Why product selection and configuration software is important for advanced products and sets?
Product selection and configuration software are extremely important for enterprises of any levels to engage clients and meet their individual requirements easily.
Nowadays, the customer is digitally driven which means that your product information should be accessible at any time and from any device.
Trying to find a specific product on your comprehensive lists or big printed/PDF brochures will cost a lot of time. Well-created product hierarchy helps users find the right product quickly and support the way how they use the search function.
Giving a client an intuitive and understandable way to find the product, dramatically increase the chances of its purchasing.
What is product selection?
First of all, it’s necessary to define the difference between the function of the search and selection tool. While search only establishes the best matches for the simple client’s request (e.g. name + some filters), the selection tool helps to dynamically recommend the best products based on the provided input for more complex requirements.
For example, when buying a new fan or valve your client not only looks for the proper size and material but also considers some other parameters including product performance, efficiency, pressure loss, speed control, power consumption, type of application, etc.
Product selection example
What is product configuration?
More complex products might require the configuration of components, options or additional accessories. Product configuration systems can assist clients to specify requirements in a structured way and based on pre-defined rules and constraints present which configuration is possible and which is not.
While the standard configuration software for simple products might be enough just to select additional accessories or components, more complex or large-scale industrial systems require a more customized solution.
Visual product configurator example
Read about Web and mobile car configurator that improved the sales process and reduced offer generation time 25 times.
What is a typical product configuration and selection process?
Advanced product configuration, typically based on specific conditions including rules and constraints, might be based on a similar selection process or additional mathematical or physical calculations.
Very often, this process is handled by very complex Excel sheets, and you should know how hard is to share updated Excel files through the whole network of internal or external users.
Web self-service with selection and configuration tool
The self-service approach engages your customers more and meets more easily their individual requirements. The technology can help to make the correct choice faster and prevent time-consuming product browsing.
An intuitive and understandable way to find your product will dramatically increase the chances of the final purchase.
Your clients can make the required calculations just in a few clicks
Avoid mistakes and make the selection process more advanced by setting-up an operating and efficiency conditions just in a few clicks.
The mathematical and physical modules behind the selection software allow for making complex calculations of the product’s performance and behaviors based on the number of parameters provided by the user.
How to scale with modern B2B sales tools and platforms
All the advantages of having sales engineers on board become an important limitation when it comes to scaling the sales team. To decrease the entry barrier and time to onboard new salespeople or clients, the software can be enhanced by science and business knowledge.
Creating powerful sales machines can not only reduce those limitations but also improve existing processes' efficiency.
By the knowledge transfer to the software and creating low-touch sales platforms, organizations around the world share tools for customers, distributors, partners or internal sales teams and support them in simple or complex sales processes.
Let's summarize how product selection or configuration software can support your customers and your internal salespeople:
- Decrease the time for product selection even by 95%.
- Select products using various static and dynamic parameters (CFD calculations, materials engineering, laboratory measurements).
- Calculate the point of work (best efficiency point) using mathematical and physical algorithms.
- Compare many products based on complex datasheets.
- Manage the database of millions of products and variants.
- Expand multi-language and market capability.
- Reduce printed materials and present dynamic charts on the web.
- Automatically update data from PIM/MDM (Product Information Management or Master Data Management) system.
