If your answer is YES on all or partial of them, then a CPQ solution can be something for you:
- Are you working with opportunity and pipeline management in CRM today?
- Are you selling solutions, products, or services that require configuration work to package an offering to your customers?
- Are you doing the configuration, pricing, and quoting outside CRM today without a CPQ solution?
- Are you sometimes experiencing long lead times and/or maybe incorrect content in the configurations, pricing or quotes?
- Maybe lack of automated approvals?
Here are some of the many benefits of a CPQ solution embedded in your CRM platform:
- Increased sales efficiency by streamlining your configuration work and automated quoting process. CPQ software is equipped with advanced rules and validation engines to avoid configuration mistakes and unhandy quotes.
- Increased adoption rate in CRM by adding CPQ on top. Sales reps sometimes complain about using CRM as they think CRM only is an administrative tool and works as a control function for sales management to keep track of sales rep’s work. With CPQ as a natural part of the opportunity management process, the sales reps now get a different view and can also see added value in working with their opportunities in CRM.
- Shorten lead times in the sales cycle and speed up the sales process. Sales reps can do their entire opportunity management work in one solution, no more spreadsheets and manual tasks. They get shorter lead times and more efficiency in their daily work and they can free up valuable time to do what they are aiming for, to help and guide their customers on their journey. This is also one of the greatest benefits CPQ solution can offer.
- Guided selling possibilities. By using the features for upsell and cross-sell, your sales reps don’t need to be experts in all possible bundles, the system will support and allow them to do correct bundles only. Products and items that are not ok to combine will also not be possible to select.
Above are our reflections after working with CRM, sales processes, and CPQ in Business-to-Business environments for many years within IT and the manufacturing industry. It is a great journey to see all the added value CPQ can bring, and we think CPQ is the next investment after CRM. Our recommendation is to start small and keep things simple and learn and develop from there! Interested to know more? Please get in touch and we can discuss more.
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management which means that you are taking control of your business. You will have full control of customer interactions and relationships and be able to handle potential new customers and grow your business. With CRM it’s also easier to track communication history with the customers. You can also follow up with reports and dashboards on, for example, forecasting pipelines, open and closed deals, and won or lost opportunities.
CPQ stands for Configure, Price and Quote. By using a CPQ solution you will have higher quality when it comes to what you can or cannot combine in the offerings you provide. By setting different product rules, you can limit the possibilities of doing combinations that don’t match. E.g., It should not be possible to configure a tire with 14” inner diameter with a rim that has 17” outer diameter, and vice versa, you can only combine options that match each other. You will also get a more relevant and reliable pricing functionality. Most of the CPQ solutions can handle complex pricing calculations, discount thresholds and also different currencies. This means that the quote provided for the customer will contain all relevant and correct information as specifications, option quantities and pricing calculations. For the end users, it will also be easier to sell as mistakes will be minimized because of the constraints and rules that is built in the solution. It will also decrease the configuration and pricing processes, as it is more reliable, automized and shorter lead times than manually create quotes.
