The manufacturing industry is highly competitive, and winning more deals is at the top of the business agenda for most manufacturing companies. However, the manufacturing sales environment is tough, with a growing customer demand for custom products delivered at speed.
Traditional manufacturing workflows struggle to cope with the complexities of producing highly configurable products, leading to bottlenecks in design, quoting, and sales processes, and slow turnaround times. Workflows also involve significant amounts of manual input that are prone to human error and inconsistencies. The combination of these challenges can make it difficult to win deals.
Successful manufacturers are using CPQ as an effective tool to develop a streamlined B2B sales process. CPQ solutions guide sales representatives through product configuration, apply pricing rules, and automatically generate accurate quotes. Delivering accurate custom quotes with quick turnaround times gives sales teams the competitive edge to win more deals.
How CPQ makes a difference
Speed
CPQ automatically generates quotes in minutes so sales teams can configure products, apply pricing, and generate accurate quotes in real-time.
Accuracy
CPQ automates the pricing process based on predefined rules and logic, removing the need for manual calculations and the risk of error.
Complexity
CPQ makes complex configuration easy with guided selling features, ensuring only valid configuration options are chosen.
Integrations
An integrated CPQ solution gives sales teams up-to-date product data and pricing to accurately configure and sell custom configurations.
Winning more deals with CPQ
1. Faster response times
Sales teams and distributors can spend a large amount of time generating quotes, especially when they are quoting for products with complex configurations. This can increase the length of time that customers are waiting for quotes, resulting in potential lost sales to businesses that can respond faster.
CPQ automatically generates quotes in minutes so salespeople can configure products, apply pricing, and generate accurate quotes in real-time. The automatic generation of quotes enables faster quote turnaround times, leading to improved customer experience and increased sales.
2. Customization made easy
Manually configuring custom products can be challenging. The risk of configuring products that are incompatible or unmanufacturable is high, leading to poor customer experience and lost deals.
CPQ makes it easy to configure complex custom products. Guided selling features support sales teams and online buyers through the configuration process, ensuring only valid configuration options are chosen. Also, 3D product configurators provide a visual representation of the finished products, making it easier to visualize complex configurations and see the impact of different options.
3. Improved customer experience
Whether you’re selling complex HVAC systems, bespoke furniture solutions, or custom machinery, your customers have high expectations when it comes to convenience, speed, and personalization.
Guided selling in CPQ uses intelligent rules-based technology to guide sales teams and customers to make valid configuration choices. Users are provided with information about compatibility issues and receive prompts for suitable alternatives. Additionally, when combined with a 3D product configurator, guided selling enables customers to visualize their customized product options, making it easier to commit to purchase and improving overall customer satisfaction levels.
4. Focus on selling
Sales teams often spend lots of time working on producing quotes manually. Spending time on quote admin means they have less time to focus on selling.
Guided selling in CPQ enables salespeople to confidently configure complex products, even when they don’t have extensive product knowledge. It removes the need for them to know every detail about a product and how it can be configured, so they can focus on sales and customer satisfaction.
5. Optimized pricing
Custom products with complex configuration options can be difficult to price accurately. This can be challenging for sales teams competing to win deals with competitive pricing.
CPQ enables manufacturers to easily handle complex pricing strategies, including discounting rules, tiered pricing, and bundle pricing. The ability to optimize pricing strategies is crucial for businesses to succeed with competitive product offerings.
Speeding up sales cycles & improving customer service with DriveWorks
Maglin Site Furniture are a leading North American manufacturer of public site furnishings. Maglin use DriveWorks to respond quickly and effectively to customer requests for custom configurations.
Book a DriveWorks CPQ demo today
Configure, price, and quote custom products, and automatically create documents and data for manufacturing