As most furniture manufacturers know, modular is HOT. Brands like Burrow, Campaign, Loose Parts, and (of course) IKEA are changing how people shape their living spaces.
If you’re in sales in furniture manufacturing, modular being hot is probably good news for you: easier to make, easier to ship, lower costs, etc. But you’re probably seeing more competition than ever, which is likely not-so-good news.
Let’s take a lesson from the success in the modular furniture space and start closing more sales by building proposals modularly using quoting software.
Here’s how quoting software lets you build a proposal step by step. We’ll even attempt to compare these steps with the same basic steps used in furniture manufacturing: cutting, bending, molding, laminating, and assembly.
Step one: populating your quoting software (cutting)
Sales quoting software is also known as “configure, price, quote” software (CPQ) as, at its beating heart, it’s a configuration engine for your products and services.
The application enables you to upload every product piece and price with ease, though most of the best vendors will take care of that step for you. This is essentially a raw materials “uploading” phase in the deployment of your solution (hence, “cutting”).
Step two: building your templates (bending)
Now is when the fun starts, as it’s where you populate the system with sales proposal templates that reflect and build your brand. They’re stored and administered centrally, which means 1) every rep can access and 2) no reps will be “winging it,” creating their own templates. Just like on a furniture assembly line, consistency in the look and feel of your finished product (your quote) is central to success.
Step three: CRM integration (molding)
This step may not apply to all businesses, nor even to all makers of quoting software, as not every business is using a CRM, and not all CPQ systems always require integration with back-end CRM systems. But if you are using a customer relationship platform (Dynamics, Zoho, Salesforce, etc.), ensure that your proposal solution is tightly integrated as it’s the closing of the sale (and, on top of the revenue, the data it delivers) that’s typically the most critical step in molding a customer relationship.
Step four: making a quote for a customer (laminating)
Now is when we customize and beautify each quote for each customer. Your products and pricing are uploaded and configured (e.g., bundled, with targeted upsells, etc.). Your templates look great. And you’ve got an RFP! Modularly assemble it with your quoting software (choose a template, populate with products), and customize it for the customer. Even something as minimal as an introductory paragraph calling out some details of their business or showing their logo can make a huge difference.
Step five: optimizing your quoting software (assembly)
Like any business application and business building operation, the name of the game is optimization: getting better over time, getting smarter with each proposal, and automating as much as possible.
Most CPQ solutions enable real-time reporting that can help optimize the sales process on the fly, as well as “Monday Morning QB” dashboards that help you learn from wins and losses. The best part? Anything you discover can help one quote get signed can be immediately rolled out through the system to other reps and other quotes in the pipeline and improve closing rates across the board.
