CPQ Software

CPQ software primarily works by understanding the needs of the customer, configuring the products required, and retrieving the accurate pricings for the same. CPQ software applies AI and machine-learning algorithms to generate the winning quote. It can automatically determine the base price, the best price, the discounts, deals, etc. Any changes in the product pricing or additions of administrative charges, service charges, or any other pricing alteration are updated in real-time in the software. This keeps the sales representative in possession of the latest price structure.  It also has real-time collaboration so that quotes created by sales representatives can be visualized by approval authorities, and the approval process can run in parallel. Inbuilt collaboration helps in better negotiations during sales agreements.  

Today businesses deal with customers who are more informed, connected, and tech-savvy. Sales reps that keep unorganized price catalogs in excel, PDF, papers, or Word files often have outdated information. Without CPQ software, there is a high chance that the prices have changed, and the sales rep is still using outdated price lists or catalogs. Quoting delays and pricing errors can add to the challenges that sales teams already face, such as lengthy negotiations, squeezed margins, churn customers, etc. Secondly, the sales rep has to either go to the approval authority physically or send an email for approval. This slows down the process unnecessarily. Without CPQ software, sales reps cannot mitigate the challenges of the poor quoting process and unleash a positive closure rate. The more complex and customized product portfolio your business offers, the more is the need for CPQ software. 

Yes, CPQ is an integral part of the CRM process and strategy. Customer relationship management or CRM includes numerous elements of the sales cycle. CPQ specializes in three of these elements - configuration, pricing, and quote. Configuration, pricing, and quotes are influenced by your customer relationship management strategy. CPQ complements CRM by providing extensive control over the way sales reps create sales quotes. When CRM is integrated with CPQ solutions, it makes CRM more powerful. Similarly, CPQ integrated with CRM solutions is more effective. 

There are signs that clearly tell you that your business needs CPQ software solutions. If you are facing the following issues, then it is time to invest in the best CPQ software solution 1.  Your sales reps are spending more time on every deal as compared to the industry average; 2.  Your salespeople are committing costly mistakes; 3.  Your customer churn rate is increasing every year, 4.  Your sales team is not winning negotiations, 5.  Your product list is very comprehensive and paper catalogs are not feasible 6.  Your sales are under pressure and the deal closure rate has gone down and 7.  Your sales team is not able to fetch accurate data for cross-selling and upselling.  

The best CPQ software aligns sales teams to new-age business processes. It simplifies the quoting processes and drastically improves the key sales performance metrics such as lead conversion, sales attainment, deal size, average sales per month, customer satisfaction rate, etc. Some of the best CPQ software solutions listed by GoodFirms are iQuoteXpress,  eRep CPQ, PROS Smart CPQ, Experlogix CPQ, Quote Manager CPQ, Hive CPQ, Bit2win CPQ, etc.

CPQ software has the ability to integrate with the CRM, ERP, proposal management, marketing automation software, Sales Force Automation Software, product configurator software, Job costing software, etc., to unleash insights on customer segmentation, buying patterns, etc. Other popular integrations include Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP, and Ecommerce solutions.