Francisco Ruíz
Francisco Ruíz is an industrial growth auditor at BARRO. His work focuses on the mechanics of the industrial buying process: rigorous ideal-customer definition, buying-committee behaviour, technical influence before the tender, pre-proposal qualification quality and the executive discipline of the sales process. His recurrent thesis is that the industrial sales cycle does not shorten with pressure but with the installation of judgement in the buyer.
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HORECA as an underestimated strategic channel: the second margin engine that few food manufacturers govern
The HORECA channel operates with dynamics distinct from retail and generates superior margins. Most food manufacturers treat it as a retail complement, without specific commercial structure. The second margin engine is underexploited.
For the strategic buyer of an automotive Tier 2, the aftermarket is worth more than the OEM contract
The strategic buyer evaluating an automotive Tier 2 does not value its business lines equally. The recurrent aftermarket commands substantially higher multiples than the OEM contract. Composition decides more than volume.
Tractor usage data: the commercial asset that stays with John Deere and almost no one else
Tractor telemetry generates valuable commercial information every year on usage, maintenance and the moment of replacement. Most Tier 2 manufacturers do not capture it, do not organise it and do not convert it into aftermarket revenue.
The agro-industrial manufacturer learns of the client's project when it is already closed. The cooperative decided earlier
The farmer decides his machinery investment with the cooperative or the technical prescriber long before the manufacturer receives any signal. Whoever arrives late to that conversation arrives late to the project.
When the buyer changes packaging supplier, it is not about price. It is about launch failure
The sales team attributes most packaging supplier changes to price. The buyer, when asked, tells a different story. The change occurs when a launch goes wrong.
Industrial forging concentrated in a handful of OEMs: when the fall of one client drags the entire sector down
The heavy industrial forging sector lives off a reduced set of OEMs. The fall of a single one drags the rest of the sector with it. Vertical diversification ceases to be an expansion strategy and becomes a survival strategy.
Contractual maintenance in HVAC: the business the manufacturer leaves to multibrand operators by inertia
Contractual maintenance of the installed HVAC base is one of the businesses with the highest structural margin in the sector. Most manufacturers cede it to multibrand operators through an organisational decision that is rarely reviewed.
Global construction machinery manufacturers win in the workshop, not in the first sale. The asymmetry with the medium-sized Spanish manufacturer
The profitability difference between large global construction machinery manufacturers and the medium-sized Spanish manufacturer is not explained by new equipment. It is explained by the workshop, spare parts and service that come afterwards.
When the industrial handling buyer publishes the RFP, the decision has already been taken
The RFP in industrial handling arrives late as a starting point for commercial work. The buyer's mental shortlist is already closed before its publication. Those not inside compete on criteria they did not write.
The industrial client cannot receive what has been sold to them: the post-PO phase that decides the next automation project
A significant portion of signed automation projects stalls when the client attempts to operate them with their own team. The supplier who accompanies during the post-signature phase builds account. The one who delivers and leaves loses the next one.
The industrial sales cycle does not shorten with pressure. It shortens when the customer recognises their pain
The duration of the industrial commercial conversation depends less on the supplier's diligence than on the clarity with which the customer perceives their own problem. Reframing the debate changes both the commercial strategy and the marketing system.
The false consolation of losing tenders on price
When an industrial sales team loses an opportunity, the most frequent and most comfortable explanation is to attribute it to price. Buyers' post-sale evidence tells a different story, and it is worth listening to.
The industrial buying committee: six to ten decision-makers and the mechanics of arming the internal sponsor
The relevant industrial purchase is no longer signed by one person. It is signed by a committee of six to ten people, each with their own research. The quality of the supplier's work depends on how it arms the interlocutor who will defend the proposal within that committee.
The hidden cost of an imprecise customer profile in mid-sized industry
Defining the ideal customer by sector and size is the convention. The evidence shows that this definition is insufficient to govern an industrial pipeline, and that its imprecision costs more than the executive committee usually recognises.
Commissioning the industrial sales rep by volume: the system that pays to destroy margin
The most widespread incentive scheme in mid-sized industrial companies rewards volume closed, not margin captured. The consequence is a sales team that is individually rational and collectively erosive of profitability.
Having a sales manual is not having a commercial process. The difference is worth twice the growth
82 per cent of companies declare executing formal sales plays. Only 21 per cent extract their real value. The difference between the written manual and the live system explains a substantial part of differential growth in industrial B2B.
The 21 per cent win rate: why four out of five large bids the company writes are lost
The average B2B close rate is 21 per cent. In large transactions, it falls to 12-18 per cent. Accepting the figure forces a rethink of how, and to what, to decide to respond when an opportunity arrives.
By the time the buyer arrives at the first meeting, 70 per cent has been decided
Industrial commercial processes are designed assuming that the conversation begins at the meeting. The data show that, by that date, the most important decision has already been made.
Industrial churn is not sudden. It is silence accumulated over twenty-four months
41 per cent of industrial companies have lost key accounts in the last twenty-four months for lack of proactive post-sale contact. The loss is not announced. It accumulates in silence until it becomes irreversible.
The tender as point of arrival: why the match is played out in the engineering phase
By the time the industrial buyer publishes the tender, most technical decisions have already been made. Competing from outside that phase places the supplier at a systematic disadvantage.