The SDR’s Guide to Configure Price Quote (CPQ)
Paula Echon
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An average day in the professional life of a sales rep is filled with tasks related to generating revenue for the company.?
And as the company hits its stride and continues to grow and scale, the daily tasks of the sales rep become increasingly complex, especially as the complexity of the product line grows.
If the sales rep manually tracks orders, implementing a Configure Price Quote CPQ solution can save him time, shorten the sales cycle, and improve future sales.
Eighty-two percent of B2B decision-makers believe sales teams are unprepared.?
Read on to learn how you can rise above the rest.
Configure Price Quote CPQ
CPQ (Configure Price Quote) enables sales teams to quickly and accurately quote complex products and services. You will eventually close more significant deals at a higher win rate, which will directly impact the revenue growth rates of your company.
Companies can easily connect disjointed departments and systems by incorporating CPQ into an integrated revenue-generation process, providing the ultimate user experience.
A good CPQ solution can help businesses simplify their invoicing and payment processes and their inventory management.
Think again if you believe that using a CPQ tool is the same as sending a simple PDF invoice. Streamline your sales process and save time on administrative tasks by using a reliable CPQ tool as your company, pipeline, and product offerings expand.
Let’s dissect the CPQ process so you can see how it works.
The CPQ Process
Configure Price
Customers are less interested in one-size-fits-all solutions as they face more product options than ever before. Consumer preferences are shifting toward personalization.
Buyers are looking for products and services that meet their specific requirements—the more specific, the better. In fact, one out of every five buyers will pay a 20% premium for personalized products.?
But how can your company keep up with this shift?
One of the best aspects to start with is configuration. You can give buyers the custom products they want by working with them to ensure your offering has the specific features and functionality they want through one simple, easily trackable system.
Configuration features within CPQ tools will help you quickly and easily create an offer for the product your prospect wants if your company has an extensive product catalog or various customization options.
For example, suppose your business sells custom athletic gear and sells team wear to a local sports team. In that case, you can use configuration software to capture their order’s correct customization, including details like color and fabric.
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Determine a Pricing Strategy
Once you’ve tailored your offering to a buyer’s preferences, price functionality allows you to optimize the price you give the customer by accounting for the nuances of their purchase and any applicable discounts or taxes. The tool definitely enhances an organization’s customer relationship management.
Depending on your organization’s pricing strategy, the price functionality of CPQ tools can help you close the deal by modeling the correct price for each transaction.
Leverage your Software to Specify How to Determine Pricing
You can use a CPQ tool to specify how each product’s pricing should be determined and automatically generate it. You may also adjust pricing based on a product’s functionality if that suits your business and the sale you’re attempting to close.
Using the team sportswear example again, if your company has a pricing model that lowers the price per unit for large orders, your CPQ tool should be able to calculate the correct price.
Send a Quote
After configuring your customer’s order and setting the pricing, it’s time to send them a quote. Using a CPQ tool, you can send accurate quotes to all significant stakeholders instantly, speeding up the process for your sales team and customers.
Create faster and more accurate quotes by generating automatic quotes within your CPQ tool, and you can eliminate the back-and-forth that comes with giving quotes and invoices via email. This allows you to automate any required approvals and collect signatures electronically.
Consider Using Payment Integration?
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Another prevalent CPQ software feature is online payment integration, which allows you to take payments online after sending the quote to your clients.
Using this tool makes it easier to send quotes to buyers and ensures that your quotes are polished and on-brand. This ensures that your contacts have a consistent experience, which benefits you and your company.
Integrate CPQ with other business tools to standardize processes
Sales, finance, legal, manufacturing, and development are frequently separated and siloed. CPQ software has proven to link departments, allowing to establish clear communication and standards.
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A signed quote is the beginning of a chain of events that involves the entire company.?
In fact, “every detail required by downstream teams lives within the quote,” a tall order requiring a CPQ solution. It reduces errors and ensures that the following steps can take place. After the customer has signed a quote, you can:
You can integrate your CPQ program with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and once this is done, you can streamline entire processes. CPQ and ERP integration connect sales and operations and are a significant advantage of using a CPQ solution.
Sales can track the status of deliveries, executives can track the sales process, and operations can track trends to plan for new business. Product design and sales can collaborate.?
You will have seamless customer relationship management with better, data-driven decisions. Combining CPQ and ERP reduces operating costs while increasing on-time production because operations, materials, and manufacturing departments are all in the loop.
Take Advantage of Reporting Features
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Once the deal is closed, CPQ software can assist you in facilitating more robust reporting practices to drive future sales. With a CRM-integrated CPQ tool, such as the sales quote tool, you can keep accurate records of what was sold in each deal, accessible through your CRM contact records.
CPQ Software
CPQ tools are on the compass for many businesses because of their functionality and potential for a high return on investment (ROI). CPQ adoption will continue to rise as companies realize the value of integrating it with their CRM and ERP systems.
The HubSpot Sales Hub includes features tailored to the CPQ lifecycle, such as resources for offering configuration logic, standard and custom pricing, and quote tracking.
The Sales Hub’s “Product Library” allows you to keep track of the products or services you sell, setting prices for “products” in multiple currencies, choosing your preferred billing frequency, and tracking unit costs, among other CPQ-related actions.
HubSpot subscribers can also generate accurate, professional-looking quotes and proposals using HubSpot’s Sales Quote Tool, which automatically pulls data from a customer’s contact, company, and deal records to generate accurate, standardized, and convenient quotes.
Salesforce CPQ is a powerful resource that enables you to configure complex deals, manage recurring revenue, and unify sales and finance by utilizing various CPQ lifecycle tools.
The software aids in deal configuration through product catalogs, deal modeling, and other innovative features and functions powered by industry-leading AI.
It also includes the components required to optimally price your products or services and align quotes with your customers’ needs via various subscription and usage billing options.
Oracle CPQ is another tool that uses the CPQ process to help you increase revenue and streamline sales processes.?
The software includes:
They are resulting in more organized and efficient sales efforts.
The importance of guidance and simplicity in the software’s configuration resources contributes to its value. Oracle’s CPQ provides simple, effective steps for identifying customer needs (allowing you effective customer relationship management) and relevant product offerings.
It also employs automation to provide real-time, accurate, and efficient pricing. Furthermore, CPQ's quoting features let you quickly and reliably generate high-quality, custom-branded quotes, statements of work, engineering papers, datasheets, and contracts.
Conga CPQ is a comprehensive solution that addresses virtually every business challenge that can arise because of the CPQ process.?
It includes features such as synchronized processes for complex pricing and guided selling wizards for configurable products that allow you to sell a growing, complex, or configurable product record across channels.
Conga CPQ allows you to combine complex products and services into a single quote. It also includes machine learning, a centralized repository for all revenue-related data, and user-based workflows to address bottlenecks and accelerate the sales process.
CPQ is The Tool Your Sales Team Deserve
The goal of CPQ tools is to simplify the complex.
The advantages of CPQ software include formalizing rules and pricing, establishing company-wide standardization, increasing company-wide efficiency, and more. But, the most remarkable benefits of CPQ software are the proven increase in revenues and the decrease in costs.
Successful CPQ implementation requires careful training and support for your sales team and implementing CPQ in tandem with other departments. When done correctly, CPQ software investment can help your company lead the way to a more effective — and, importantly, profitable — sales process.
Improve your sales cycle and invoicing process by using a CPQ software solution that helps you keep better records.??
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