CPQ stands for Configure, Price and Quote
It’s an extension of your CRM that helps you sell faster by automating the sales process through to quoting.
Configure
Guiding sales reps to select the right product combinations based on client needs.
Price
Assigning the price of the products automatically, controlling discounts and rules, therefore ensuring the most optimised pricing is applied.
Quote
Automatically creating a branded quote with all the information and emailing it to the customer.
Why consider CPQ?
If you’re using legacy systems that involve spreadsheets, waiting on pricing approvals or loss of revenue due to missed opportunities, then you can no longer afford to be complacent.
Companies looking to adopt a subscription model will run into multiple problems with traditional quote configurators. Businesses must put the right tools in place to be able to work effectively with this new model.
Managing configuration for customer success
Over the past few years, personalisation and curation have risen as significant consumer trends. With tiered pricing structures and tailored recommendations, subscription models can let consumers choose the level of service or products that meet their needs.
In an offline environment, reps in a hurry to complete a deal can easily forget about product bundles or add-ons like premier support which would improve the profitability of the deal and increase customer satisfaction. With product configuration rules, these rules are suggested at the time of quoting to ensure they don’t get missed.
For example, a car company pursuing subscription models would offer all-inclusive subscriptions, such as bundling roadside assistance, insurance and maintenance, all-in-one monthly payment, subsequently avoiding the need for the consumer to manage all the components through different vendors.
“Today’s customers demand more flexibility in how they buy and companies across all industries are responding by introducing new revenue models,” says Kylie Fuentes, Head of Product, Salesforce CPQ & Billing.
Configuration rules can be set for individual products, such as setting minimum or maximum quantities, exclusion or dependency rules and pricing rules, such as volume discounts or tiered pricing. Fixing these in advance and centrally will avoid lengthy approval processes and ensure every quote created is 100% error-free.
Quoting for a frictionless experience
Do you have different start dates or shipping locations? Salesforce CPQ has Advanced Order Management functionality to streamline and automate the order fulfilment process. In cloud software, you may have to quote license quantities with different start dates, which, as a result, can cause issues with Sales Ops who need to manage provisioning and Finance for revenue recognition.
“Quoting for subscription products means that your tool has to support the concept of time and be able to help add on and coterminous quotes to align with existing contracts,” says Annie Wright, PML for Salesforce CPQ & Billing “And unlike traditional software models, those contracts also need to go through renewals—a critical step in the customer lifecycle.”
Consequently, Salesforce CPQ is purpose-built to handle recurring relationships.
Sales reps can easily select products of multiple revenue types in a single quote. They can build-out different deal structures and apply a discount to a specific line in the quote. Even changing the quantities over different periods to accommodate the needs of the customer is possible. If the customer has a particular budget, CPQ can calculate the discounts to reach that amount and can run this across several departments to move quickly.
“Spending unnecessary time going back and forth on quotes can cause frustration with the buyer, and impact buyer confidence.”
This process improves the customer buying experience and accelerates the overall sales cycle. Therefore, enabling your sales reps to focus their time and energy on selling. Not trying to figure out correct product combinations!
All in all, if you’re looking to deliver the best experience for your customers, speed up your sales process, reduce manual errors and increase revenue, then CPQ can help. Talk to one of our CPQ specialists to get started.
The five benefits of CPQ
Before CPQ
- Inaccurate pricing
- Manual approval of discounts
- Time wasted on inefficient processes
- Inaccurate quotes
- Lost revenue and inability to accurately forecast
After CPQ
- Accurate pricing
- Automated approval of discounts
- Streamlined process from sales and marketing
- Accurate quotes
- Increase in revenue and accurate forecasting
