Man hours
For a long time, the company worked with a basic quotation document, from which every quotation was made for every customer. This did not cause so many problems, but it did cause a lot of man-hours. Jean-Max: “In an increasingly competitive market, as a company you want the best possible facilities. If there is a breakdown somewhere or a machine breaks down, you need to be able to prepare a quotation quickly. Preferably without having to chase up sales support all the time. After all, today’s market is all about speed, taking action and being specific. Thanks to the configurator, we can make things happen incredibly quickly in a way that is worthy of an A-brand: quickly and in the form of beautiful-looking quotations.”
On the back-office side, everything is now also quick and efficient. Jean-Max explains that this was different before the configurator: “An account manager is of course the one with all the knowledge. But if the account manager had been to a new customer and agreements had been made, the account manager had to submit all the agreements to sales support, which then had to draw up the quotation.” In this way, nuances were regularly missed – details discussed during the conversation – because, after all, sales-support does not have the same knowledge as the account manager. Thanks to the CPQing Configurator, the account manager can now prepare quotations himself, without being dependent on sales support. This is both more efficient and reduces the pressure on sales support.
“Thanks to the CPQing Configurator, the account manager can draw up quotations himself, without being dependent on sales support”
The implementation
Within just three weeks, our consultants implemented the configuration process, calculation process and printing of correct quotation documents in the CPQing Configurator.
Talking about the implementation and the readiness of the account managers, Jean-Max says that everyone had to get used to it at first. But at the end of the day, it was mainly a matter of shifting gears. After all, before, account managers had to work out another document to outline the deal for sales support. Now they work out the offer directly, also more standardised. Incidentally, Jean-Max says that the new way of working was still quickly and smoothly embraced: both by the veterans within the company and the new batch.
“You are always faced with choices and dilemmas,” says Jean-Max. “You want to make every quote unique, but that means tinkering with every quote. In other words, you want to standardise without making the customer feel like they have a standard document in front of them. It has to feel personal.”
Fun fact: the company has already been allowed to present the configurator internationally, to allow more layers in the organisation to quote in this way. “International rollout would be cool!”
The benefits are endless
The implementation of a configurator is different for each company and may differ by industry. However, there are benefits that are the same for any company in any industry, regardless of the application:
- Visual purchase guidance for customer
- Professional appearance
- Guaranteed correct offers (quotations always producible)
- Always have instant insight into all standards and limitations of any products or services
- Complex products are displayed simply and clearly
- Control over the content of the quotation document
- Possibility to configure (and sell)
- Turnaround time is significantly reduced (from quotation to production)
- Reduce failure costs
- Easily expandable
- Direct insight into costs and delivery times of variations
Do you also want your company to benefit from all the advantages of a configurator soon? Then feel free to contact us to discuss the possibilities, or experience the convenience for yourself with your own demo-environment.