Visual Product Configurator software allows companies to configure products visually, calculate pricing, and also create quotes. It’s a 3-step process that reduces the burden on sales, accelerates times to quote, and then reduces errors too.
But that’s not everything.
The utility of a visual product configurator solution like KBMax goes beyond the sales team to the engineering department, the shop floor, and aftercare too. It’s the glue that connects and smoothens the complete manufacture-to-order process. Below, we explore these steps one by one.
Product configuration with sales reps
Product configuration with self-serve
Dynamic Pricing
Quote Generation
CAD and Design Automation
Shop floor automation
Customer support
Step 1a: Product configuration with sales reps
Manufacturers of complex products usually have huge product catalogs. Even the most experienced sales reps find it very challenging to bring better outcomes for a customer when there are a huge number of options to choose from. For new hires, it’s practically impossible.
CPQ products make configuring products quick, simple, and accurate. The software has product rules that are built into the back-end, guiding reps towards the correct choices. Every configuration is perfectly matched to every customer and also optimized for profitability and engineering efficiency.
CPQ technology like that of KBMax has the ability to tackle the most complex product rules and logic. But unlike other visual CPQ solutions, these rules are easy to build and maintain in-house. There’s no need to call any external party when you wish to add a new product or variant, the non-technical ones can do it themselves without any coding.
The unique feature of visual CPQ software is that sales reps configure their products inside an immersive 3D visual interface. Rather than just answering endless questions and correcting a hundred boxes, reps can just point and click on their screens to change colors, dimensions, parts, and more. As reps keep trying out different options, 3D images get updated on-screen in real-time. It’s exactly the opposite of a black box – sales reps understand products in detail to also impart valuable advice to customers.
Step 1b: Product configuration with self-serve
Today’s B2B buyer is accustomed to dealing with Amazon and also looks for the same self-serve experience when they make a purchase from you too. For the manufacturers of engineer-to-order products, providing such freedom and convenience is very tough because their products are complex, and the knowledge to also configure them independently.
Not so with visual CPQ though. Visual CPQ is so immersive that the end customers can configure their products themselves. Due to carefully structured product rules, there’s no need for the sales or engineering to get involved without the buyers. Manufacturers can also include their visual product configurator within their eCommerce website, allowing buyers to configure, price, quote, and purchase at any time, any place, through any device.
Unlike some personal sales interactions, buyers enjoy playing around with visual product configurators. It’s an amazing experience, the pressure’s not there, and they end up selling products to themselves. If they abandon the process halfway, all of their preferences are recorded in the system, so a well-informed sales rep can follow up any time.
Step 2: Dynamic pricing
Sales reps are good at selling. They’re not always good at maths. If you force reps to number-crunch complex deals when they should be out making their sales, then you’re setting yourself up for delays at best and mistakes and rogue pricing at worst.
Visual CPQ calculates prices in real-time as users configure products. Sales reps don’t have to lift a pencil. Pricing approvals and discounts are all automated, and sales managers get total visibility.
Step 3: Generating sales quotes
Creating quotes is yet another waste of active selling time. Visual CPQ automates this entire process. Sales reps or end customers can automatically generate quotes, estimates, proposals, marketing collateral, terms and conditions, and more at the touch of a button. No more messing around in Excel!
Step 4: Engineering Automation (CAD and design automation)
KBMax is not like some other visual CPQ solution as it automatically creates all the relevant CAD drawings that are to be sent to engineering and production teams. It works with any CAD software like Solidworks and Creo. Engineers get to quickly validate their products, make little changes, and then send them on their way downstream.
CAD and design automation are game changers, as they clear engineering bottlenecks, which can be ramped up as CPQ moves more customers across your sales pipeline. What’s more, it liberates engineers from many repetitive, time-consuming tasks, allowing them to focus on their R&D. If you wish to retain the brightest of your engineers, they should be given the time to innovate.
Step 5: Manufacturing Automation
KBMax allows for easy configuration to generate any output needed for production. BOMs, cut sheets, inventory control – it can all be output automatically. Data, like the STEP and IGES files, can be directly sent to machines. Other data, like assembly instructions, are then designed to be digested by the operatives on the shop floor.
Visual CPQ eliminates the sales-manufacturing complexity. It’s the glue that binds every step to the next one, ensuring that information never gets lost between the cracks.
Step 6: Customer Support
Whether you use visual CPQ like a standalone solution or integrate it with your CRM, ERP, or both, every team in your organization works within the same platform. It delivers a single source of truth, boosting cross-functional collaboration.
Customer support agents have equal access to all the information in the steps above. They can see a product that a customer has configured (or started to configure but quit halfway through.) They can also see how the pricing has been calculated, which documents have been sent, and the order status as it works its way through the manufacturing, shipping, and then to installation.
The more information a customer support agent has on their fingertips, the better and faster they get to solve customer problems. They don’t need to call around different departments to understand what’s going on. They can provide excellent customer service with a detailed visual understanding of the products and their workflows.
Visual CPQ in Today’s World
The six steps mentioned above give a basic framework for how KBMax links the shopping cart to the shop floor. But these steps are not set in stone. KBMax is flexible. It adapts to the shape of your sales and manufacturing processes and gets integrated with existing systems and workflows.
To highlight this point, here are the steps that two of our KBMax clients follow to reduce sales cycles and complexity both.
Timberlane: A manufacturer of custom exterior shutters with no stock sizes or configurations – everything is just made to order.
Step 1: Sales reps configure a set of shutters with a visual product configurator
Step 2: Configuration data is transmitted to the Salesforce CRM, which calculates and uploads pricing, taxes, and shipping
Step 3: KBMax and Salesforce come together to automatically create a quote
Step 4: The ERP makes adjustment to global stock-level data and order materials as needed
Step 5: KBMax then generates a 2D rendering
Step 6: The 2D rendering is then transmitted to manufacturing with the BOMs and work instructions for the production to start
NanaWall: A manufacturer of more than 20 unique glass wall systems
Step 1: Either a) a customer configures the glass wall system by using the 3D visual product configurator on NanaWall’s website, or b) a sales rep or architect does the same on the client’s behalf
Step 2: CPQ product rules validate just about everything, creating adjustments based on the weight and length limitations
Step 3: KBMax delivers the product configuration data to XML
Step 4: The XML data is sent to AutoCAD and SolidWorks
Step 5: CAD outputs get combined with the pricing information which is then sent to Salesforce CRM as a quotable object.
