By Rich Eichacker
Vibrance Technology Corporation
You have a great product or service, options that give you a competitive edge, and a sales force that can sell your offerings: but how much time are your reps spending in the office buried under catalogues and calculations?
The benefits of flexible Products and Services could be lost if your quotation process is complicated and/or labor intensive. Does part X go with widget A or widget B? Complex offerings take time to configure, and if wrongly configured or priced, could cost you time, money and credibility.
Automating the quotation process will reduce both time spent and errors made due to complicated offerings and manual quote creation.
How it works: Product, configuration, pricing, and other pertinent data are stored on a central system. An online quotation template leads sale reps through the quotation process, organizing product information in a logical sequence. Reps view and select from a list of products instead of guessing at, or having to look up, multiple part numbers. All quotes have a standardized format, so nothing is left out and everyone knows what to expect. Finally, a unique, company-wide quote number can be assigned to each quote for tracking purposes.
Centralizing data reduces access and availability issues. Pricing updates are immediately available to the sales force. Management-level approvals are streamlined and paperless. Data can be exchanged with both accounting and manufacturing systems, and all rep and client data can be made available to examine, to name a few: profit margins, customer discounting, customer buying patterns, commissions, and “hit ratio” of quotes produced to sales made.
Implementing features that are unique to your business can help simplify sales, manufacturing and operational tasks. For example, defining standard configurations of parts to ensure compatibility will reduce time to quote as well as errors that ultimately drive delays in shipping. Customer-specific discounting can allow you to give competitive prices to loyal customers without requiring operational approval for each discount. Discounting levels can also be assigned to products, and discounting privileges can be given to sales reps and operational personnel based on seniority or other criteria. Lead times can be made available to reps as they complete quotes, and finally, as quotations are “closed” and products are ordered, inventory systems can be automatically updated.
The benefits of an Automated Quotation System, whether it is commercial or custom designed, will extend to departments beyond sales, including manufacturing, accounting and operations.
Fall 2000 - Volume 10, Number 4