Anyone here sell to manufacturing companies? What are your tips for breaking into those accounts?

I recently started a role selling SaaS to SMB manufacturing companies, along with some logistics/transportation/retail companies. In my previous role I prospected to larger financial services companies, which were pretty easy to research for prospecting purposes. Detailed LinkedIn profiles, investor relationships pages on their website that outlined the company's priorities, all that good stuff. Made it easy to figure out what not just their industry cares about, but what prospect Joe Schmoe cares about, so when I would reach out to Joe I have a good idea of what will catch his attention.


I'm finding that many SMB manufacturing companies don't have much internet presence, which is making it hard to research them. Both the companies and their employees don't have a whole lot in the way of LinkedIn profiles, websites, or anything like that. Candidly I'm not even sure what manufacturing companies care about - I know there's obvious answers like "drive more revenue" or "faster production times" that would apply to literally any company, but I'm struggling to find ways to grab the attention of my target accounts. What does this particular company care about? What does their VP of IT or COO care about, beyond the generic stuff every company cares about? That type of stuff.


Anyone here sell to manufacturing companies and have some insight to breaking into them? Are there any common pain points or priorities for manufacturing companies? How do you go about researching these companies when they may not have much internet presence? Any ideas here would be greatly appreciated!

🔎 Prospecting
👑 Sales Strategy
☁️ Software Tech
7
InQ5WeTrust
Arsonist
3
No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL
1. What's the product that you're slinging? So many different products are being sold to manufacturing. 

2. Know your ICP - don't just read what's in the onboarding materials -shadow calls, listen to the words coming out of their mouth and take note. If there's a trend, that's the good good, that's the shit that will earn you money. 

3. Even if they're Garry Smith selling gaskets - go into the call knowing what Garry sells, where his company and manufacturing are based and why your solution actually solves something. 

4. Phones going to be king - again this really depends on what you're selling in logistics its so race to the bottom on price that people are typically willing to entertain new conversations. 

5. Know your fucking ICP. 
UserNotFound
Politicker
3
Account Executive
Right now SMB Manufacturing is being absolutely f'd by the labor shortage.

Aside from that, research them like you would a small law firm: LinkedIn, Facebook, Google the town they're located in and Ctrl+F Minutes from the City Council meetings for names from the leadership team, sneaky things that only take a couple of minutes. 
CharmingSalesGal
Politicker
1
Account Executive
I've sold into Logistics/Transportation before and one thing that worked out real well for me was networking & having conversations solely focused around learning about the industry- not pitching your product.

Like @InQ5WeTrust said, it's SO important to know your ICP. Try reaching out to even "lower level" people in these industries to get a sense of what their VP levels care about- what do they talk about in company meetings? What are the company goals? What are industry trends? Etc.

Good luck, my friend- these verticals are wild to navigate!
washedD1soccer
Politicker
1
Regional Sales Manager
Find one of your best customers in the territory that you inherited and take them out to lunch. Ask them why they became a customer, what initially drew their interest, what problems they have in their business that is specific to their situation that your product helped with, what other parts of their business do they struggle with, learn about what they value. I used to sell to manufacturing at the beginning of my career and now I deal with surgeons. Same thing still rings true, any success has come from taking the time to understand my customer’s life. What makes things difficult on them, where are the gaps? Once you know their world from their perspective, you can figure out how to align what you’re selling to help them out.
Diablo
Politicker
0
Sr. AE
If you're targetting SMB and doing so much of research, don't you think you're wasting a lot of time (understand this approach might work well with Enterprise level cus).

You got to know who your target customer is, try to call them and understand their pain points rather than guessing what they might want. Remember - Investor page will always shine.
Theloanemperor
Opinionated
0
Loan Officer
i started a metal fabrication company with a friend of mine in Canada that had been in the business for a long time and wanted to start his own. I began by identifying a target market, putting a list together, doing a small bit of research to see if they were good prospects, and reach out to the companies and ask to speak with an engineer or their purchasing department. This is after securing a vendor to actual fabricate the work orders i got. 
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