Impact of Tariffs on Manufacturing This article is adapted from the BCA Technologies podcast, Episode 1, featuring BCA Technologies CEO Brian Cumming. Access the full audio version by clicking the play button. What are tariffs? Basically, a tariff is a tax and it’s imposed by one country on specific goods and services that are imported from another country. And why would they do that it’s because it ..read more

Should Businesses Create Their Own CPQ Solutions? A company could hire employees to build it’s own buildings, make their own furniture, and fix their own air conditioners.  They could – but they don’t.  There are professional contractors, furniture manufacturers, service contractors, and other experts who can build, fix and support these things much faster, easier and more cost-effectively. The choice to build or subscribe to a cloud quoting software appl ..read more

If a sales manager could click and see the opportunities, quoting and sales activities of their sales channels this week, and drill down to the sales rep offices that were not quoting, and know what large quotes they were working on, would that help the sales manager? Most companies only see orders and their sales managers “sortof know” what their sales pipeline is, but its hard to get an accurate data of who is quoting and who is not – and what they are quoting – and when. Why? Because the sales reps are using spreadsheets, Word documents, or other systems to do their quotes. Th ..read more

In the HVAC industry, making  your reps and distributors have to wait for a quote from the factory causes opportunities to not close to sales.  That is a fact I have heard over and over again in my 20 year experience from independent sales reps. Last week, Tom, a VP of Sales for a very large independent manufacturer’s rep firm (they represent over 40 manufacturers products in 3 offices) shared with me that they picked up a new line of products with a manufacturer. They like the products and the manufacturer, but their sales reps have to call the manufacturer to get pricing and selections ..read more

I just did a very interesting software demo for a manufacturer’s rep firm who sells boilers, pumps, valves, tanks, and other products.  They have 5 offices and represent 35 manufacturers.   They need software to manage their opportunities and do quoting.  I spent about 30 minutes showing them Dynamics365.  They stopped me in the middle of the demo and said “this is kinda what we already have.  My boss really liked your eRep program we saw at your booth the AHR Expo.  Can you show us that instead?”   So I switched the demo to eRep CPQ.   The rep firm committee told me within 15 min ..read more

Customers no longer have the patience for slow sales responses. They’ll seek out manufacturers and vendors who can meet their needs across all sales channels. If you’ve got a complicated or slow response sales process, don’t offer online options, or are still using manual processes for pricing, you are probably driving your customers away. Learn what you could be doing to keep your customer base from shrinking. The dynamics of B2B sales has changed and changed quickly. Customers now demand to be served when and how they prefer. Any of these issues just might send them to your competition: Hav ..read more

One of our clients was selling parts to their sales channels and customers in a traditional way.  The manufacturer’s parts department had 4 full-time employees taking calls and emails for people looking for replacement parts.  Most requests were from contractors that needed the parts right away because air conditioning equipment needed repair.  These 4 people looked up the parts in the ERP system using difficult search process.  They would either stay on the call, call back or email back the customer the quote.  Their customer would then need to generate a purchase order and send to the manufa ..read more

eCommerce sales is quickly augmenting, and in many cases, replacing traditional B2C and B2B sales channels as the preferred choice of customers.  Sites like Amazon, AirBnB, Walmart.com have conditioned people to first look, research and purchase online because it is faster, easier, and more convenient.    Today’s customers will forgo personalized service for the convenience of shopping online.  So if you sell products or services, you need to have a way for new and current customers to purchase online. Look at what WalMart is doing right now.  They have billions invested their physical stores ..read more

We are often asked, what is the difference between eRep CPQ+ and SalesPop eCommerce? eRep is designed for manufacturers and other companies that have products and services that require configuration rules-based pricing (the price of a product depends upon the application, options and accessories).   The product (or service) is typically a made-to-order, engineer-to-order, and made-for-stock.  Often, these products are sold B2B through a combination of internal sales offices, independent sales rep and distribution channels.  These channels log in, create quotes, submittals, and submit orders ..read more

In the HVAC industry, making  your reps and distributors have to wait for a quote from the factory causes opportunities to not close to sales.  That is a fact I have heard over and over again in my 20 year experience from independent sales reps. Last week, Tom, a VP of Sales for a very large independent manufacturer’s rep firm (they represent over 40 manufacturers products in 3 offices) shared with me that they picked up a new line of products with a manufacturer. They like the products and the manufacturer, but their sales reps have to call the manufacturer to get pricing and selections ..read more