The Secret to Predictable Revenue Can Be Found on the Factory Floor

Membrain is an easier sell in the manufacturing industry. A significant portion of our business serves this industry, for one simple reason: Manufacturers get it. They get that the same processes that make their work more efficient, more effective, more valuable–can make their sales more efficient, more effective, and more valuable too.

Why The Sales Floor Feels Like Chaos

Even now, for all our advances, the majority of sales floors, even in the complex sales world, are chaotic. You’ve got a few top performers who do it their way and hit the top of the charts each month. Some mid-level performers are fine, just fine. And an ever-churning bottom level of folks who are earnest and eager, and just can’t cut it.

Imagine a factory floor that operates that way. You’ve got a few folks out there just pounding out the widgets hour after hour, nailing those quotas, and wowing the whole team. You’ve got a bunch of worker bees just steadily getting it done, nothing flashy, but good enough. And then you’ve got an ever-churning group of perpetual newbies you’re constantly hiring, training, investing in, and firing, on repeat.

No manufacturer could survive like that.

Yet in the sales industry, we consider it normal.

The Manufacturing Secret Every Sales Team Should Be Stealing

Manufacturers have been perfecting the art of efficient, effective process for decades. Every successful manufacturer has a well-thought-through process, quality frameworks, repeatable milestones, checklists, and a platform to ensure that everyone on the team follows each step precisely. Manufacturers also have perfected the art of perfection. Every piece of data in their production stream is utilized to continually improve and update their process so they get better every day.

When we talk with manufacturers about Membrain, there’s always an “aha!” moment for them when they realize… Wait, we can have a process like that in sales, too? The answer is yes! Yes, we can, although with some major differences, of course, as we’re dealing with human beings making decisions and minimizing risks from different perspectives,  not just time and materials.

It’s easy to think that because sales is human, it’s too different to apply processes to. But that’s a mistake. The commercial airline industry has a similar level of process, checklists, and optimization, and last I checked, airplanes were still flown by humans. Surgeons at top hospitals have the same. Like sales, surgery is different each time. Yet process, milestones, checklists, and continuous improvement still work.

How to Achieve Manufacturing Consistency on the Sales Floor

Step one of moving toward a manufacturing mindset is to admit that the chaos isn’t working. In a rapidly changing marketplace, many sales teams are struggling, and the ones that struggle the most are the ones with the least structure in their approach.

Step one of moving toward a process mindset is to admit that the chaos isn’t working.

Move past blanket training and performance pressure toward the maturity of a clear, dynamic, milestone-based, AI-empowered process that creates a cohesive Way of Selling on your team. Codify the process into a core platform like Membrain that tracks all your metrics, feeds you valuable insights, guides your salespeople through the process, provides them with support where needed, and uses AI for automation and continuous improvement.

Drive consistent execution of your sales strategy in this way, and you’ll reduce churn, build stronger skills across the team, and proactively coach and manage for top performance.

That’s the manufacturing way. And it could be yours, too. Tell me, on a scale of 1 to 10, how close to factory perfection is your sales team’s execution?