Chris Beaudin, Director of Marketing for Atlatl Software, discusses the novelty of configure-your-price options and quote-generating software in B2B.
Danny:
Hey, so thank you for joining me today on IndustrialSage on our Executive Series. Today, I have Chris Beaudin, who is the Director of Marketing for ATLATL Software calling us from South Carolina, Charleston, Charleston area. How are you?

Chris:
Good, how's everyone over there?

Danny:
Doing really well. Thank you so much for joining me today. So, today has been a great day. We've talked to a lot of companies. I'm excited to talk about you guys. You guys have actually a pretty cool product. For those who aren't familiar with you, tell me a little bit about who you guys are and what you do.

Chris:
Yeah sure. So at ATLATL what we try and do is help our customers bring their products to life on screen. You know, we no longer can fight through the retail battle of going to a store, shopping showrooms. We want to spend time where it's convenient to us, which is on our devices or on our laptops. And, as we're looking for products, we need to experience them digitally, and so what we help companies do is how do they present that product visually? Where you can visualize it in 3D. You can actually configure the options and really take that all the way to a purchase, or to a salesperson that can help you. So, we are the conduit for that. We are a visualization platform, and we help companies all the way from kind of consumer goods to more of your traditional manufacturers do that.

Danny:
Excellent. So, very cool site. I definitely can see a lot of applications from that, especially now, as you mentioned, some of the digital assets. The way that we buy has completely changed. Whether it's B2C or B2B, you're starting to see those lines kind of converge or that expectation to buy a B2B product is the same, or as it should be, for B2C. But, we'll get more on this later. So, before we completely go down there, I just want to get a sense of you, Chris, I want to get a sense of your journey from your career path. What does that look like for you?

Chris:
Yeah, I like to say I had the perfect recipe for a marketer. I had a father who is very business-minded, a mom who is very creative, and the output of that is someone who looks forward strategically and loves marketing. And I use that after attending James Madison University, went to... did some consumer packaged goods, some ad sales, and for the last ten years, before I joined ATLATL, actually worked for a leading provider to the HomeGoods space. We were a manufacturer, so I experienced it first hand, working inside manufacturing: the challenges, but also the opportunities for those that create great experiences and sell it to the market. Even though we were B2B, I always felt like B2B2C was really who we were. And so that's how we moved to market, and was all about how do we provide them with a brand they can be confident around and products they feel confident buying. And, so that's kind of been my path. And that brought me to ATLATL, which is, okay now, cool, so I get to sit on the other side of the table and do that for a lot of companies and not just my own.

Danny:
Excellent. So, when you're working for the manufacturer that you're doing HomeGoods manufacturing, what was your role there? Were you doing marketing, or was it other things?

Chris:
A lot of roles. I started in inside sales, so literally talking with a number of Home Depot stores, and working with their in-store personnel seeing how we can help provide a better experience at selling our products. After some sales management, then really got back into where I was always aimed, which was marketing.