3 Challenges facing technical sales teams in Chemicals

At a glance

• Challenge 1: The knowledge drain. Your most valuable asset, decades of expert knowledge, is not being systematically captured, creating significant business risk as veteran employees depart.

• Challenge 2: Rising complexity. Increasing product and customer complexity is creating operational friction in the sales process that results in delays and opens the door for more agile competitors.

• Challenge 3: Market volatility. A lack of real-time, integrated data prevents your team from reacting decisively to market volatility, directly eroding margins and putting key accounts at risk.

• The strategic response. The solution requires a strategic shift away from tactical training and towards building a system that treats your institutional knowledge as an enterprise asset.

Introduction

Industry data suggests that technical sales representatives often spend less than 30% of their time on active selling. The majority of their effort is allocated to administrative tasks, internal data retrieval, and coordinating with subject matter experts. This operational friction represents a significant opportunity cost and can hinder revenue growth in a competitive market.

For leaders in the specialty chemicals sector, it's crucial to look beyond daily metrics and identify the systemic challenges that impact team effectiveness. Three key issues, if left unaddressed, can limit your organization's potential and ability to adapt to changing market conditions.

This post outlines these three challenges and presents a strategic framework for improving the systems that support your sales organization.

Challenge #1: The impact of knowledge retention and transfer

A significant portion of your organization's competitive advantage lies in the accumulated knowledge of your senior technical and sales experts. As the workforce demographics shift due to retirements and standard employee turnover, managing this intellectual capital becomes a strategic priority. And, this only gets worse in the next 3-5 years.

When an experienced representative leaves the organization, they often take with them nuanced customer histories, specific application knowledge, and undocumented problem-solving techniques. This creates two primary business challenges:

• Extended onboarding cycles: New team members require more time to reach full productivity as they lack a centralized, accessible repository of expert knowledge.

• Variable customer experience: The quality of technical guidance can become inconsistent across the team, depending on an individual rep's tenure and access to internal experts.

The core objective is to shift from relying on individuals to implementing a system that captures, codifies, and distributes expertise across the organization.

Challenge #2: Managing increased product and market complexity

Customer expectations have evolved. Buyers now require sales teams to be proficient in a wide range of complex topics, including ESG regulations, niche product applications, and the benefits of sustainable alternatives. This must be done while providing quick and accurate information.

Simultaneously, product portfolios have expanded to meet these new market demands. The ability for any single individual to maintain complete mastery over this expanding and complex information is limited.

This growing complexity can introduce friction into the sales cycle:

• Delayed sales proposals: Representatives often need to consult with internal R&D or technical service teams to validate solutions, extending the time-to-quote.

• Sub-optimal portfolio penetration: Sales reps may focus on familiar products, potentially overlooking cross-sell or upsell opportunities within the broader portfolio.

• Erosion of buyer confidence: Delays or inaccuracies in responding to technical inquiries can cause discerning customers to question your organization's expertise.

The goal is to equip your team with tools that provide immediate access to vetted, actionable information, transforming complexity from a burden into an advantage.

See how we tackle this at Corvus in the Account Management module.

Challenge #3: Navigating market volatility with agility

Supply chain variability and persistent pricing pressure are now standard operating conditions. Customers require clear justification for pricing and immediate confirmation of product availability and lead times.

Answering these critical questions efficiently requires real-time access to data that is frequently distributed across disparate systems, such as your CRM, ERP, and order management platforms.

This lack of integrated, real-time data access can hinder performance:

• Ineffective value communication: Without readily available data on competitor alternatives or specific value propositions, representatives may be pressured into premature discounting.

• Slow response to supply issues: Identifying suitable product substitutes for an unavailable item can be a time-intensive, manual process, risking the loss of an order to a more agile competitor.

In the current market, organizational agility is a key differentiator. Teams empowered with real-time, consolidated data are better positioned to respond effectively to market shifts.

A strategic framework for sales enablement

The source of these challenges is often systemic, not individual. While a talented sales force is crucial, its full potential can be limited by legacy processes and siloed information.

A forward-looking strategy focuses on optimizing the systems that empower your team. To begin this process, consider the following questions:

1. Conduct a knowledge audit: Where does our most valuable sales and technical information reside? Is it easily accessible, or is it confined to individual experts and disconnected databases?

2. Conduct an operational audit: What are the key activities your sales force does on a daily basis and how long does it take them?

3. Quantify inefficiency: What is the business impact of delayed answers to customers, longer sales cycles, and missed cross-sell/upsell opportunities?

By addressing these foundational issues, you can build a more resilient and high-performing sales organization prepared for future growth.

Ready to transform your team's operational framework into a competitive advantage? Learn more about our approach to sales enablement.