Beyond product excellence: Why manufacturers must drive end-to-end commercial alignment
By Cara Coates
B2B manufacturers built their success on a foundation of technical mastery – superior engineering, operational precision, and product expertise. In today’s market with heightened customer expectations, compressed margins and increasing complexity in the competitive (and for some regulatory) landscape, quality products are the baseline, not the differentiator. The real challenge/differentiator lies in how manufacturers align commercially – ensuring seamless, consistent and value-adding interactions across customer touchpoints - from sales and marketing to service and fulfilment.
This is where leading manufacturers face a frustrating paradox. Despite best-in-class products and skilled teams, commercial performance remains underwhelming. The barrier for improved performance is not in the quality of your products or the skills of your people – it is the hidden cost of friction embedded in disconnected processes across your value chain - and your customers experience it too. Customers receiving a quote that does not match lead times, a service team unaware of sales promises, or an order that cannot be fulfilled as contracted. The consequence is lost margin, delayed revenue, and most damaging of all, lost trust.
As one of our NORTH clients put, “We have the best products, but we lose customers because we make it hard to do business with us.”
At NORTH Consulting, we see the next frontier of advantage not in manufacturing excellence alone, but in pairing it with commercial agility – what we call ComTech Excellence. Many manufacturers have strong engines, but without alignment across teams and systems, they struggle to respond to market shifts and remain relevant.
Bridging strategy and execution requires more than technology - it demands cross-functional governance, shared customer insights, and real-time visibility. Too often, different teams hold different views of what customers expect, creating friction that erodes both trust and opportunity.
Three components to bridge the gaps where value leaks
1.Align around the customer journey
Consider a world-class 4x100m relay team. Each athlete is a powerhouse of speed and execution in their own right. Yet, it is rarely the team with the four fastest individuals that wins the race; it is the team with the most effective handovers. A fumbled baton, even for a fraction of a second, means the race is lost.
This is not just a metaphor, it is the daily reality for leading industrial manufacturers. Individual teams are sprinting at full speed – sales driving revenue, engineering delivering precision, operations ensuring fulfilment, and service responding when needed – but the functions operate in silos, and it shows. A quote does not reflect production lead times. A sales promise that never reaches the service team. A loyal customer that must repeat order details because their history is not visible.
These are not isolated errors; they are symptoms of misalignment. Every additional handoff between departments multiplies the risk of delay, miscommunication, or lost value.
Practical steps include:
Creating a shared understanding of customer expectations across all functions
Emphasise KPIs designed for alignment across the value chain rather than isolated departmental gains
Standardise the data shared between sales, fulfilment, and service
Assigning accountability for cross-functional performance
B2B companies that align their commercial functions – connecting marketing, sales, service, and customer success into a cohesive engine – are 1.4 times more likely to exceed their revenue targets by 10% or more (Deloitte’s Future of B2B Sales study).
Like in a relay, it’s not just about how fast each team runs – but how seamlessly the baton is passed. When handovers are aligned, value flows smoothly to the customer.
2. View systems as enablers, not solutions on their own
Faced with complexity and diminishing returns, many manufacturers invest heavily in ERP, CRM, and quoting systems. These tools are critical, but rarely deliver the hoped-for transformation on their own. In fact, when layered on top of fragmented processes, they often reinforce silos – amplifying the underlying ways of working.
Technology should reduce fracture points, not add new ones. Its role is to enable integration by creating a common commercial foundation – examples of this is:
Shared pricing logic, product rules, and contract structures
Real-time visibility into customer history and commitments
Systems designed to support how people actually work, not the other way around
This is where many companies stumble: they treat systems as the solution, when in reality they are only enablers of the right commercial design. At this point, the idea of ComTech Excellence becomes critical.
It is about designing an operating model where commercial strategy, processes, and technology are orchestrated together. Instead of piling tools on top of fragmented ways of working, ComTech Excellence ensures that systems reinforce the right behaviours, enable visibility across functions, and support the flow of value through the customer journey. Done well, it prevents technology from becoming just another layer of complexity and turns it into a powerful accelerator of alignment.
3.Redesign the operating model for resilience
True commercial excellence is not achieved by incremental fixes; it requires re-wiring how the business operates. Complexity in manufacturing will never be eliminated, but it can be managed. Doing so requires intentional design and anchored ownership across people, processes and tools.
So where should manufacturers start?
Map the customer journey: Identify precisely where value is created, delayed, or lost across every touchpoint
Break down silos: Bring together leaders from sales, engineering, service, and finance to define shared commercial objectives and ensure joint accountability for outcomes, not just tasks
Redesign with intent: Intentionally re-engineer processes to eliminate unnecessary handoffs and ensure every step adds value
Make systems fit for purpose: Ensure a common language, define technology and data ownership, and connect CRM, ERP, and pricing tools across the business
Assign accountability: Appoint clear ownership for both processes and systems across functions – ensuring one person is responsible for ensuring improvements and overseeing daily operations, even if this cuts across traditional organisational boundaries
Align incentives: Define holistic performance metrics that ensure no conflicting KPIs. A company can become its worst enemy if teams are cannibalising other teams’ success to reach narrow success metrics
This shift requires more than new processes; it requires a new mindset. The customer journey should be seen as a connected loop, not a linear path. Every step must add value, and every team must be aligned around a shared commercial vision. That shift unlocks agility: faster responses to market changes, fewer errors, and greater resilience.
“In the race for commercial excellence, it’s not the speed of each team that matters – it’s how well the baton is passed between them. Every misaligned handoff risks dropped value.”
The new definition of excellence
The next era of manufacturing will not be defined by technical mastery alone. Value is increasingly found in the experience surrounding the product: the accuracy of a complex quote, the reliability of a lead time, the transparency of communication, and the proactivity of post-sale service.
Manufacturers that master commercial integration will not only grow faster but also reduce the hidden costs of complexity. By aligning systems, processes, and people around the customer journey, they can protect margins, improve retention, and scale sustainably.
In a world of rising complexity, clarity and integration are no longer optional. They are the new definition of excellence.
The baton is already in motion. The question is: will your organisation pass it cleanly, or drop it on the track? Manufacturers that master the handover will define the next era of industry leadership.
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