Blog 1: Unveiling the Power of a Sales Configurator
In the realm of engineering and process optimization, the term “sales configurator” might not ring a bell for everyone. Yet, this tool harbors immense potential to revolutionize how companies operate, streamline production, and enhance customer satisfaction. Through this series of articles, Bas Könst from the Netherlands-based Merkato Group demystifies the sales configurator, diving into concepts like modular design, Product Data Management (PDM), and Lean Production. Understanding these principles will illuminate why a sales configurator is not just beneficial but essential for growth and structure in businesses.
The Field Sales Dilemma
Imagine the scenario: your field sales team, aiming to translate your value proposition, meets with a potential client. Operating under the “customer is king” philosophy, sometimes offers are made that disrupt the existing production process, leading to bespoke products for key clients – a practice both time-consuming and costly. Here’s where modular design steps in as a game-changer.
Modular Design: A Path to Growth
Modular design allows for standardization and clarity in production. By engineering products to be multi-purpose and interchangeable, companies can establish standard modules. This clarity enables field sales to know precisely what they can offer, simplifying orders and making the production process more straightforward and cost-effective.
Navigating the Modular Maze
Despite the efficiencies brought by modular design, challenges remain. Sales teams might still stumble by selecting incompatible modules, leading to costly exceptions in production. This is where the sales configurator shines as a sentinel for your production process.
The Sales Configurator: Your Production Gatekeeper
A sales configurator, or product configurator, ensures that only feasible product combinations are sold. By integrating modularly designed parts with company-specific rules into the configurator software, field sales are prevented from selling impossibilities. Exceptional cases require approval, minimizing disruptions in production.
Beyond safeguarding the production process, sales configurators streamline technical and financial calculations, allowing field sales to create tailored quotes on-site. From contracts to production orders, bills of material, assembly instructions, and even manuals, a sales configurator can generate essential documents with a click. When production times are mapped out, it can also provide accurate delivery timelines on-site.
Optimize Your Optimization with a Sales Configurator
By marrying modular design with a sales configurator, companies not only save money but also boost revenue. This blog has laid the foundation of what a sales configurator is and its immense value to businesses. Stay tuned for our next blog, where we delve deeper into the sales configurator’s transformative power.