One of the biggest challenges industrial websites face is helping potential customers find the products and services they need. This is especially true for complex products that require numerous requirements to be chosen prior to quote generation. And for highly customized products, part numbers may not even exist until someone wants to purchase them. Then, add in the complex purchasing cycle for your customers, with different roles like engineers or buyers all taking part in the purchase and you’ve got a complex process. If you can be known for making it easy for all those players to do business with you, then you could gain a competitive advantage.

Understanding the Different Players

Often, in the industrial online world, we try to get people to search by a part number. This seems reasonable, especially when you check your internal site search analytics and see a large percentage of your visitors searching by part number and converting to sales. Buyers who are familiar with your catalog or product line will often search by part number to save time. They know exactly what they want and searching by part number gets them there quickly.

However, putting all the emphasis on part number searches can lead you to overlook a large portion of potential customers. Engineers look for solutions, often without knowing exactly what they need, much less knowing a part number. They may only have answers for 3 out of 7 of the criteria they need to get a quote, and might not even know if what they want is possible. Many of them will pick up the phone to call, but only if they can’t find the answers online. Why not give them an easy way to get a quote at this early time in the purchasing cycle?

How to Help Them Find It
Online configurators give your site visitors an easy and effective way to find part numbers and get quotes for complicated products.  Online configurators and part number builders have helped increase industrial website conversion rates by giving visitors a tool that helps them find what they are looking for quickly and easily.

Configurators show visitors numerous product options that they can choose from. As the visitors make their choices, the configurator updates the remaining options, so visitors only see those that are applicable. The products are narrowed down until the visitor has the exact product they need and can request a quote.

There are many different ways to build configurators, and they vary based on products, user behavior and other factors. Make sure you work with a company that understands the products that you sell and the buying cycle that accompanies them. Next week, we’ll discuss some search systems that often get confused with configurators, as well as the pros and cons of part number builders, “smart” forms and online configurators.

Share This

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 10:29 am and is filed under Ecreativeworks, General, Industrial B2B Marketing, Usability & Conversions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.