CPQ Software for Automotive
Whether you’re selling specialty vehicles, heavy equipment, or aftermarket products, the sales process in the automotive industry is complex. The latest product configuration and sales tools are essential when selling customizable automotive products. To ensure the sales process runs smoothly and customers receive the products that meet their specifications, you need configure, price, quote software, also known as CPQ.
How is CPQ Software Used in Vehicle Manufacturing?
CPQ software is used by specialty vehicle manufacturers and other companies in the automotive industry to create 100% accurate quotes. It checks that all the necessary components and options are considered when configuring products and quoting their prices. As a result, CPQ automates and streamlines the quote-to-order process for higher close rates and increased customer satisfaction. CPQ software can also help to ensure that prices are accurate and consistent across sales channels while also reflecting local prices for different sales regions.
Challenges CPQ Solves for Automotive Manufacturing Companies
Here are some of the many business issues that CPQ helps solve:
- long sales cycles
- incorrect product configurations
- configuration errors resulting in design changes
- miscommunication between Sales and Engineering
- errors in quotes and delays in quote approvals
- inaccurate inventory data
- revenue leaks due to incorrect quotes and billing
- siloed Sales, CRM, and ERP solutions
Sell Across Channels with CPQ for Specialty Vehicles & Equipment
Sales professionals in the specialty vehicle and equipment manufacturing sector must be able to sell through various channels, including OEMs, suppliers, and retailers. CPQ streamlines omnichannel selling by centralizing product data, enforcing standardized rules and pricing, and providing salespeople with the tools to close deals successfully. Providing a single data source ensures engineers receive valid product configurations and enables accurate analytics and reporting.
CPQ Solutions for Vehicle Manufacturing Companies
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How Specialty Vehicle, Heavy Equipment Manufacturing, and Aftermarket Companies Gain a Competitive Advantage with CPQ
Companies in the automotive industry can reap many benefits from using CPQ to configure specialty vehicles and aftermarket products, generate accurate price quotes, and connect Sales and ERP. For example, integrating price lists, product configurations, discounts, and product availability from the ERP system into the CPQ enables sales reps to help customers accurately configure the products they need at approved prices.
Automation of product configuration and quote generation dramatically reduces the sales cycle, increases sales team productivity, and improves the customer experience. The bottom line is that CPQ offers many advantages that help automotive companies remain competitive and grow revenue.
Now, let’s dive into the benefits of implementing CPQ software in your automotive company.
Faster Sales Cycle: With CPQ software, customers can quickly and easily create quotes and orders, which speeds up the sales process. This can be especially helpful for vehicle and heavy equipment companies with highly configurable products. CPQ software can also help ensure that orders are correct, which reduces the chances of errors and delays.
Streamlines Ordering Process: CPQ software can also help automotive companies streamline their ordering process. By automating the creation of orders and shipping documentation, CPQ ensures that orders are processed quickly and correctly. This reduces the time it takes to get products from the shop floor to the customer, increasing customer satisfaction.
Sales and Engineering Collaboration: Many CPQ software platforms for vehicle sales teams include visual product configuration capabilities in 2D or 3D. CAD drawings and bills of materials (BOMs) can be generated automatically using the products’ configurations, ensuring a seamless transfer of orders between Sales and Engineering.
One Source of Truth: CPQ software integrates seamlessly with ERP and CRM systems so that sales reps can access accurate customer information, updated pricing, and real-time product availability data. Additionally, having Engineering and Sales teams collaborate in one system helps identify potential problems with the product before they derail production.
Improves Sales Performance: The guided selling and sales playbook features of CPQ software help sales reps identify potential new opportunities. As a result, sales reps can upsell or cross-sell compatible products to meet their customer’s needs and extend the value of their orders.
Better Data: CPQ software can also help sales managers track and analyze sales data to identify best practices and optimize sales strategies. In addition, tracking customer preferences and buying trends can help automotive companies better understand their target markets and develop new products or services.
Minimizes Errors: Errors in the quoting process can add costly manufacturing delays and billing issues, resulting in revenue leakage. CPQ software helps to reduce product configuration and quoting errors by enabling sales reps to use a click-to-customize system to deliver accurate quotes, even for complex products.
Increases Profitability: CPQ software improves sales efficiency by simplifying the sales process. Conversions increase when customers enjoy the product configuration process and receive accurate estimates on their customized items. CPQ also enables sales reps to uncover upsell and cross-sell opportunities, increasing average order size. Additionally, CPQ software helps manufacturers quote products based on real-time inventory levels and updated product pricing. All of these benefits contributed to increasing revenue and profitability.
CPQ: Visual Configuration Simplifies Selling for Vehicle and Heavy Equipment Manufacturers
Ordering specialty vehicles and heavy equipment is a visual process, so CPQ software endeavors to replicate the in-person product configuration process with 2D/3D models. CPQ systems for the automotive industry include visual configuration engines that enable sellers and customers to build customized products or select from available products. Visual configurators simplify and integrate sales and production processes to deliver a superior customer experience.
Visual Product Configuration: CPQ software for automotive manufacturers is purpose-built to configure customized products using dynamic visualization. It provides an easy-to-use interface that allows sales reps and customers to configure complex products and generate accurate CAD, BOM, and spec documents for the manufacturing floor.
Pricing: Pricing and discounting can be complex, especially for customized specialty vehicles and automotive products. With CPQ, manufacturers can automate pricing based on real-time price lists and create multiple quote versions to send to customers to close deals faster. Price your products and services competitively using dynamic pricing, custom costs, long-term cost forecasting, and other smart tools.
Approval Workflows: Streamline collaboration between Sales and Engineering with customized approval workflows. A tightly-controlled rules engine ensures correct product configurations with correct prices are sent from sales to production.
Integration: CPQ software for manufacturing companies integrate seamlessly with other platforms, preventing errors caused by manual quoting and data synchronization issues. Most automotive manufacturing CPQ software integrates with CAD, CRM, ERP, PLM, and SFA systems.
Reports and Analytics: CPQ software enables sales and engineering teams to leverage all product, pricing, and sales data in one place. This unified data helps generate accurate business intelligence and reports that drive business decisions, inform pricing strategies, and reduce margin leaks.
What Types of Made-to-Order Vehicles and Equipment Can You Sell with CPQ?
Specialty vehicles are required for various uses, including law enforcement, mining, military, fire and rescue, and marine. CPQ technology simplifies the buying process for custom-built vehicles, parts, and after-market products based on customer needs. This is done by providing customers with a list of available components, features, and options that can be selected for order. Once these selections have been made, the system automatically displays the cost and available discounts and creates orders based on approved configurations. This saves time for customers, salespeople, and engineering.
CPQ optimizes the sales process for manufacturers in the following industries:
- Specialty Vehicles
- Auto Parts
- Aftermarket Products
- Marine Vehicles
- Heavy Equipment
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