You can configure engineer-to-order products more quickly and accurately with a sales configuration system. Which, if you sell complex, configurable products with hundreds of product options, is a game-changer.
What is a system for sales configuration? It’s a digital tool commonly referred to as a configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution (and sometimes configured software or quoting software.)
A sales configuration system can streamline engineering and production and automate a sizable portion of your sales process—the result: is faster sales cycles, increased efficiency, and higher-margin orders. Read on to find out how it all works.
A sales configuration system: what is it?
Systems for sales configuration enable manufacturers to design products, set prices, and provide bids instantly.
The CPQ system digitally records the information when a customer chooses a configuration. It runs them by a set of preconfigured guidelines (product and pricing rules) that automatically validate the design and calculate an instant price.
With the help of a CPQ, sales representatives can generate configuration options more quickly, accelerating the sales process. It also assures manufacturers that all configurations buyers see are viable and customers receive quotes without delay. Engineers and shop floor personnel will need to perform fewer checks later on.
3 Ways Configured Software Changes Your Sales Process
Software that has been adequately configured can revolutionize your sales process, making it quicker, more effective, and more pleasant for customers. It reduces your costs while increasing customer satisfaction. It’s a win-win.
Your sales process will perform better the more buyer-centric it is. According to an HBR study, simplifying your buying process can make you 62% more likely to acquire a client for premium offerings. Gartner reports that a staggering 77% of B2B buyers believe their most recent transaction was anything but straightforward.
Meaning?
You can differentiate yourself from the competition by transforming your sales process and streamlining the buyer’s journey with CPQ. With a solution like KBMax CPQ, you can expect to see a 40% increase in conversion rate.
Three ways configurable software can change your sales process are as follows:
Product Visualization Facilitates Better Product Understanding
Instead of lengthy product descriptions or stock images, product visualization enables you to show interactive visuals of your configurable products. The technology transforms your sales process by allowing reps—even new hires—to offer buyers possible configurations and tailor them to their needs.
Take on the perspective of your buyer. You’re about to invest significant money in a complex product. After speaking with a representative (whom you may or may not entirely trust), you read the specifications several times. But how do you know what the finished product will look like? How can you be sure that you haven't made a grave error?
Although photos greatly enhance descriptions, they are still insufficient for complex products. They offer little help in understanding designs at a granular level. The top tools for sales configuration go a step further. They generate 3D configurations that buyers can interact with on-screen, which dramatically improves confidence in purchase decisions.
The best feature of visual product configurators is how simple it is for users to use them on their own. Manufacturers can embed their configurator into their website and let visitors self-learn and self-serve at their own pace. Today's B2B buyers are asking for this flexibility.
Streamlining the Buyer's Journey with Dynamic Pricing
Speed is key to streamlining the sales process. If buyers have to wait days or even hours to get a price and quote, your competitors might swoop in and walk buyers to the next step in the buying journey before you can. This might cause you to lose that sale.
Systems for sales configuration let you quickly price things and produce bids. They factor in a range of internal and external data sets (like supply and material costs) to optimize prices for conversions.
The speed and openness will be valued by your buyers, and you'll close more sales in less time.
24x7 Access to E-commerce Integration
Before placing an order, B2B buyers often consult a buying committee composed of six to ten people about the various product possibilities. Buyers need access to your product information and visual assets to make their case to the committee and get the necessary buy-in.
Yes, they can email a request for the info. But wouldn’t it be better to visit your website whenever they wanted to see all the product options and prices without contacting a sales rep every time? You must integrate your sales configuration system with your e-commerce website to provide this degree of autonomy.
E-commerce integration makes life easier for buyers and creates a great first impression of your brand. It marks you out as a digital leader that uses best-in-class technology.
Additional Features of Quoting Software
The CPQ market is flooded with poor-quality tools. How do you find a quoting software solution that helps you with more than just quotes?
The qualities to consider when assessing vendors are as follows:
Automating Documents
To expedite your processes and free up your team's time, automation is essential. In addition to automating pricing and quotes, the best CPQ solutions auto-generate production documentation, including CNC cut sheets, CAD drawings, assembly documentation, and bill of materials.
Integrated systems for CRM and ERP
Integrations take the place of manual data entry into your CRM and ERP. A CPQ system that integrates with these solutions can automatically update the information in the ERP (such as inventory levels and sales) and the CRM (such as a new client’s contact details), keeping teams in sync.
Cloud-Based Platform
Because it allows you to access your data from any location with an internet-connected device, the cloud is growing in popularity. A cloud-based CPQ is more scalable than the software you store on your own server. Additionally, it takes less upkeep. The vendor is responsible for upgrades, updates, and bug fixes, leaving your teams free to pursue higher-value tasks.
The Conclusion
You can shorten your sales cycle, offer a rich buyer experience, boost conversion rates, enhance sales rep performance, and, most importantly, enable self-serve, giving a worldwide customer base access to your products whenever they want. All of these benefits can be achieved with the right sales configuration system.
Without the proper CPQ in their toolbox, engineer-to-order manufacturers risk falling behind a charging pack of digital-first competitors as goods get more complicated and skilled labor becomes more difficult to find.