How the CPQ Software is Transforming The Complex Pricing of Products And Services

Around the globe, technology is swiftly transforming business processes; most businesses have seen the need for digital adoption to enhance customer satisfaction. Many organizations have also seen the need to leverage technological advancements such as AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, robotics, sentiment analysis, and Big Data for relevance and survival in the highly competitive business world.

The deployment of technological advancements cuts across all departments of any organization; sales, marketing, production, procurement, and customer service are integrating different forms of technological advancement to enhance product quality, improve customer experience, and make higher returns on investments. One notable innovation from the sales team is the CPQ software to transform the pricing of products and services.

CPQ Definition

Many sources have provided , but CPQ simply stands for Configure Price Quote. It is the process salespeople follow to configure products, determine the price of the products, and produce a quote; an appropriate CPQ definition can be an advanced sales tool companies can leverage to generate highly configured and precise quotations.

CPQ is not a phenomenon that is relatively new because salespeople have always used this quoting process for configurable products. The vital role technological advancement is playing in configuring, pricing, and quoting has now made CPQ a crucial factor for the success of any business.

Before now, the process was fraught with error since salespeople used to do it out of their whims. A lot of business processes were done manually, and apart from being prone to error, business processes were also slow.

With automation technologies like CPQ software, there’s no longer a need to calculate and do other things manually; businesses no longer need to compute sales quotations and prices. By leveraging AI-based technologies like CPQ and in-depth data integration,  processes are being made more intelligent.

Sales are now more proactive than reactive to suit the ever-changing customer needs.

CPQ Software

CPQ software is an AI-based technology that businesses can use to manage the complex pricing of their products and services. The CPQ software enables an organization to quickly configure product offerings, set up discounts and pricing rules, and produce quotes without mistakes and professional proposals tailored to buyers’ needs.

CPQ software is necessary for companies that sell customized or made-to-order products, as they can use the software to simplify the quoting and pricing process, streamline order management, and enhance accuracy and compliance with pricing rules. When you deploy CPQ software to configure products and services, users can leverage the graphical interface of the CPQ software to select the different products and varieties buyers desire.

Another CPQ trait is that it calculates the appropriate pricing that salespeople were doing manually, based on the types of products customers select. This process saves time and reduces errors prone to manually creating quotes and orders.

You can also use the CPQ software to manage discounts and promotions and create pricing reports. The size of your business is not very relevant when you want to use the CPQ software; it’s necessary for companies that render complex services or sell complex products.

The CPQ software makes the quoting and ordering process more efficient and accurate; customers are happy with the experience, and businesses increase sales. You can use CPQ to streamline your sales process, minimize administrative tasks, and deliver accurate quotes to buyers.

The customer experience is very relevant to the survival of any business today, and CPQ software helps to enhance the customer experience. There are even some advanced CPQ software solutions that can measure buyer engagement with the quote, track and monitor deal progress, and provide analytics on the sales process.

What Can Your Organization Achieve Differently With CPQ Software?

You must have found out now that the primary functionality of CPQ is the error-free ability to configure the right products to sell to your customer; this cuts across the types of products your organization offer. CPQ software solutions are AI-based and can automate the quote generation process; you will also expect add-ons, product dependencies, pricing models, and discount policies.

You can then generate professional proposals and send them to your prospective customers. The technology behind CPQ software makes it very reliable for a wide range of solutions; you can use it as a simple tool for sales teams to enter a product, select a discount, and generate a quote. More extensive use of CPQ software is its ability to integrate with ERP systems such as shipping and inventory.

When salespeople use the CPQ software, it can simplify selling and improve sales efficiency because it guides the sales teams through the quote process using a sales playbook. The sales playbook tool embedded in the CPQ guides selling workflows to ensure that deals are focused on buyers’ needs and hasten the actualization of deals.

Your sales team can ensure pricing consistency, error-free quoting, and faster approvals by picking accurate configurations for each buyer. Your organization needs to produce quotes that buyers can easily comprehend; to eliminate complexities in your quotations and simplify multiple SKU variations, you need a product rules CPQ template that creates a guided question and answer process.

To enable deals specific to each buyer’s needs, cross and upsell advice has been built into the workflow; this can offer relevant,  rules-based sales recommendations.

Ways a CPQ Software Solution can Positively Impact Sales

Integrating a CPQ software solution into sales workflows makes the quoting process more efficient and error-free. Some of the benefits you derive from using the sales tools over manual processes include:

Accurate and Error-Free Quotes

The CPQ software enables you to send accurate quotes to your customers; CPQ software takes into account the relevant data points, such as product configuration rules, pricing, availability of products, and discounts.

A Significant Increase in Lead Conversion Rate

Both potential and existing customers have options they can fall on; nobody is ready to wait for any salesperson forever. Buying process must go on without delay.