Lessons Marketers Can Learn from Manufacturers – Part 2

…continued from part 1

Leverage Data Wherever It Comes From 

Manufacturers have become experts in smashing data silos, taking data from all over the organization to derive business critical decisions.

For example, data collected in the production line can improve supply chain efficiencies by evaluating raw material inventory, while data collected by sales and marketing can inform product design. Once they’ve integrated their technology, marketers, too, can unify their data to uncover more holistic insights. This gives them a real view of their customers across multiple touchpoints, allowing for more effective campaign design and ultimately benefiting the bottom-line.

As a marketer, the internet is your showroom, and you must be listening for and responding to those online behaviors of your prospects and customers. Manufacturers are going a stage further by tapping into the data collected by their products to understand when a customer may need a replacement or when there is an opportunity to up-service before customers start shopping elsewhere. GE Healthcare has taken account of this reality and adopted a customer behavior approach to its marketing strategy, leading to $2 billion in opportunities and $600 million in revenue.

Another case is Xylem, a large American water technology provider that services in public utilities, residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial settings. Xylem recognized that it needed to engage with customers in the early parts of their buying cycle.

“In the manufacturing world, historically you just tell everyone your products are great. Well, the landscape has changed. When the buyers are in the research stage upfront, they want to work with suppliers with manufacturers, who are going to educate them to do their jobs better and speak to them through their content. You must operate on customer-centricity,” said Bryan Gassler, director of global marketing communications at Xylem.

So, Xylem resolved the challenge by investing in technology that could help them engage prospects in digital channels and influence them earlier in the buying cycle. With support from The Pedowitz Group, Xylem quickly turned around a pilot program and focused on best practices to expedite processes. Ultimately, Xylem’s marketers contributed millions of dollars to their sales pipeline.

“Manufacturing marketers must demonstrate a very similar commitment toward their marketing and sales technology by optimizing processes that better enable sales and marketing to capture new share,” said Scott Benedetti, Vice President of sales, at The Pedowitz Group. “When they eliminate and integrate data silos and consider new data sources, for example, customer service systems, these marketers empower an even more insightful use of automation and business intelligence systems.”

…continued in part 3