Tag Archive | Guided Selling
Why Configuration is Essential for the Future of the Insurance Industry
Insurance is one of those products that is customized by definition. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to buying and selling insurance coverage, whether for health, life, auto or home. Every person, car and house is different, and combined with desired coverage levels, pricing can vary widely. Insurers use a variety of tools and practices to determine what the appropriate cost is for a particular level and type of coverage based on different constraints. However, many insurance salespeople today are still not utilizing a tool that can make an immediate, direct and measurable difference to their bottom line – a configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution.
Mass Customization and the Consumer
Mass Customization and the ConsumerThere is no denying that today’s consumer has demands that are growing at an exponential rate, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Not only do consumers want products and services that are tailored to fit their needs, they want them at a good price. With this said, there is only one way businesses can keep up with these demands and that is through mass customization- a trend that can be applied to many industries. Simply put, mass customization is the combination of flexible, custom-made products with the pricing of mass produced goods. It is a way for companies to give every consumer exactly what they want, as long as a superior business process is in place.
Optimizing the Lead-to-Order Process: Step 2, Customer Needs Assessment
In my last post, I discussed lead management activities as the first step in the LTO process. Today I’m going to cover the next step, performing a customer needs assessment.
Mass Customization Offerings Show Results
With the continuous growth of ecommerce sales, even through the recent recession, companies selling to both businesses and consumers are increasingly making better use of this channel. One particular benefit of ecommerce that is beginning to take off more is the ability for shoppers to design their own products, a process known as co-creation or mass customization.
CRM and Product Configurators: Improving the Sales Process
CRM and Product Configurators: Improving the Sales ProcessIf you work in sales, you are familiar with customer relationship management (CRM) systems. These software tools have become ubiquitous in the industry, and provide a tremendously beneficial service to sales teams. The ability to keep track of all customer contact, sales history, and other sundry pieces of customer data has helped countless salespeople to improve their relationships with their customers and thereby increase their sales performance.
Risk Number 5: Not Attaining the “Right” Perspective when Designing Product Families and Models
One of the key tasks awaiting any project team is to develop a fresh perspective on the definition of product families and models by taking advantage of the capabilities in configurator software. Gaining perspective means you need to abstract or visualize new groupings of product families and models to achieve more effective configurations of complex, unique products. Often, though, the Current State engineering and manufacturing product structures do not lend themselves to accurate and timely configuring of products in a revitalized LTO process.
