What is a sales configurator?

With an online sales configurator – like Tacton CPQ – your customers, resellers, retailers, and sales teams can easily configure and display their products on any device. Access to the online sales configurator is possible anytime and anywhere. It's much like having an experienced product manager who offers the best suggestions while ensuring products can be produced. The pricing module of the sales configurator will make sure the price is competitive and profitable.

The sales configurator controls what products are available to what user.  Changes to new products, options, pricing, promotions and marketing materials can be distributed instantaneously, so all sales channels always have accurate updated information.

A sales configurator helps translate product features into value and benefits. A sales configurator integrates rules and business logic for design, manufacturing and cost, and will reduce the training needs and the in-depth product knowledge. A sales configurator also reduces costs due to errors and incomplete offers.

By presenting the entire product range in an online sales configurator, your customers can configure their product choices, get quotes instantly, set accurate delivery dates, and even place orders with no or minimal impact on sales.

A sales configurator is often used to guide customers to the right buying decision based on their needs and budget. The “Guided Selling” approach identifies ways to promote higher value products and introduce new revenue streams, such as: service contracts, aftermarket packages, add-ons, and warranties.

By making it easier to buy the products thru the sales configurator enterprises build strong relationships with customers and strengthening brand loyalty. A smooth sales process has a very positive impact the sales process and the way companies bring their products to market.

Today's B2B and B2C customers want options and customizations for most offers. Customers also want to receive complex offerings in no-time. Finally, customers expect a quick response to changing demands on purchase contracts.

To provide customers with this flexibility the sales force will need tools like a sales configurator that accelerate supply, ensure accuracy, and make selling custom products and services as easy as selling standard offerings.

With a sales configurator a sales rep can create quotes and quotes that are instantly. It’s no longer necessary to search for price list information, brochures, old proposals and other sources. The sales representative doesn’t need to request expertise from other teams and departments. Instead, they can launch the sales configurator from a tablet or browser. Intuitive questionnaire will deliver the right product, the right price and a fancy quote within minutes.

The sales configurator business logic provides non-sequenced questions, 2D and 3D visualizations, and continuous calculations to ensure product conformity. Pricing, discounts, margins, and more are calculated in by the advanced pricing engine to ensure bottom line profit.

With an advanced sales configurator – like Tacton CPQ – a sales rep will NEVER get stuck between conflicting choices. The sales configurator will always present a valid product selection and will also indicate conflicting choices. There’s a big difference between different techniques to describe “the product rules”. All will stop you from doing wrong, just a few will help you do right. This makes a difference front-end but will also dramatically simplify maintenance of the business logic.

How a sales configurator contributes to business success:

Customer Confidence: the product selection is customer centric and asks questions based on customer needs and budget. A sales configurator an suggest the optimal solution for a specific customer. This creates confidence

Guided Selling: A modern sales configurator will guide sales representatives through the sales / 

quotation process. The sales configurator quickly identify ways to cross-sell and up-sell accessories and other products, helping the sales representatives to better meet customers hidden needs.

"Selling the Impossible": Sales representatives will never again sell impossible solutions, products that can neither be produced or delivered. “Selling the impossible” is a far to frequent and often costly job mistake. In a sales configurator an impossible combinations is simply blocked.

Mobility for responsive service: Sales representatives can work anywhere on devices from laptops to smartphones to create and adjust outstanding quotes. The information is stored and version handled directly in the sales configurator.

Full Insight: With a modern sales configurator sales representative can quickly show how options can affect weight, price, production time, and other critical variables.  

Product Visualization: “Seeing is believing” and depending on customer expectations both the 2D and 3D views can be presented directly in the sales configurator. This makes the configuration easy to understand and has proven to shorten the sales cycle for both simple and complex products.

A sales configurator will change the way your sales representatives do business, negotiate complex deals and respond quickly to changing product and service requirements. Learn how to use the sales configurator to configure virtually anything on any device to ensure a fast quote and responsive customer service!