More sales with e-commerce: configure and sell B2B products online
Stuttgart, 9th May 2022 – In the field of complex and multi-variant B2B products, CPQ systems are used widely to make the quotation process efficient. They are used to configure the products exactly according to the customer's needs (Configure), to reliably calculate prices (Price) and to create personalised quotations (Quote). According to the VDMA, 40 percent of machine and plant manufacturers have already implemented a CPQ system. However, the CPQ systems have so far mostly been developed for sales staff with extensive product knowledge and are not yet suitable for use in online shops. However, according to a study by ibi research at the University of Regensburg, 89 percent of B2B companies expect more than half of their investments to be made online in 2025.
Therefore, camos Software und Beratung GmbH, specialist for digital B2B sales processes, has extended its CPQ software in such a way that products requiring explanation can be efficiently configured, offered and sold via digital channels. With a guided selling functionality, the online user finds the product variant that best suits his requirements early in the decision-making process - even without expert knowledge. Based on questions about the need and the use case, he is navigated step by step through the offer process. For example, a manufacturer of machine tools is first asked which workpiece is to be produced with the machine. For a manufacturer of lifts, on the other hand, the focus is on questions about the lift height, the number of floors and the number of people in the building. By asking questions oriented to the needs, the entry into the quotation process is customer-centric and intuitive. With the support of the guided selling functionality, the user can also customise the product himself and complete the purchase via a check-out functionality in the online shop. In addition, the real-time 3D visualisation of the product makes the complex interrelationships comprehensible.
Simon Doll, Product Owner of the camos CPQ solution, describes the advantages of the guided process: "It is ensured that the entire sales knowledge, up to cross- and upselling suggestions and also the knowledge from product management on combinatorics, is available digitally and at the right time. Users do not have to wait for offer information, but receive it ad hoc and with an increasing level of detail, tailored to their customer journey. For example, thanks to an automatically generated budget quote, prospective customers can see whether the proposed product fits their requirements and budget before they start configuring the product details. In the case of web product catalogues, which are still widely used in practice, the level of detail of the information is not adapted to the users and their customer journey. Users are flooded with information and a lot of revenue is lost because they often don't find the right solution even though it exists."
camos has published detailed information about the most important prerequisites of e-commerce in B2B in a white paper on the topic of omnichannel sales with CPQ. You can download it here.
