Updates

Customers that have to wait for months on their orders, empty shelves in stores and unseen increases in price: the manufacturing industry is currently struggling with a worldwide shortage of raw materials. The lack of materials such as lumber, aluminum or plastic has caused a crisis for manufacturers. But where does this sudden scarcity come from? And what is the best way for companies to handle this situation?

Manufacturers are often struggling with long and complex sales processes, making it hard to increase sales. This has to do with the complex nature of the goods, but also with the fact that B2B sales requires various stakeholders to work together. On top of that, the manufacturing market has had some intrusive changes: increasingly demanding B2B buyers and global competition continue to impact companies. Increasing sales in manufacturing is therefore not as straightforward as it often is in other industries. We are bundling some tips to increase your sales again. Read along!

Are you losing sales because it takes too long to make a quote? Long sales cycles kill deals. It slows down your manufacturing business on its way to growth and holds sales back. Are you also looking out for a shorter sales cycle to be able to move faster and grow? A CPQ can assist you with this process. But what exactly is CPQ? And how does it drive sales? That’s what we will be figuring out in this article.

Hive CPQ simplifies international B2B e-commerce even further now: our platform is running in China! It is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, working its way up to the number 1 spot. China, known as a manufacturing hub, is therefore an interesting place for B2B players around the globe to target.

Are you looking into a CPQ solution and would you like some help figuring out the possibilities and the right approach for your company? Are you wondering how a CPQ platform would fit into your digital landscape? You might have a lot of questions before deciding what software will help your company to reach its goals... Let our CPQ scan help you out! 

The current situation of the manufacturing industry is very complex, as companies evolve in a very competitive environment. But competition is not the only challenge manufacturers face, as product life cycles have been growing shorter and customers are demanding customized products more and more. The arrival of 5G will ease these challenges, but it is important to be prepared, by investing in the right software today.

COVID-19 has left nothing unaffected. While the pandemic is lasting a lot longer than we all thought/hoped, it is important to identify the ways it has impacted us. In this short article, we will briefly discuss how B2B sales have been redefined since the start of the outbreak, and how CPQ can answer the (new) needs.

Complex and powerful product configurators are often the backbone of a manufacturers organisation. It is an engine to validate input and generate crucial output information like pricing, bill of materials, bill of labour, complex calculations and more. However, lots of configurators no longer meet today's market standards. Let's take a look. 

Hive CPQ is the next generation quotation tool. Why? We take the quotation process out of your current CRM or ERP environment. Quotations can be made by any stakeholder (Sales, backoffice, engineering and your customers). The user interface is fast, clean and simple. Hive CPQ speeds up the quotation process. Hive CPQ supports complex products and pricing, but manages to hide the complexity to the users.

To know when certain products will be shipped is often a challenging question, causing inefficient phone calls and back and forth emailing. Increase your customer relationship with Hive CPQ’s new feature 'Shipping Schedules', which can be activated by any manufacturer.