High Impact Sales Proposals using 3D Simulation
Published on : Tuesday 01-02-2022
How to accelerate the sales process through use of 3D simulation.
3D simulation has a different meaning based on prior education or experience of a person. For our scope, we define 3D simulation as a replica (digital twin) of a real-world system built in a computer with the help of 3D simulation software. A ‘digital twin’ accepts the same parameters as the real-world system and generates a set of outputs that helps one to understand the system's behaviour under various conditions.
Sales proposal stage in B2B sales
In B2B sales, the sales proposal or RFQ stage is an iterative process.
1. It starts with a customer's need to address a particular problem.
2. The proposal team and the sales team work out and present a solution.
3. The customer suggests a few (or a lot) changes in the proposed solution based on their domain expertise.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until you reach an acceptable solution.
5. Close the sale.
Create high impact sales proposals
There are two essential things to move from step 1 to step 5:
1. A Great Presentation: You communicate your idea very clearly, to the stakeholders involved in the decision process.
2. Faster response to changes: You are ready to accept and modify the solution based on customer inputs.
An excellent presentation involves presenting the right things to the right people. In a B2B business transaction, usually, there is more than one stakeholder involved in the decision process. Each stakeholder involved in the decision process comes with their priorities and expects the solution to address them. A person in a management position would like to know the total investment. One who takes care of the plant operations might want to see the simulation of the process and throughput in terms of the numbers. Correct deliverable to the right stakeholder throughout hugely increases the chance of a sale.
Unless there is an urgent requirement or the customer loves your solution, at first sight, the B2B sales process takes time and several iterations from the customer's side. However, as a proposal team, you make sure that the process moves forward quickly. Two frequently heard factors that cause the delay are:
1. Slow and inefficient workflows. Your response takes more to reach the customer if more departments are involved in the RFQ process. Moreover, miscommunication between departments leads to missing some essential aspects of the solution.
2. No right tools. Some companies do not have/know about tools that can address all stakeholders involved in the RFQ.
Your response to RFQ
You respond to the RFQ and present the idea in the following stages:
1. Create your idea visually as a layout
2. Export to 2D and 3D
3. BOM: Know the financial implication
4. Add parameters and simulate
5. Change conditions and analyse, and
6. Iterate.
We use Visual Components as the 3D Simulation software to implement the above steps.
Layout
To present the idea visually, build a static layout of the proposed solution. Visual Components provide an extensive e-Catalog library of ready-to-use components. Find the e-Catalog library at https://www.visualcomponents.com/ecatalog/#/.
This layout gives the required equipment or Bill of Material (BOM), area/space needed, budget price. This information is beneficial to understand if the proposed solution is within or above the customer's budget. If this solution is within the budget, continue to work on the proposed solution, and if not, work on a new layout (with trade-offs).
2D & 3D export
2D layout and 3D model are two of the deliverables from Visual Components. The exported 2D drawing gives the information about the required floor space and can be exported as a 3D CAD file to extract conveyor heights, loading heights, and vertical space requirements.
Bill of Material (BOM)
Since the layout includes all major equipment required to run the process successfully, you can export the Bill of Material (BOM) to get the minimum investment.
Simulate
In the simulation stage, the static layout comes to life. What you built so far uses default parameters and is not customised for your needs. You customise each component/model as per our requirements. For example, set the correct conveyor speed based on the load it carries or machine process time based on the job. Once you put all the system parameters, simulate and collect the data. Now the Digital Twin of the existing system is ready.
Analyse (What-If Scenarios)
Once the digital twin is ready, the next step is to apply various conditions and analyse the performance. What-If Analysis helps understand how the different changing inputs affect the system's performance. Some examples:
a. How does doubling the number of SKUs entering a packaging line affect the operators?
b. How does an unplanned stoppage in a particular machine create a bottleneck?
Change the conditions and perform the analysis. The collected data can be shown as dashboards or exported as Excel files.
Iterate
After the simulation and analysis in the previous steps, you will understand how your digital twin performs under various conditions. If this meets the original process requirements, you can freeze and finalise it. Else, repeat the process steps. The accompanying diagram represents this process.
Few final questions
Finally, a few questions that help in choosing the 3D simulation software are:
1. Are we able to communicate my ideas?
2. Based on the customers' inputs, can I quickly change the layout?
3. Is the result we got during the proposal phase matching the reality?
4. Are we able to make better and more reliable presentations than the competitor?
About APEXIZ
APEXIZ, based in Hyderabad, was started in 2016. We have 15 years of experience in virtual manufacturing and robot offline programming services. We have experience working in various industry verticals such as Automotive, Intralogistics, Heavy Machinery, Packaging & Palletising, FMCG and Life Sciences.
In partnership with Visual Components, Finland, we offer virtual manufacturing software and services for simulation, visualisation, analysis, and optimisation of manufacturing systems.
In partnership with Delfoi, Finland, we offer robot offline programming software for robotic processes such as arc welding, spot welding, laser/plasma cutting, painting and polishing.
We have customers in China, South Africa, Israel, Singapore, and many European countries.
Get in touch with us at: http://www.apexiz.com/contact-us/
