Negotiation Skills for Business, Salary and Debt

Zilliant Pricing Software Helps Travis Perkins Negotiate Better Deals

Austin, TX (PRWEB) September 8, 2008 -- Zilliant, the leading provider of price optimisation (http://www.zilliant.com/price_optimization/zpps_price_optimization.html) and management software for distribution, manufacturing, high-tech, and industrial service companies, today announced that Travis Perkins has successfully deployed Zilliant's Price Optimisation software to over 600 stores across the United Kingdom (UK). Travis Perkins is one of the UK's leading suppliers of building materials and construction products. The company selected Zilliant in 2007 for their distribution industry expertise and proven ability to provide salespeople with market-based pricing guidance.

Zilliant's software is integrated with Travis Perkins' point of sale system, providing optimised prices to over 3,000 counter staff. As a result, these salespeople are equipped with better pricing information, enabling them to negotiate competitive but profitable deals for the hundreds of thousands of SKUs in their product catalogue.

"Before Zilliant Optimisation, our salespeople relied on an unstructured system to quote prices. Now they are equipped with precise pricing guidance specific to each individual deal, based on factors such as geographical variations, customer tenure, product mix, and item availability," explains Frank Smith, Travis Perkins' Group IT Director. "A deep understanding of negotiated sales dynamics was a key criterion in our choice of pricing partner, and one of the main reasons we selected Zilliant. They demonstrated a superior understanding of the business-to-business sales environment, and had clearly integrated this intelligence into their software. We really didn't see anyone else with comparable expertise."

Already known for their superior customer service, Travis Perkins has also seen the pricing software (http://www.zilliant.com/index.html) enhance the overall sales process, for both customers and counter staff alike. "Zilliant Optimisation boosts our salespeople's confidence by supplying them clear and consistent pricing information at their fingertips," explains James Day, Pricing Manager for Travis Perkins, "Eliminating guesswork from the process allows us to deliver very competitive prices, not only for single products but for every item on every order which falls in line with our commitment to competitive pricing in our Brand Bullseye. Sometimes this means a lower price than we would have previously offered, but ultimately Zilliant provides our salespeople with the right answers."

Smith and Day estimate that the return on investment of the total Zilliant deployment will be under a year, "Zilliant is a key component of our ongoing business strategy to maintain competitive advantage while keeping our pricing fair and consistent." Smith adds.

"Travis Perkins is a textbook example of where price optimisation technology can provide beneficial results for both supplier and customer," said Greg Peters, CEO of Zilliant. "We look forward to working with Travis Perkins on their contract business next. They made a great decision in prioritizing getting the right price in front of their counter staff first."

About Zilliant

Zilliant is the leading provider of price optimisation and price management applications for manufacturing, distribution, high-tech, and industrial service companies. Zilliant applications combine powerful price segmentation and optimisation science with easy-to-use business applications that help companies achieve the best pricing possible on every deal, increasing profits by tens of millions of dollars. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Zilliant is a privately held company. Investors include Austin Ventures, Cardinal Ventures, JP Morgan Partners, and Trellis Partners. For more information contact Zilliant at 877.893.1085 or visit www.zilliant.com.

About Travis Perkins

Travis Perkins PLC is one of the UK's leading suppliers of building materials, with over 1200 branches and stores nationwide. It supplies more than 100,000 product lines to trade professionals including building materials, plumbing and heating, landscaping materials, timber and sheet materials, painting and decorating, dry lining and insulation, tool and equipment hire, doors and joinery, bathrooms and kitchens and hand and power tools, along with a wide range of services including the trade-dedicated website, Trademate (www.trademate.co.uk).

Travis Perkins Builders' Merchants has been voted National Builders' Merchant of the Year seven times over the last 10 years and has also been elected a Business Superbrand; the first company in the merchanting market and still the highest ranked merchant to be honoured.

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