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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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.