The separation of lead generation and sales in manufacturing

Leads feed the sales pipeline in the manufacturing industry. But for many reasons, lead generation and sales should remain separate functions for some metal fabrication shops. Getty Images

Every day we face selling pressure from a variety of sources—inside our family units, at work, while shopping at the store. We’re sold to through internet searches, TV, YouTube, Spotify, you name it.

I have three kids who on the weekends barge into my room at 5:30 a.m. to begin to convince me it’s a good idea to get out of bed. They are wrong 100% of the time and do not close the sale. Around 6:30 a.m., they finally win and immediately begin to set up the waffles-not-toast argument. Then it’s the extra syrup and whipped cream on top. After breakfast, it’s “can we watch a show?” About an hour later: “Can you get me a snnnnaaackkk?”The function of sales is all around us. It’s impossible to ignore.

The role of sales inside any fabrication business is a critical function. If you oversimplify any business, you get two parts: production and sales. Without sales, the production (and the business along with it) dies.

As a lead generation and sales consultant, I speak with hundreds of manufacturing and fabrication business owners about their sales program each year. I commonly hear that owners are unhappy with the current sales situation, even if the company is growing. The only real sales measurement standard is new business that sales successfully closed. Unfortunately, the fabricator has no measurement of the ongoing process of building the sales pipeline. Since there is no pipeline data, the company cannot predict or forecast future sales based on current activity.

Typically, sales personnel in metal fabrication do not specialize in specific tasks. Instead, one salesperson is responsible for all stages of the sales process, including list research, cold calling, pricing, and even product delivery. A customer relationship management (CRM) tool seems to be a good idea, but the sales team usually struggles to actually use it and find value in it.

Most shops operate with a results-only, commission-based sales model, but great reps are impossible to find. On top of all this, many fabrication sales teams work with long B2B sales cycles, usually between six and 12 months.

As a stakeholder in a fabrication business, do you identify with any of these challenges? If so, how do you build a proper sales program to provide consistent, measurable growth to keep production centers busy? The answer lies in lead generation.

The Role of Lead Generation

Lead generation fulfills a critical series of steps that come before the actual sales process. When performed correctly, lead generation allows for consistency of demand and provides a supply of steady qualified leads to the sales team to close.

Lead generators typically are younger team members with basic knowledge of production capabilities and limitations. They’re highly motivated and able to overcome rejection easily. The lead generation job can be a grind. But provided with the correct incentives and growth track, the employee is motivated to succeed and grow into a true sales role.

Lead generators focus on market research. They build lists of prospective accounts and identify key contact information for prospects, including direct-dial and email information. They perform the initial cold calls and then follow up with email, additional phone calls, and marketing material. Finally, they set the initial introduction appointment for the sales team.

The Role of Sales

By adding a lead generation component, the more skilled salespeople can focus on higher-value and more technical issues. The sales function should be handled by more experienced team members, possibly including those with an engineering background, who can understand basic pricing and limitations of production. They also may have some production or estimating experience. In this role, salespeople should be able to navigate complex questions about technical capabilities. They can quickly ballpark the price of a project and understand the appropriate markup.

Grabbing the baton from the lead generator, experienced salespeople hold initial meetings with new prospects to set a great impression. They price projects uncovered by the lead generation team, negotiate pricing with prospects, and close the project. Finally, once the customer is firmly established as loyal, salespeople maintain the relationship.

The Importance of Lead Generation

Smaller fab shops often rely on the owner or principal members to facilitate sales (when they have time). They’re interrupted constantly and often should be performing high-value functions. They really shouldn’t be cold calling.

Adding a lead generator allows the owner or principal to work at their pay grade. If a dedicated role can’t be supported by the company revenue, consider a part-time team member or an outsource lead generation service.

Larger shops probably have a team of salespeople, but they often get stuck chasing orders for large customers through production. Over time these salespeople essentially become account managers. They lose the time and ability to prospect. Lead generation fills this void.

By adding lead generation, fabricators benefit from having someone who’s consistently dedicated to the early-stage (or top-of-the-funnel) process. A good lead generator should provide a continual stream of leads to more experienced sales professionals.

Separating the sales process from lead generation allows for the specialization of tasks. The lead generator can focus on getting the salesperson in the door. The lead generator becomes an expert at qualification and initial appointment setting, allowing the sales team to focus on closing.

To be successful, the lead generator must properly score prospects. The score should not be on the specific project but rather on the total potential revenue within the entire account. Assigning a score to each lead allows the lead generator to spend the appropriate amount of time on larger accounts. To put it metaphorically, the juice has to be worth the squeeze.

About Timing

In college, I had this philosophy about dating. I felt that if I was appropriately and politely persistent with a girl, she would go out with me—even if she had a boyfriend. Something inevitably would come up in the relationship, a problem or some sort of pain. If I was consistently persistent, the timing factor would be eliminated and she would date me.

In September, I met Lauren. She was dating Jake. I asked her out anyway. Here’s our first conversation:

Me: Will you get coffee with me sometime?

Lauren (annoyed): No, I have a boyfriend.

Me (slight pause for drama, but confidently): I know ... Jake. Right?

Lauren: Yes, Jake.

Me: Well, I would still like to take you out for coffee sometime.

Lauren (trying to push me off): Maybe.

Me: Would you mind if I asked you again in about six weeks?

Lauren (unsure how to respond): I guess that would be OK.

Roughly 24 weeks (and four attempts) later I bought Lauren coffee. I’ll give you one guess at my wife’s name. Jake is still really good at video games and still lives in his mom’s basement.

Every prospect account has its own buying cycle and feelings about the incumbent supplier. Since the lead generator is focused on getting in the door, the timing factor is essentially eliminated in the buying process. Polite, persistent contact over time ensures your fabrication business is always top-of-mind when the timing is right.

The reality is that many valid prospects are perfectly happy with their existing suppliers. The larger the customer, the more difficult it is to displace the incumbent. That is precisely why lead generation should be separated from sales. Experienced sales agents simply don’t have the time to maintain pressure on hundreds (or even thousands) of valid prospects. The sales team should focus on closing, pricing, negotiating, and protecting existing customers.

Building a sales team is a difficult enough task. Adding an element of dedicated lead generation may seem overwhelming. But you have options. You can choose to build a lead generation team in-house or outsource the function. If you do outsource, look for a U.S.-based team with existing manufacturing experience. Also look for month-to-month pricing; don’t get locked into a long-term contract.

I have crazy respect for salespeople. We are educators and problem-solvers. We help people find issues they don’t know they have. We have the important responsibility first to qualify and then to educate people on the products and services we believe in.

Senior sales members must focus on the highest-value activities. This can be accomplished only by adding an element of lead generation that maintains consistent, polite pressure over time, yielding trust and top-of-mind awareness.

People buy from people they like and trust. It’s simply impossible to create trust without consistent two-way communication over long periods of time. Sales pressure is all around us. By adding a lead generation component to the sales process inside your fabrication business, a dedicated process of interaction begins the long-term investment of building your sales pipeline.