In order to generate measurable growth in your manufacturing company, you need to develop a sales playbook. While marketing can help you get noticed among prospective clients, a sales division converts them into revenue producing clients. In order for these two branches of your organization to work effectively, they need a unified process. The sales playbook will help streamline your operation, improve alignment and ultimately lead to increased revenue. During this episode of MakingChips, Julie Poulos, Vice President at Red Caffeine Marketing + Technology, details how to develop your own sales playbook. Connect with us: www.MakingChips.com/contact 2 key factors to becoming sales enabled How can you get a prospective client interested and motivated to buy your product or service? Some might argue that it is through marketing. Others say it’s through sales. The truth is that it takes both. A sales playbook is the key to helping your marketing and sales team work together to boost your company’s growth. Julie Poulos is a marketing and sales guru who not only understands the importance of the sales playbook, but also how to implement one effectively into a business. Listen as Julie identifies 2 key factors in helping your manufacturing business become sales enabled through the use of a sales playbook. Fostering alignment through a sales playbook Because marketing and sales are complementary, it is important for them to be aligned. In some cases, a company could have a marketing department that is great at attracting prospective clients but lacks a sales team equipped to close deals. Or maybe the sales team is outpacing the marketing division. Just as a car that is out of alignment can be tough to drive, a company out of alignment has difficulty growing. Julie Poulos explains how having an organized infrastructure can help support both marketing and sales. By improving technology and processes through a sales playbook, manufacturing companies can restore alignment. How to identify your company’s current reality and future potential One challenge manufacturing business leaders face is evaluating the health and culture of the organization. Knowing the current reality of your company will help you make appropriate adjustments in areas of operation and personnel. It will also help you forecast future growth and opportunity through both your current contracts and new-acquisition clients. Julie Poulos says that a sales playbook plays a key role in the evaluation process. It also helps you establish clear goals and objectives for your team. Hear all about that and more during this episode of MakingChips. The sales playbook by the numbers Numbers don’t lie. Therefore, it is critical for manufacturing companies to keep track of their sales and production data. From customer acquisition costs to your website visitor count, Julie Poulos explains the value of understanding past and current numbers. Empirical data can help empower the sales team and enable owners and operators to develop realistic growth expectations. She also talks about the importance of systems integration so that you can easily access vital information. Listen to this episode, as Julie reveals tools and technologies that can help you measure and manage progress in your manufacturing company. Here’s The Good Stuff! Jim and Jason talk about how they manage growth in their businesses Manufacturing News: Area schools promote manufacturing through a contest Jason shares how he is reorganizing his leadership structure at Zenger’s Julie Poulos explains the difference between marketing and sales and how to align both The 2 key factors to help your business become sales enabled How to differentiate yourself by identifying purpose and communicating it to prospective clients Forecasting sales and then creating structure for your sales team The importance of collecting data to track progress and manage expectations Utilizing integrated technology to organize your sales process and mea