WHITE PAPERSPONSORED BYManufacturers Extend Digital Transformation to Sales & MarketingEXECUTIVE SUMMARYIn the past, the success and growth of manufacturing organizations was heavily dependent on a combination of their ability to make competitive products in a cost- effective manner and get those products to as many customers as possible. Over time, companies evolved their product operations with technology and automation, streamlining costs further. But the process of selling those products lagged at many organizations in this sector, as they steadfastly held on to traditional ways of engaging with customers and prospects. Today, thanks to a dramatically different purchasing journey, even the most “old school” of companies must embrace digital transformation in how they maintain and expand their markets. In the internet economy, their success is largely driven by their ability to transition from selling products to needs-based selling by applying technology to sales and marketing. By most accounts, manufacturing companies are playing catch-up when it comes to selling solutions. They are faced with the challenges of dealing with two relatively recent phenomena of the sales cycle: buying committees and anonymous buyers. Both are difficult for a traditional sales process to address, and both require different strategies than traditionally used. The digital transformation of sales and marketing begins with gaining insights into buyer behavior. With this insight, manufacturers can better engage with a new breed of buyer. Armed with more personalized and relevant messaging, manufacturers can shorten sales cycles and build longer-lasting relationships. By implementing an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach, manufacturers can “cheat the system” to complete their digital transformation to becoming solution sellers much faster. This paper will dive into five reasons why ABM is imperative for manufacturing companies that want to get there:1. The “good old days” of selling are in the rearview mirror.2. There are many forces disrupting the traditional sales model.3. Buying committees are the norm and they are wider than ever.4. “Spray-and-pray” marketing tactics are analogous to “eating celery.”5. Marketers must care about more than just generating leads.In addition, we will explore this transformation and how ABM is enabling it, using insights from industry experts at ITSMA, Forrester Research, Gartner and the Manufacturing Marketing Group, along with data from the Demand Gen Report 2017 B2B Buyers Survey and other sources.2THE “GOOD OLD DAYS” OF SELLING ARE HISTORYThe decades-old selling model for manufacturers was characterized by a buyers journey that began and ended with a product sales representative. In the pre-internet era, the company sales rep was the first point of contact for prospective customers who had needs and were seeking information. Prospective customers revealed themselves very early in their journeys, allowing sales reps to influence them all along the way. Those days, however, are in the rearview mirror for most manufacturing companies.Jenn Grabenstetter is Executive Director of Communications and Content Marketing at Sealed Air Corporation, a global provider of innovative packaging solutions to customers with widely recognized brands such as Cryovac and Bubble Wrap. The Sealed Air sales team lived in the “good old days” of selling, when the sales force was the repository of the product expertise that customers needed. “Our selling force really were product experts. They knew the features and benefits and the technological specs and the applications of our products so intimately,” Grabenstetter explained. Like many other manufacturing organizations, Sealed Air has seen buyer behavior change and the influence of sales reps has waned, as HubSpot research1 shows in Figure 1.Base: 115 global sales professionals Source: HubSpot Sales Perception Survey, Q1 2016Compared to 2-3 years ago, do you think B2B/B2C buyers today are more or less dependent on salespeople during their decision-making process?Sales sees that power has shifted to buyersFIGURE 1: OVER HALF OF GLOBAL SALES PROFESSIONALS REPORT THAT BUYERS ARE LESS DEPENDENT ON THEM.Less dependentMore dependentNo change3THE “GOOD OLD DAYS” OF SELLING ARE HISTORYThe 2017 B2B Buyers Survey Report2 shows what has displaced sales reps in the early stages of the buying journey: 61% of buyers indicate they start the journey with a broad web search, and 56% say they start on specific vendor websites.Bruce McDuffee, Director of the Manufacturing Marketing Group, has seen this shift in the sales process. “Manufacturers are frustrated because the old or traditional ways of moving product arent working as well as they used to. Most manufacturers still rely on a direct field sales team, or a network of distributors, to make one-to-one relationships the first step to selling a product,” he said.Direct sales e