Configure, Price, and Quote (CPQ) is a sales tool that enables companies to create accurate and highly configured quotes for their orders quickly by automating their complex product, pricing, and business rules that are made available to the sales team in real-time.
This makes the CPQ tool an integral piece for any sales process. Hence, having an efficient and reliable CPQ tool can play a crucial role in increasing the productivity of a sales team, thereby resulting in the firms’ success. A Salesforce CRM solution coupled with a Salesforce CPQ can work wonders for a firm by enabling them to achieve their sales targets.
Key Challenges encountered in the CPQ process
As businesses start to grow, so do their business processes and their respective complexities. Such a change can be encountered in CPQ processes as well. A variety of issues like pricing errors, lengthy approvals, missing business data updates, error-prone orders etc. can result in issues in the firm’s quoting process thereby creating a roadblock for the sales team and driving down their productivity. All these hindrances would ultimately result in the firm not being able to achieve a smooth and seamless turnaround between a customer requesting a quote and receiving it. Some of the key challenges encountered in the CPQ process are
Defining and subsequently building a strong and efficient sales process
A broken pricing system arising out of price discrepancies because of the data being decentralized and stored in multiple systems which results in errors while creating the quotes
Opportunities missed by the sales team to maximize their sales impact while they are busy fixing the issues of an erroneous or slow CPQ process
A long and tiring process to review and approve a quote
Customizing a quote for the unique needs of specific clients or line of business
Ensuring legal and process compliance across the board
Training users and facilitating the adoption of technologies
Error-prone processes that lead to providing excessive discounts, or missing out to sending complimentary offers
How can Salesforce CPQ help?
Since everyone on the team is using the same tool to build quotes, it becomes possible to maintain a clearer view of what’s going on in the pipeline. And since Salesforce CPQ is connected to Salesforce, the tool also automatically populates opportunity values, helping to forecast more accurately.
Improves Forecast Accuracy
Since everyone on the team is using the same tool to build quotes, it becomes possible to maintain a clearer view of what’s going on in the pipeline. And since Salesforce CPQ is connected to Salesforce, the tool also automatically populates opportunity values, helping to forecast more accurately.
Increases Deal Visibility
No matter how good a sales leader is, there’s no way to manage the sales team properly if the leader is in the dark. Being able to see changes, discounts, and the status of quotes (not to mention the analytics to monitor and track them all) will help the sales leader to plot a course to success.
Ensures Compliance with Pricing and Configuration Rules
Pricing and configuration rules are necessary, but it can be tricky to get everyone to stick to them all the time. There are always those customers that want sweetheart deals or salespeople that weren’t quite listening when they were told what products have to be sold together. In order to stay consistent and compliant, rules-based configuration and pricing tools are the only way to go. After all, it’s tough to select a non-compliant option if the system won’t let it happen.
Improves Productivity
If a firm already has Salesforce CRM, adding a tool that looks and functions similarly will help new salespeople pick it up faster, and help ramp up productivity. Everyone from new reps to existing ones will benefit from automated configuration rules, discount limits, and approvals. An automated CPQ system means reps don’t have to try and find information buried in some folder or spreadsheet. They save time, customers save theirs, and deals move more quickly. Everybody wins!
Reduces Errors
In addition to increased productivity, the automation present in Salesforce CPQ will also help reduce the team’s error. Manual effort not only takes time but also leaves room for errors. Every part of the CPQ process starting from configuring the deal to finding the right price for creating the quote creates a probability for an error to occur. Fixing those mistakes can create cost-efficiency for the firm and maintain customer goodwill.
Conclusion
CPQ is a very important tool available in Salesforce suite of products which enables firms to provide their consumers with accurate sales quotes by automating the entire process, thereby making it highly efficient and error-free. It helps firms to generate quotes in a timely manner and also allows them to customize the quotes to suit their customers’ unique requirements. These are some of the primary benefits of having Salesforce CPQ which ensures a robust sales process and increased profitability for the firm.
Please reach out to us on support@winobell.com for a free demo on how Salesforce CPQ can help you take your firm to the next level. You can also follow us on LinkedIn for updates in various Salesforce products.