As a manufacturer, you build complex products, which requires significant technical expertise, and you traditionally used trade shows to meet buyers. Disruption of trade show-based selling during the COVID-19 crisis is making it hard to even maintain your market share against competitors who are market-savvy and have modern marketing organizations that completed their digital transformation. Relying on sales reps is making you less competitive and puts other online-savvy vendors in front of buyers more often than you.
Now that you are looking to expand in the new market— how familiar are you with the industry landscape and the buyer journey in local target segments? Suppose you are making smart factory machines or quality assurance automation. What market segment would you target? How would you attract top-funnel leads in the most cost effective ways and convert them into actual sales quickly?
Where would you start when you want to expand your target industries for your robotics products from your primary target market like warehousing to something as different as a medical field? What are the other areas of opportunities that would maximize your ROI during the market expansion? Business development effort (BD) starts with a deep understanding of the local manufacturing market you target and a strong Go-to-Market (GTM) plan with ways to secure support and references from technology analysts and influencers.
Facing increased international competition, internal automation gaps compared to locally based companies, and critical skills shortage, manufacturing companies like yours are the hardest hit in the marketplace that suddenly went all digital, replacing in-person interactions with online engagement.
Developing Go-to-Market strategies to ensure buyers are familiar with and trusting your solution more than the competition’s and generating demand online is not your key competency and chances are there is nobody on your team who can grow your presence in the digital marketplace because it requires skills typically not found in manufacturing.
How can you effectively grow in this difficult environment? You will need a strong GTM plan in place and an agile execution team to implement technology-enabled personalized experiences for your valuable targets.
BDMT Global Manufacturing Clients Success Stories
Read how other manufacturing companies have leveraged our expertise in BD (business development) and marketing to enter new markets, including influencing industry analysts to rise above noisy competition into their market niche leadership position.
Innovator Building Industry Leadership Step-by-Step
How a New Market Entrant Got Industry Analysts on Their Side
Most Requested Services by Our Manufacturing Clients
These services have been the most popular and most requested by our manufacturing clients:
Long-Term Enterprise Success
Training Programs
BDMT Global Manufacturing Insights
https://bdmtglobal.com/insights/creating-a-strong-sales-engine-during-covid-19/