Indicators That Your Business Needs a Build-To-Order CPQ

• Date: 01/10/2023
• Audience: CEOs, Sales Managers
• Topics Covered:
  • Build-To-Order
  • Quoting
  • Router
  • Bill of Materials

I was doing some reading and came across a great article by Angela Scott-Briggs in TechBullion, Indicators That Your Business Needs a CPQ Software. It resonated with me applies to the Build-To-Order business perfectly.

Here are the Indicators that your business needs a Build-To-Order CPQ Software

The demand for customized products is growing rapidly, and with growth comes an increased need for more efficient, automated processes. Companies in customized products (build-to-order) space are quickly learning that they need to leverage more technology and give prospects and customers the experience they desire in order to win, retain and upsell. Yet technological innovation in their department is lagging behind.

The complexity of build-to-order products and the scale of participation across functions (Sales, Manufacturing Planning, Accounting) in the process creates ambiguity and delays response to the customer RFQ - diminishing their experience. Because of all of these touchpoints, the process from start to finish needs constant supervision to ensure standards are followed (offerings, pricing, credit lines, discounting, scheduling).

Even with all the advancement in B2B technologies, build-to-order process technology is still very archaic usually consisting of excel docs, email exchanges, and multiple iterations to complete a single quotation. The next step in evolution of operational excellence requires the entire sales process to be intetrated into the existing technology already used by the Sales team.

What is Build-To-Order CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote)

CPQ, or Configure, Price, Quote software is designed to help streamline a team’s ability to quickly and easily generate quotes for a customer. It allows a user to build a custom configuration of products, price that configuration and turn it into a selling document based on rules and logic.

Most CPQs allow users to search “price books” and “SKUs” that match what the customer is looking for. Although effective for non-configured products, product-based CPQs fail for configured products because the product definition is feature oriented, rather than part number oriented. Configured products are significantly more complex, because the cost and manufacturing process is never exactly the same from one combination of selected features compared to the next. Build-To-Order CPQ is designed to solve this problem.

Build-To-Order CPQ; or Build-To-Order Configure, Price, Quote software enables a Sales person to quickly, easily, and accurately generate a quote based on the customer desired features for prospects and clients. Build-To-Order CPQ simplifies the sales process by standardizing features and markups and using logic and automation to automatically determine the Bill of Materials, the Manufacturing router to build the product, **AND** an accurate delivery date - without needing any guidance from Planning, Accounting.

Signs a Build-To-Order CPQ is needed by your business

The first indication that your business will benefit from implementing Build-To-Order CPQ software is: the product is defined by features or attributes - rather than part numbers. A second indicator is that the manufacturing router is different and must be created/adapted for each order.

Your Business has difficulty with the following areas:

• Your outside sales personnel are unable (unwilling?) to create quotes themselves
• Your Sales team consists of outside sales and inside sales
• It takes days to generate a quote
• Determining a price takes hours and requires more than one person
• You cannot keep up with the volume of quotes
• Sales misprices or overlooks required processes
• The approval process for each quote is lengthy and requires multiple teams and iterations

You work in the following industries:

• Additive Manufacturing
• Custom machining / machine shop
• Job shop
• Fiberglass services
• Rubber manufacturing
• Custom equipment
• Steel manufacturing or distribution
• Tubular manufacturing or distribution
• Custom vehicles (trucks, RV)

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Additional Test

If the above still has you questioning whether a Build-To-Order CPQ can bring value to your organization there are alternative ways to determine the value. Examining your product offerings, your sales process, and metrics such as: quote response time, conversion rate.

Conclusion

Build-To-Order products are complex and hard to sell. Build-To-Order CPQ was created to make quoting & delivering configured products fast, easy and accurate by giving teams the ability to deliver error-free quotes quickly. Build-To-Order CPQ significantly shortens the time it takes to get a correct quote into the hands of a prospect resulting in shorter sales cycles, increased win rates, and a reduction in churn.

Who is Tailwater Digital

Tailwater Digital offers world’s first Build-To-Order CPQ with integrated scheduling. Velosity enables companies to generate error free quotes quickly and easily. We are ideal for teams who sell complex products but struggle with accuracy and responsiveness.

Leveraging a true guided selling experience, Velosity streamlines the selling of complex products. Pricing, along with the Bill of Materials and Router are stored within each Quote, complete with history and notes.

Velosity makes it easy for anyone to sell highly complex build-to-order products.

Velosity customers cut quote creation time from days (even weeks) to minutes, reducing overall sales cycle times, increasing product adoption and lowering churn.

Interested in learning more about Velosity and how your company will benefit from the power of Build-To-Order CPQ Contact us for an introduction call and custom demo!