An overwhelming majority of sales organizations — 73 percent — report that price is the most common cause of lost deals. What if there were a magic tool that allowed customers to manipulate the price and features of your product so that the end result exactly matched their needs and their budgets? Imagine what that could do for your revenue.
Surprise. That “magic” tool exists. It’s called a product configurator. Using a product configurator can pay off in a multitude of ways. It can increase sales, improve customer collaboration, build customer engagement, and show dedication to ethical and open selling practices. That’s a tall order, but a product configurator is up to those tasks. Here are the top six ways using a product configurator can increase sales and customer engagement.
Improved Accuracy
When customers perform their own configurations, nothing is left open to interpretation. You will never hear, “Oh, I thought that was included.” Customers order exactly what they want, and the orders are transmitted to manufacturing exactly as the customers configured them.
Speed
Without a product configurator, mass customization is a cumbersome process. Most orders must go through an engineering review cycle to ensure that the product meets all requirements as configured. This can add anywhere from hours to several days to the order cycle time.
With a product configurator, this step is eliminated because the engineering knowledge is built into the model and its rules. As a result, customers receive their products faster.
Quality
Rules-based product configurators ensure that a customer can only define a product that the company knows will work. The configurator walks the user through the model in a process called “guided selling” that ensures that all requirements have been met and that no incompatibilities have been introduced. As a result, the product always works as designed.
Knowledge
Customers often balk at spending time talking to sales reps, and even the most beautifully designed product catalog takes too long to read cover to cover. As a result, customers may not understand all of the capabilities and “bells and whistles” that your product offers. Turn them loose with a product configurator, however, and they likely will explore every option until they understand all of the benefits of your product. With this understanding comes greater product satisfaction since customers know exactly what they are getting and what tradeoffs they’ve made. You can’t buy that level of brand engagement, but you can have it if you deploy a product configurator.
Customization and Personalization
Customers want to buy products that exactly meet their needs or express their unique personalities. Customers love using a product configurator to put their personal stamp on products ranging from shoes to furniture and electronics. Businesses like knowing they are buying the product with the most utility for their operation. Offering personalization and customization on a mass basis is a powerful draw in both B2B and B2C environments.
Price Satisfaction
When a sales rep presents a proposal to a prospective customer, in most cases the next step is negotiating for a discount. With a product configurator, customers already have explored all of the product features and options, and have seen what changing their selections does to the end price. In most cases, they already have found their own balance between price and features. They still may ask for a discount, but they are more aware of the value of specific options and may not drive as hard a bargain.
Without a product configurator, it would be difficult, time-consuming and labor intensive to build this depth of engagement with a single customer, never mind the whole field of potential customers. With a product configurator, customers willingly engage with your product to educate themselves on its capabilities. As a result, when it’s time to buy, they already have a feeling of trust in your brand, helping you close deals faster.
Chris DiEllo is Sales Director for Autodesk Configure One. DiEllo holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and previously was an engineering manager for a plastics manufacturing company.
Latest posts by Concept Enterprise Product Configurator (see all)
- Top Customer Pain Points With Complex And Custom Sales - November 4, 2016
- Six Ways Product Configurator Software Improves Customer Engagement - September 29, 2016