Machinery buyers are accelerating. Here are 3 ways to keep up.

A recent private survey points to an expansion of the Chinese manufacturing sector—the fastest ever recorded in the past decade. This data means only one thing. The global market is on the rebound, and your customers are starting to gear up to capitalize on it.  

Is your machine manufacturing business equipped to handle this demand?

Manufacturers around the globe have been hit hard by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Industry leaders who have embarked on their digital transformation journey expect to recover quickly to meet pent-up demand. 

However, many other smaller machine and equipment manufacturers realize that Industry 4.0 is no longer a buzzword. It’s a business imperative for businesses looking to recover—fast.

Your customers’ expectations in a post COVID world.

Your customers are transforming and adapting to a post COVID world as best as they can. This shift inevitably means they expect your business to be as resilient and agile as they are.

Speed and accuracy in all aspects of your business are no longer “nice-to-haves” or “should-haves.” They are now “must-haves” for any manufacturer looking to keep their customers happy—or even keep them at all.

Overcome the now. Prepared for what's next.

Of course, ensuring speed and agility is easier said than done. And your customers know that. However, that does little to lower their expectations. If anything, they expect your business to be able to keep up with their transformation pace.

The good news is, by meeting today’s challenges, your business will be well-positioned for opportunities that tomorrow brings. 

Here are 3 ways you can keep pace with your customers

1. Provide partners and customers with  24/7 omnichannel access to your business.
   
   • Letting your customers buy from you anytime they want with a commerce portal is a sure-fire way to grow your sales. However, empowering them to self-serve will keep them coming back.
2. Understand, anticipate, and prepare for your customer needs 
   
   • Your production and sales data can come together to give you a complete picture of your customers. By mastering both with a fully integrated CRM, you can easily anticipate and meet your customers’ needs.
3. Eliminate human error in customer engagements and decision-making
   
   1. Your customers have no time for errors. And neither should you. By connecting your sales and Configure Price Quote (CPQ) to your ERP backbone, real-time price, cost, discount, and margin data are used to power your quotations and proposals.

Adopting Industry 4.0 is not a shortcut to success. It’s a long and drawn-out process that can take years. To shorten this process, manufacturers can look at emerging technology built for their industry.

Find out how your manufacturing business can enter the digital economy in just three months with our latest Manufacturing Commerce Playbook.