Business Outcomes
26%
increase in sales year-over-year
40K+
orders delivered in 2022 alone
Order configuration time cut from 30 days to a few hours
Margin protected despite cost increases during peak inflation
Through its two brands, MANITOU and GEHL, Manitou Group has differentiated itself in the equipment manufacturing industry by continuously innovating product functions and designs to provide buyers the special features they need to complete their work efficiently.
Manitou Group has been a Conga partner for more than 10 years, helping to simplify the complexity in heavy equipment configuration. Technical users and sales administration have been using Conga pricing and quoting tools to configure customer orders.
As Manitou Group expanded their product list and extended sales across the world (80% of sales outside of France), their system for configuration and pricing became increasingly difficult to navigate and maintain. Manitou wanted to increase sales efficiency – and, in turn, revenues – by expanding the use of Conga Smart CPQ to their sales agents.
Before Conga, Manitou Group sales agents were using a bulky paper catalog to communicate options to customers and place orders. Reps placed orders or gave information verbally or by email. These non-digital processes introduced a multitude of problems as the company grew. First, catalogs were only sent periodically, but product listings were updated throughout the year. The paper catalog contained quotes from the time of publishing and did not have real-time prices to give customers accurate quotes.
Product listing updates often did not make it to sales before the next catalog was published, leaving them in the dark about changes in pricing, options, and upsells, resulting in longer order times. Extra time was spent waiting for communication between sales and engineering, and the out-of-date catalog caused customers to miss out on new offers that could be beneficial to them. The sheer size of the product catalog and complexity of requests also made it easy for salespeople to make errors in orders sent to manufacturing, further delaying the sales process. Lastly, the paper catalog and manual ordering process provided little visibility into the dealers’ pipeline, meaning that Manitou Group was missing the majority of its customer data.
Manitou Group already had an existing relationship with Conga and they were confident that the next step was to deploy Conga Smart CPQ to all of their sales, including Manitou Group salespeople and dealers of MANITOU and GEHL products. The company knew the Conga Smart CPQ platform would reduce the time it took for customers to place orders and receive equipment, and make it easier for salespeople to upsell, work between Manitou Group and customers, and ultimately create more revenue.
Conga Smart CPQ Implementation
The full implementation was completed using a multiphase, multistep project approach. The process started in the USA and Europe, with expansion later to parts of Africa, South America, and Asia.
The implementation process was complicated in the beginning due to Manitou’s product complexity , but today a deployment of Conga Smart CPQ takes less than a week. Manitou has implemented Conga Smart CPQ across 50 countries and continues to add regions as new dealers come online.
The implementation of Conga Smart CPQ as a common selling and ordering solution for sales teams and dealers produced many concrete results. First, Conga significantly simplified and sped up the sales process. Now, salespeople can sit with customers and configure Manitou Group’s 400 product selections in an online portal instead of thumbing through a bulky catalog that might not be up to date. With the help of Conga, Manitou Group reduced the average time to configure and order placement from 30 days to a couple of hours. More than 95% of orders are now entered through the online dealer portal, embedding Conga Smart CPQ, and more than 60% are directly submitted by the dealers themselves.
With Conga, dealers can order directly from an electronic catalog to configure and place orders, ensuring a real-time sales experience and complete order accuracy. Our sales teams are now guided to products that customers need, with precise configurations, pricing, and quotes. We appreciate Conga ongoing partnership and commitment to helping us deliver a world-class customer experience.
Randy Carey
Data Experience Director @ Manitou
Today, Manitou Group can distribute its sales catalog to all channels consistently and in real time and has increased the average revenue of each order with the adjustment of the preconfigured models. The change has reduced sales costs and had a direct positive impact on Manitou’s revenues and margins. In 2022:
- Manitou delivered over 40,000 orders using Conga.
- Over 600 dealers in 50 countries were onboarded to Conga Smart CPQ.
- Conga helped Manitou increase sales by 26% YoY.
What’s more, the company has been able to navigate economic pressures with success. With Conga Smart CPQ, Manitou can quickly modify prices in real time to avoid margin hits.
Over the 2021-2022 period when inflation was surging, Manitou was able to revise their selling price to limit the margin squeeze due to the significant increase in production and delivery costs. This was no easy task because they needed to consider the actual and future evolution of inflation while maintaining a coherent market positioning for each of their products. Conga Smart CPQ enabled them to respond quickly and reliability, rolling out price updates across their sales networks in a single day.
Going forward, Manitou Group will allow its dealers to purchase services such as extended warranties over the web. In addition, Manitou Group projects an additional 5% in revenue as they continue to bring added value services onto the Conga Smart CPQ platform.
About the client:
Heavy equipment manufacturer
Established in 1958, Manitou Group, headquartered in France, makes highly customizable equipment for the construction, agriculture, and industrial markets. Their equipment list includes but is not limited to, telehandlers, aerial work platforms, articulated loaders, mast forklifts, skid and track loaders, backhoe loaders, and warehousing equipment.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What is Conga Smart CPQ, and how does it work?
Conga Smart CPQ is a Configure Price Quote software that streamlines the sales process by enabling real-time product configuration, accurate pricing, and quick quote generation, improving efficiency and customer experience.
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How did Conga Smart CPQ benefit Manitou Group?
Manitou Group achieved a 26% year-over-year sales increase by reducing order times, improving pricing accuracy, and enabling global deployment across 50 countries and 600 dealers.
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What challenges did Manitou Group face before using Conga Smart CPQ?
Manitou relied on outdated paper catalogs and manual processes, leading to pricing errors, delays, and limited visibility into account data, which hindered sales efficiency.
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How did Conga Smart CPQ improve Manitou’s sales process?
The software reduced order configuration time from 30 days to just a few hours, enabled real-time pricing updates, and allowed 95% of orders to be processed online through a dealer portal.
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How does Conga Smart CPQ handle global sales complexity?
Conga Smart CPQ supports Manitou’s diverse product catalog and global operations by providing a unified platform for sales teams and dealers, ensuring consistent pricing and configuration across regions.
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What role did real-time pricing play in Manitou’s success?
Real-time pricing allowed Manitou to quickly adjust prices to account for inflation and market changes, protecting margins and ensuring accurate quotes for customers.
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What future plans does Manitou Group have with Conga Smart CPQ?
Manitou plans to expand the platform to include additional services, such as extended warranties, and projects a further 5% revenue increase by leveraging added value services.
