a manufacturer can manage its sales agreements’ life cycles more efficiently. Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud provides templates that allow employees to quickly create new sales agreements complete with all the details like their duration, the contract owner, and more. In addition, employees can add individual products or or services (e.g., heat induction bending services) to their sales agreements in a couple of clicks. When an agreement expires automatically by the end date, it can be easily extended if needed. For instance, employees can create a new contract based on the previous one, and all products, along with their initially planned quantities and prices, will be copied to the new document automatically. If an agreement is no longer required, it can be deleted. However, Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud does not allow deleting agreements that are linked to active contracts or orders, which reduces the risk of accidentally disrupting a company’s business operations.
Account-Based Forecasting
Analytics account forecasting functionality allows sales agents to generate accurate sales forecasts for their accounts based on sales agreements and opportunity data related to the manufacturer’s ongoing business agreements and potential deals, respectively. Specifically, sales professionals can create forecasts of future order volumes and revenues for products across different regions. If Salesforce is integrated with other manufacturer’s business tools, the forecasts generated by sales agents can also be shared with other teams. Suppose, Salesforce is connected to an analytics system with demand planning and production planning features. In this case, other teams can use sales forecasts to predict periods of low and high demand for specific products which are aligned to cash flow best practices in manufacturing.
Program-Based Business
By using program-based business, another useful Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud feature, manufacturers can process their partners’ and customers’ sales and production forecasts to generate their own forecasts. For example, an automotive parts manufacturer (OEM) partnering with a car manufacturer and retailer can generate forecasts based on its customer’s predictions. The results of forecasting can be used by the OEM to predict profitability or adjust production plans. To use this feature, a manufacturer should first establish Salesforce to Salesforce integration with its partner, as it enables smooth data sharing between companies. After that, a manufacturer should upload forecast data from CSV files shared by its partner into Program Based Business objects.
The Finale
Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud is a Salesforce cloud product tailored to the workflows and requirements of manufacturing companies. Its industry-specific data model and functionality help companies optimize multiple business aspects, and sales management is no exception. Features including sales agreement management, account forecasting, partner visit management, and program-based business can be useful in this regard. Salesforce experts can run business analysis, estimate the project’s budget and timeline, and develop an actionable implementation roadmap. Consultants can also help a company implement and configure Manufacturing Cloud, integrate it with other systems (such as OMS or ERP), perform data migration from legacy systems, and handle other challenging technical tasks. Salesforce has a lot of capabilities and it is up to manufacturers to realize its full potential.
