Where can configurators take my company?
Where can configurators take my company? I have been asked that question a few times.
What makes answering that question difficult is the terminology translations that have to be made because everyone has a different understanding as to what a configurator is.
To some the configurator is a guided selling tool or sales automation. To others it is a product builder or product designer tool and to others it might just be all lumped into a “logic compiler”. But if you ask me, I will say it is the “golden key to many company’s dungeon of doom!”.
What a configurator can do for a company is to allow the company to finally address the horrible dungeon of doom lurking below the foundations. It allows a company to finally address the things that plague them from the point they take quote/order/questions to the point of fulfillment or answer.
Some companies turn to CRM systems like SalesForce.com thinking they need to better know their customers. Some companies turn to sale and order management tools like WrightTools so they can see where they are with the sales cycle. Some try to use an ERP system like Fourth Shift to stuff the order in head first and many, and I mean MANY companies turn to the catch-all of software, Excel. Those are GREAT tools for what they are designed to do.
If you want to properly take “care” of your customer, don’t screw up their quotes, orders or questions. It’s called a pre-emptive strike to failing! And if you don’t, you stand a chance to loosing another to the dungeon of doom! Make sure your sales or support team has the tools to make sure every quote/order/questions is 100% accurate or at least shoot for the 80/20 rule and reduce the number of mistakes by a large margin.
How?
Well that is a much deeper discussion that is unique to every company. But the basic answer, “control your company and product variables.”
But today I just wanted to answer, “Where can configurators take my company?”. If you can see your company improving their ability to reduce the errors they make with customers then you are definitely moving in the right direction. Sometimes and usually that tool is a configurator. Imbed it with any application or tools your people need to increase their success rate with your customers. Help them open the doors to the dungeon of doom and let those people free!