Salesforce is the CRM of choice for many companies worldwide, including those in the manufacturing industry. According to 2024 Statista data, manufacturing companies form one of the largest segments of all Salesforce customers across professional service industries. So why do many manufacturers prefer Salesforce over other CRM?

Manufacturing Cloud, a dedicated Salesforce product for the manufacturing industry, can be one of the reasons. This solution complements the core capabilities of Sales Cloud and Service Cloud with a set of industry-specific functionalities and provides advanced automation capabilities for workflows specific to manufacturing sales and customer service.

This article focuses on six key capabilities of Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud that enable manufacturers to streamline their sales workflows.

Sales agreement management

Sales agreements in manufacturing business define how and under which conditions a manufacturer provides its services and goods to a customer. Using Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud, a manufacturer can manage its sales agreements’ life cycles more efficiently.

Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud provides templates that allow employees to quickly create new sales agreements complete with all the details like their duration, the contract owner, and more. In addition, employees can add individual products or entire product categories to their sales agreements in a couple of clicks.

When an agreement expires automatically by the end date, it can be easily extended if needed. For instance, employees can create a new contract based on the previous one, and all products, along with their initially planned quantities and prices, will be copied to the new document automatically.

If an agreement is no longer required, it can be deleted. However, Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud doesn’t allow deleting agreements that are linked to active contracts or orders, which reduces the risk of accidentally disrupting a company’s business operations.

Account-based forecasting

Analytics account forecasting functionality allows sales agents to generate accurate sales forecasts for their accounts based on sales agreements and opportunity data related to the manufacturer's ongoing business agreements and potential deals, respectively. Specifically, sales professionals can create forecasts of future order volumes and revenues for particular products across different regions.

If Salesforce is integrated with other manufacturer’s business tools, the forecasts generated by sales agents can also be shared with other teams. Suppose, Salesforce is connected to an analytics system with demand planning and production planning features. In this case, other teams can use sales forecasts to predict periods of low and high demand for specific products and timely optimize inventory levels or adjust production plans.

Account manager targets setting

Defining sales goals for the upcoming year is a critical duty for any sales department, including those operating in the manufacturing market. After all, clear and realistic goals will guide sales reps on what results they should achieve and help prioritize workloads more efficiently, which can enhance their performance.

Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud can help a manufacturer’s sales department improve goal-setting. By using account manager targets, sales teams can set measurable and accurate goals at the beginning and throughout a fiscal year. Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud also allows sales executives to track their teams’ performance against these predefined goals.

In particular, sales executives can define and assign sales goals and revenue targets in different currencies to an entire organization, sales department, or individual team members. They can also specify these goals by year, quarter, or months, and update them at any time if needed.

Partner visit management

Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud provides partner visit management functionality to help sales managers efficiently plan dealer and distributor visits. Specifically, it enables creating tasks and assigning them to field reps, describing actions they should take during their visits, and tracking their performance with pre-defined KPIs.

Experience Cloud sites for manufacturing

Among other things, Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud allows manufacturers to set up web portals for partner self-service and collaboration. Partners can use these portals to order particular goods, track their orders, and receive information about order cost, shipping terms, and due dates.

In addition, partners can use dedicated portals to reach out to with a manufacturer's support team in case they have any questions, requests, or complaints. In turn, the manufacturer can use the portal to promptly inform its partners about warranties and discounts on particular products, thereby improving partner satisfaction and loyalty.

Program-based business

By using program-based business, another useful Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud feature, manufacturers can process their partners' and customers' sales and production forecasts to generate their own forecasts. For example, an automotive parts manufacturer (OEM) partnering with a car manufacturer and retailer can generate forecasts based on its customer’s predictions. The results of forecasting can be used by the OEM to predict profitability or adjust production plans.

To use this feature, a manufacturer should first establish Salesforce to Salesforce integration with its partner, as it enables smooth data sharing between companies. After that, a manufacturer should upload forecast data from CSV files shared by its partner into Program Based Business objects.

Final thoughts

Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud is a Salesforce cloud product tailored to the workflows and requirements of manufacturing companies. Its industry-specific data model and functionality help companies optimize multiple business aspects, and sales management is no exception. Features including sales agreement management, account forecasting, partner visit management, and program based business can be useful in this regard.

To ensure a smooth Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud implementation, companies can turn to certified Salesforce consultants before the project’s start. Salesforce experts can run business analysis, estimate the project’s budget and timeline, and develop an actionable implementation roadmap. Consultants can also help a company implement and configure Manufacturing Cloud, integrate it with other systems (such as OMS or ERP), perform data migration from legacy systems, and handle other challenging technical tasks.