Bottom line: Attaining best practices in quoting begins with a support system and processes that give channel partners the flexibility and response times they need. Capturing lost revenues using quoting and product configuration starts with an integrated and real-time quoting strategy.
Guided selling needs more respect and focus, it’s a stealth weapon for selling that more companies need to get aggressive about.
* The proliferation of mobile devices is going to make untethered sales and product configuration a critical requirement for more companies than ever before.
* AJAX and optimized XML on private networks are going to be the foundation of distributed order management systems that can manage varying levels of product order complexity. Think scalability of production process, from assemble-to-order through engineer-to-order.
* The pervasiveness of cloud computing and virtualization is going to be a catalyst for product configuration strategies being used for standard products too.
Bottom line: Today go get started on a customer satisfaction audit of your product configuration strategies and see what you find out. How far are you from delivering a kick ass experience for your customers? Be realistic because they are and so are your competitors. Your future deepens on the passion for service your customers see.
Bottom line: Product configurations strategies are the catalyst for many companies moving into adjacent market segments – take for example Oracle’s decision to make Sun servers entirely build-to-order (BTO) while also bundling in virtualization software and enterprise management apps. The BTO strategy Oracle is pursuing is an example of how product configuration can extend a business model profitably.
Bottom line: Time to hit the customer reset button and get out of the “cost coma” so many companies are stuck in right now. Get more focused on the experience your systems are delivering and the trust you’re earning – and realize that above all else, owning a customers’ problem is the most important step in any recovery. Trust is king, earning it by owning their problems are the path back to sales growth.
How to get beyond the platitudes of customer centricity to the hard work of making lasting change happen in organizations?
SaaS, to be successful in the enterprise, needs to concentrate on a agile product development and support role-based, not necessarily personal productivity-based workflows.
Bottom line: The essence of excellent selling is helping customers past the dangerous pitfalls their strategies may hold and guiding them to their goals. Product configuration platforms in high-tech, industrial plant and equipment, telecom and many other industries are the lighthouses that combined with selling expertise keep companies on the path to their goals.
The best place to start? Integrating the product catalogs, websites, pricing systems and service systems you may already have in place.
Bottom line: Product configuration strategies can quickly lead to profitability. In the case of E-One these strategies drastically reduced the error rates in orders and assured a higher gross margin or profitability per accepted order as well.
Bottom line: Just like a workout program, everybody starts somewhere with product configuration too. The important point is to measure yourself against your own progress and over time, product configuration strategies will provide exceptional competitive advantages.
Companies getting the best results with product configuration do this well …
Bottom line: Product configuration strategies are the catalyst for ERP systems being more demand-driven. There are many, many benefits of spearheading ERP transformations to being more attuned to market needs using the wealth of potential in product configuration strategies capturing the essence of customers’ complex needs.
Bottom line: Imagine what the usability and performance of your product configuration strategies would be if they are aligned to these values Guy Kawasaki discusses? What level of competitive advantage could be attained? You would be able to dominate your part of a market if quoting and product configuration strategies aligned to each point he makes in the series presented at Stanford.
