How would you like to grow sales: by taking the stairs or the elevator? That question is a no-brainer. Surprisingly though, many sales reps are still climbing the stairs to profit. The problem with taking the stairs is that the taller the deal, the longer it takes and the more difficult it is to close.
For Fassi Cranes, the stair method may have worked just fine up until the invention of the modern crane. This evolution was a necessary game-changer. Many buildings today are so large that anyone taking the stairs to the top will lose 100 percent of the time when competing against someone else taking the elevator. With increasingly complex product configurations changing the game in manufacturing, why are so many sales reps still taking the longer route to more revenue? It could be because:
- They don’t have time to look for a better solution to grow sales
- An alternate solution to grow sales may sound too good to be true
- They can’t justify the return on investment (ROI) needed to grow sales
Fassi Cranes sells 60 models with 30,000 possible configurations through a worldwide dealer network. There is a lot of complexity in their business because their cranes are purpose-built and tailor made for each customer. Each time they sold a crane, the sales rep would have to chase down an expert to answer questions, fix quoting errors and rework product configurations. All of these additional steps were cumbersome, not to mention time-consuming.
Fassi Cranes was hard to do business with, which in turn meant that they were losing customers. What did they do? They installed an “elevator” to smooth out and speed up their process. Fassi found Cincom’s Advanced Configurator to be exactly what they needed. They perfected complex configuration with 100 percent order accuracy, no need for rework and ahead-of-schedule delivery. Now their engineers can focus on evolving their products by designing lighter cranes, introducing eco-friendly paints, consumption monitoring and additional innovations; and their sales team can focus on growing sales.