How Augmented Reality is Transforming B2B Sales Process

The gap between someone's expectations and reality is a persistent problem in the B2B sales world. Far too often, customers have a very different belief about what the product should be and what they receive. The result might be something that's the wrong size, color, shape, or doesn't function the way the customer expected. This unfortunate process leads to disappointment, inaccuracy, and painful revisions.

In other words, what the customer wants and what the company can do are often two incredibly different things. Buyers love endlessly customizable products and options, but salespeople often balk at this idea, believing that customization may interfere with inventory and cycle time metrics. Not every manufacturer can keep up with uniquely tailored goods for each customer. That's why augmented reality and 3D visualization should play a vital role in the sales process.

Leveraging 3D & AR technologies are proving to be ideal for rapidly achieving customer confidence in the purchasing process. The more complex or spatially-oriented a product is, the riper it is to adopt a visual selling strategy. These applications offer customers a whole new world of immersive experience as they can see with their own eyes exactly what to expect. Allowing them to take part in the design means greater satisfaction, personalization, and loyalty.

Atlas Software, a cloud-based sales platform, says that visual configuration helps increase sales efficiency by 24%, boost conversation rates by 10%, and decrease the sales process by 30%. Furthermore, companies that have reached 'digitally maturity' yield 19% higher lead-conversion rates, 35% more quotes, 34% superior performance, and 105% larger deal size when compared to those who rely on outdated legacy systems and sales processes.

"Manufacturing is ripe for disruption from 3D and AR technology in the sale process because it allows customers to be immersed in a complex product without the time and expense that is tied to [a] physical product in brick and mortar environments," said Atlas Software CEO, Mark Murphy.

Murphy believes that sales play an integral role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (also called Industry 4.0) and it forces manufacturers to ask themselves how their investments are effectively changing the purchaser's buying experience. 

Smartphone AR applications are quickly moving AR to the mainstream. Companies and sales teams will have to adapt to the market's quickly changing demands and expectations as computer power and hardware is doing so to keep pace with visual platforms.

The next generation of manufacturing salespeople will need to leverage emerging technology--it's the fuel for modern relevancy and growth.