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High-Impact Discovery Questions for Selling to COOs in Manufacturing

Summary:

In the manufacturing industry, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) owns the critical responsibility of ensuring operational efficiency, cost control, and production excellence. With rising competition, supply chain disruptions, and the pressure to maintain high-quality output, COOs are constantly searching for ways to optimize production workflows, workforce productivity, and resource allocation.

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When selling a Productivity / Ops SaaS solution, your goal should be to uncover how they track operational efficiency, identify bottlenecks, measure productivity gains, and integrate technology into plant-floor operations. The right discovery questions will position your solution as a direct enabler of efficiency, visibility, and cost reduction.

Early Discovery (Context + Priorities)

  1. What are your top operational priorities for this year (efficiency, cost savings, throughput)?
  2. How do you currently track productivity across your manufacturing plants?
  3. What operational KPIs are most critical to you—OEE, downtime, cycle times, or throughput?
  4. How do you balance efficiency improvements with maintaining product quality?
  5. What are the biggest bottlenecks impacting your production processes today?
  6. How do you monitor workforce productivity across multiple facilities?
  7. What’s your current approach to tracking machine downtime and maintenance schedules?
  8. How do you ensure production forecasts are aligned with actual capacity?
  9. How often do you review operational data to make process adjustments?
  10. Where do you see the biggest opportunities for automation in your operations?

Qualification (Tech Fit + Decision Process)

  1. What tools or platforms are you currently using for operational visibility?
  2. How integrated are your production, workforce, and supply chain systems today?
  3. How much visibility do you currently have into plant-floor productivity in real time?
  4. What manual processes or reporting tasks take the most time from your team?
  5. Who else is involved in evaluating new operations technology—CIO, CFO, plant heads?
  6. What challenges have you faced in scaling digital productivity tools across plants?
  7. How do you assess the ROI of technology investments in operations?
  8. Are you currently running any digital transformation initiatives in manufacturing ops?
  9. How do you handle change management when introducing new operations software?
  10. What’s your timeline for adopting tools that could reduce operational inefficiencies?

Deep Needs Analysis (ROI + Impact)

  1. How do inefficiencies today impact production costs and margins?
  2. How much downtime could be eliminated with better predictive insights?
  3. What is the cost of missed production targets due to workforce or equipment inefficiencies?
  4. How do you currently benchmark productivity across different plants or lines?
  5. What level of visibility would you like into real-time shop floor performance?
  6. How do you ensure continuous improvement programs are data-driven and measurable?
  7. What reporting gaps make it difficult to act quickly on operational issues?
  8. How much of your operations data today is actionable versus siloed?
  9. How do you see AI and analytics shaping productivity improvements in the next 2–3 years?
  10. If you could instantly solve one operational productivity challenge, what would it be?

How Pepsales AI Makes Discovery Smarter

Selling Productivity / Ops SaaS to a COO in manufacturing requires aligning your solution with tangible efficiency gains, cost reductions, and workforce optimization. With Pepsales AI Copilot, your sales team can:

  • Use persona-specific frameworks tailored for manufacturing operations leaders
  • Surface insights around downtime costs, OEE gaps, and ROI blockers in real time
  • Handle objections related to integration with legacy manufacturing systems
  • Automatically score opportunities using MEDDPICC & BANT qualification
  • Position your solution as the bridge between operational data and performance outcomes

With Pepsales AI, every COO conversation shifts from “technology adoption” to “productivity transformation.”

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