How to Fix Underperforming Sales Teams in Manufacturing
Why Manufacturing Sales Teams Miss Quotas — and How to Fix It.
Selling in manufacturing B2b sales is not like selling software or consumer products. Sales cycles are long. Buyers are technical. Pricing pressure is constant. And here’s the hard truth: over 50% of salespeople will fail to hit 80% of their goals in 2025. Why? The dirty little secret is that Most sales engineers have never received formal sales skills training. How do we Fix sales in underperforming manufacturing sales teams?
Hiring more sales reps won’t solve this problem. In fact, it often creates new ones.
The real solution: fix how your team sells.
Why Manufacturing Sales Teams Underperform
After 40 years of leading sales teams and training manufacturers’ sales teams, I see the same issues repeat:
- Reliance on price instead of value
- No formal sales process
- Weak discovery and questioning skills
- Transactional “order taker” behavior
- No key account growth strategy
- Selling products, not solutions
- Untrained sales managers
- Sales and marketing misalignment
- No ongoing coaching
If your sales team struggles with these, you’re not alone. But you can fix it.
Why Manufacturing Sales Is Different
Most off-the-shelf sales training doesn’t work in manufacturing. Here’s why:
- Sales cycles are long — months or even years
- Committees decide, not individuals
- Buyers are technical and skeptical
- Salespeople must build ROI-driven business cases
- Salespeople must answer complex product and service questions
That’s why manufacturers need customized B2B sales training designed for technical buyers and long-cycle deals.
5 Ways to Fix Underperforming Sales in Manufacturing.
- Conduct a Sales Skills Assessment
Benchmark your team’s skills, beliefs, and motivations. Identify gaps against top performers in your industry. This becomes your roadmap for training, coaching, and smarter hiring. This is like running an MRI on your business.
- Implement a Formal Sales Process
Stop “random acts of sales.” Map your sales process to the buyer’s journey. Teams that follow a structured, formal sales process grow revenue by 15–23% on average.
- Train for Consultative Selling
Buyers want business consultants, not order takers. Train reps to ask better questions, uncover pain points, share case studies, and sell outcomes — not just products.
Interview customers to learn why you win, why you lose, and how to capture more wallet share. Feed insights back into sales, marketing, and strategy.
- Coach and Reinforce
One-time training doesn’t work. Over 90% is forgotten in 48 hours. Train managers to coach weekly so reps apply new skills in the field.
Case Study: 20% Growth in 12 Months
A $35M industrial manufacturer lost its largest customer (35% of revenue). Instead of hiring new reps, we assessed and retrained the current team.
- Built a formal sales process
- Shifted from transactional to consultative selling
- Designed a key account growth strategy
- Fixed compensation and coaching gaps
Result: 20% growth in year one, 30% in year two, 150+ new customers, and we regained their largest account.
Final Thoughts
Motivational speeches and headcounts don’t fix underperforming sales teams.
Assess → Train → Coach → Reinforce.
Manufacturers who invest in customized sales training:
- Improve close rates
- Protect margins
- Grow market share
- Enter and grow new markets
- Reduce customer churn rates
- Improve customer satisfaction
Ready to find out what’s holding your manufacturing sales team back? Do you need to fix underperforming sales?
Take our Self Sales Effectiveness Assessment and discover how to boost sales and profits in your manufacturing business
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