The way many B2B customer journeys are designed today does not reflect how manufacturing customers actually buy. The result is that sales teams miss opportunities for revenue growth.
In a previous article, we explored how revenue is often lost in manufacturing when repeat orders and follow-on sales never become visible to sales teams in the CRM system.
In this article, we take a wider view and look at the entire customer journey. The focus is on how manufacturing customers actually buy, and why aligning sales processes, systems, and data flows to that hybrid reality is critical for revenue growth.
When we work on RevOps projects in manufacturing, we see the same pattern repeatedly. Technology alone is not the issue. Revenue performance depends just as much on process design and ownership across the customer journey as on the systems themselves.
What “hybrid” really means in manufacturing
The prevailing narrative still promotes fully digital, self-serve buying journeys. Buyers research online, compare options, place orders through portals, and automation replaces manual work. It is a clean and attractive model. It is also largely disconnected from how industrial buying works in practice. In manufacturing, customer journeys are hybrid by nature.
Hybrid in manufacturing does not mean a generic mix of digital and human touchpoints. It means buying groups, negotiated deals, system-to-system transactions, and a continuous flow of unstructured orders. These elements coexist throughout the customer lifecycle and cannot be separated into neat digital or human phases.
Without consolidating this activity into a single source of truth in the CRM system, sales and marketing operate with incomplete context and miss significant revenue opportunities.
Selling to buying groups without losing data
Most manufacturing buying processes start with digital research. Websites, technical documentation, and product data are used to understand options and validate requirements. Marketing automation adds clear value and structure to the initial phase of the customer journey. But very quickly, the process expands into internal alignment within the customer organization.
Engineering evaluates technical fit. Procurement negotiates pricing and terms. Finance assesses risk. Operations focus on delivery, reliability, and service. These buying groups move at different speeds and interact through different channels.
This is where gaps start to emerge. Valuable sales intelligence is spread across emails, meetings, and systems but never fully reaches the CRM. Without a complete view of the buying group, sales reps struggle to be proactive and relevant, regardless of whether the interaction happens over email, phone, or in person.
Digital content supports the decision, but it rarely closes the deal. When risk is high, human interaction becomes essential. Trust is built through conversation. That trust is hard to establish when the sales rep lacks a clear overview of the customer and its stakeholders.
Where transactions actually happen
Even in digitally mature manufacturing companies, a large share of transactions does not happen in web shops or customer portals.
High-volume or long-term contractual business often flows through EDI or direct ERP integrations. These transactions are efficient and automated, but typically invisible to sales and marketing teams.
At the same time, many orders still arrive as unstructured input. Purchase orders sent as PDFs by email. Change requests written in free text. Follow-on orders handled by support or supply chain teams rather than sales.
This is not a sign of low digital maturity. It reflects how customers optimize their own internal workflows. The problem is not the behavior. The problem is that systems and processes are not designed to capture it consistently.
AI can play a critical role here by interpreting unstructured input and ensuring that activity ends up in the CRM and ERP system, as a single source of truth.
Why people remain central to revenue creation
Despite years of investment in digital sales models, people remain central to revenue creation in manufacturing.
Sales teams, key account managers, customer service, and operational functions all play distinct roles across the customer journey. Their value lies in handling complexity, resolving ambiguity, and maintaining long-term relationships.
System-based transactions and self-service channels complement this work. They do not replace it.
What has changed is the volume of information sales teams need to consider. Data is richer, signals are more fragmented, and time is limited. Sales should not spend time piecing together emails or manually researching account activity. They should spend time building relationships and driving revenue.
The automation mistake
A common mistake is trying to force customers into idealized digital journeys.
A large share of manufacturing interaction arrives as unstructured data because it fits how customers already work. Attempts to eliminate this behavior often increase effort on the customer side and create resistance internally.
The smarter approach is not to automate customers, but to automate interpretation.
When automation focuses on interpretation rather than behavior, unstructured orders, requests, and changes can be validated, structured, and routed automatically. Data flows into CRM, ERP, and related systems without forcing customers into new interfaces. Human teams remain in control but no longer act as manual data processors.
This reduces friction on both sides of the relationship. Customers work the way they always have. Internal teams gain visibility, consistency, and speed.
Designing journeys around reality, not theory
The manufacturing customer journey is not a marketing diagram. It is an operational reality shaped by buying groups, negotiated deals, system integrations, and informal communication.
Companies that grow consistently do not chase idealized digital journeys. They design and integrate systems and processes around how revenue is actually created and remove friction where it matters most.
Aligning sales processes to the hybrid reality of buying in manufacturing creates opportunities for revenue growth. We at Exelement would love to be your partner in this.
