How Chatbots Can Increase Sales in the Manufacturing Industry

Sales is stressful. Let’s just get that out of the way first. You have quotas to meet with and ongoing deadlines that have you traveling across the world to pitch to a variety of prospects. Depending on the complexity of your manufacturing business model, you might have to work through multiple distributors just to reach the end users!

For your own sanity, it’s worth looking for help when you need it the most. And thanks to Industry 4.0, help is available right now. Today you can adopt a chatbot, otherwise known as your virtual assistant, to get more interested, qualified and consistent buyers in to your sales pipeline.

Plan Ahead

It’s a known fact that manufacturing businesses are resistant to technology adoption, and not because they don’t see the value it brings to their line of work. There’s just been a long history of relationships built with existing suppliers and vendor partnerships, that no one wants to rock the boat. Also, 90 percent of manufacturers believe new technology can cut costs, but doesn’t necessarily lead to new revenue streams , according to the BCG. For you and thousands of sales representatives across the globe, acceptance of digital technology such as artificial intelligence, motivates the fear of losing jobs.

Fear not, for chatbot technology is nothing of the kind. It is a virtual assistant after all, onboarded to augment your existing work. Picture that cold outreach you do on a daily basis. Imagine all those missed calls or emails that slip through the cracks because you were asleep or the phone was turned off. Now plug your chatbot to your phone, to your website, and to your company system. Suddenly, the scary AI has become an asset that’s addressing all manner of concerns around the clock.

Someone’s got a question about pricing? Chatbot’s got an answer for that.

Someone wants to put in a product order? A chatbot can process the payment and all.

Someone heard about a recent promotion offering and wants to learn more? Chatbot keeps the most current information available for consumption.

When you decide to adopt a chatbot as part of your sales tool kit, you are saving yourself time to do other things in your work that are meaningful to you. Like nurturing relationships over dinner and closing high-value deals in bulk order.

Radical Change

The manufacturing sector is going through a rough patch with slow growth thanks to its inability to adapt to the modern world. You can be a champion in pushing your company ahead of its competitors by showing the incredible benefits that a technology like chatbots can have in employee productivity, solving for the shortage of skilled labor in the business. We’ve shared a few important benefits of chatbots for your sales needs such as the 24-hour coverage to address repetitive activities.

But AI-powered chatbots in Industry 4.0 are integrating with manufacturing systems and sales tools everywhere. It is the age of connectivity. Consider your existing processes:

• You might want to connect with prospects on social media
• You might want prospect details like areas of interest, contact information, and budget be saved directly in their own separate CRM account.
• You might want to review common challenges, frequent purchases, or demographic data about what kind of audience you are attracting to your manufacturing company.

All these data points are connected through a chatbot virtual assistant.

A chatbot platform tool like vChat is designed specifically to assist in various touchpoints on your sales journey. The best part is how your sales chatbots can cater their personality to match the brand of your company, and even the segmented key-decision makers visiting.

Be Bold

An up-and-coming trend in manufacturing businesses is the push for Direct-To-Consumer (DTC). Manufacturing leaders are realizing the benefits of getting their products faster to the market thanks to the connectivity that Industry 4.0 offers. But taking more control over the brand, the product, and the reputation of the company is a challenge for a sector that’s been entrenched in B2B as their source of contact with end-users.

You are now in a place to enable stronger relations with your manufacturing business and the end consumer is willing and ready to buy your product directly. There’s opportunity to craft meaningful user experiences (UX) that engage and delight each prospect. Ready to be integrated with any kind of devices, chatbot technology is a media rich, omni-channel powerhouse equipped to showcase not just text, but video, GIFS, images and all sorts of promising conversations.

You are the one in control.

If at any time you want to take over a chatbot conversation and speak directly with an interested prospect, you have the ability to do just that. Review the messages up until takeover and drive the prospect wherever you want to take them.

Rise Above

Chatbot technology is maturing as a mainstream tool in any sales team’s toolkit. Virtual assistants pave the future for sales representatives to engage in more complex deals while unburdening the mundane tasks of everyday life. There are a ton of other self-help benefits chatbots offer, like appointment scheduling and even therapy. The conversational journey is completely up to your imagination.

Take some time to experiment with any of our chatbots to see for yourself how one might benefit your manufacturing business.