Distribution is a complex industry. A single piece of equipment can have 100,000 different potential configurations. Creating a way for customers to configure equipment quickly has become critical for online success. That’s where product configurators come in.
A digital product configurator is a tool that simplifies the equipment selection and buying process. Customers and distribution partners can configure equipment to meet specific performance requirements. They also have access to the price and availability of different equipment configurations in real-time. A product configurator improves efficiency, reduces errors, and makes quoting and/or buying customer equipment easy.
Today, we’re going to dive deeper into five ways product configurators add value for both distributors and their customers.
The traditional quoting process uses up one of distributors' and customers' most valuable resources — time. Having to call, email or visit in person to get a quote for a unique piece of equipment can consume many hours and often several meetings between the distributor and customer to get things right.
By providing customers or channel partners with an online configuration tool to make a series of features or options selections, this time can be greatly reduced. Receiving quotes instantly improves efficiency for everyone involved and helps to shorten sales cycles. This is particularly helpful in the budgeting process, where quotes are needed quickly in preparation for future capital budgeting decisions.
Allowing customers to configure the equipment on their own gets rid of the human error that can occur when this process is done via email, on the phone or through spreadsheets. And while a single error might not seem like much, it could mean potentially thousands of dollars of costs. For example, what if a piece of equipment can be used in hot or cold environments, but needs a different configuration to do so?
By using a product configurator, dealers can ask customers to select the type of environment they will operate the machine in, this will ensure the proper configuration is selected to meet their operational requirements. Or what if there are multiple horsepower options to choose from based on expected productivity or performance? With an online configurator, those questions can be asked and specifications can easily be met. These types of questions can lead to auto-generated answers (based on a configuration rules engine) that will give buyers confidence they’re getting exactly what they need.
