HOW TO SUCCEED
Reduce complexity and time to quote while increasing revenue, margins, and sales efficiency.
Author
Christoffer Hansen
ch@hanei.se
HOW TO SUCCEED
WITH CPQ
Reduce complexity and time to quote while
increasing revenue, margins, and sales
efficiency.
Author
Christoffer Hansen
ch@hanei.se
CPQ means configure, price, and quote software, which is used for sales optimization. CPQ is a tool for organizations to quickly generate quotes for orders in correlation with CRM, ERP, and other business technology, ensuring integrated data and accuracy. Quotes are required by a preprogrammed set of rules, which results in error-free pricing based on quantity, discount, customization, electable features, revenue type, and incompatibilities.
Successful implementation
To measure CPQ implementation success, start with setting a goal for what the organization wishes to achieve. Goals can be quantitative or qualitative, depending on the organization’s overall objectives. Also, map the sales team’s challenges and design the CPQ so that it solves the challenges. Ensure that product models create useful configurations, the structure of the pricing rules, and the quotation process for a consistent experience.
5 STEPS TOWARD A SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION
- Opportunity
CPQ provides a similar customer experience across all platforms, streamline the sales experience, shortening the sales cycle, and satisfied customers. It maps challenges for sales representatives and automates processes to provide configurations. When implementing a CPQ, discover things you previously did not know or rethink processes and how to make them better. Take the time to reconsider the organizations’ routines. - Know your business
To ensure that the CPQ implementation is successful, it is essential to know the business processes and impact on the supply chain and customer experience and how it fits the organization’s overall picture.
Understand existing processes: What does the configure, price and quote system look like today? What inefficiencies disturb the sales process? Find out what the sales representatives need to manage to create, and deliver quotes effectively.
The customer: Understanding customer behavior and needs will help identify product models and pricing that will support effective selling.
Find lead opportunities: When you understand customer behavior, you will receive insights into product and pricing patterns to identify new sales opportunities.
- Business requirements
Streamline your business internally and externally—set goals for workflows to eliminate delays. Review your catalog and existing pricing model. Decide what product information to include and how to handle data. - Fit the CPQ system into the process
CPQ systems integrate with several systems, so use information that already exists in other locations. To integrate the systems, you need to understand and answer these questions:• What systems will be affected?
• How will the systems integrate and interact?
• What is the intended workflow?By effectively identifying business requirements, it will be easier to fit the CPQ into the processes. - Change Management
To ensure everyone in the organization is on board with the new system, follow these steps:
Testing – Test the system to eliminate bugs. A smooth-running system will establish credibility
Project manager– Someone who will be an ambassador for the implementation project and help i dentify requirements or needs previously unaddressed
Engage all departments – A new system will affect the entire organization, including sales, marketing, product management, finance, IT, and operations; they should all contribute and understand its benefits. A better understanding of how they will benefit will result in a faster adaptation of the new system
Training program – Ensure that everyone knows how and is comfortable using the new system
CPQ software touches on every aspect of a business – the how, what, where, and why – which means that a CPQ project is a high-value process full of opportunities. With CPQ, organizations can modernize their infrastructure and, at the same time, maximizing impact for business value.
HOW IS CPQ BENEFICIAL?
CPQ is a sophisticated selling tool; channel selling structures, product configuration, and sales cycles become more complicated, CPQ sales strategies provide benefits.
Sales representative’s time not spent on selling is spent generating quotes, proposals, and approvals. When CPQ is implemented correctly, it can trigger several commercial benefits:
- Increased sales efficiency
- Accurate pricing
- Reduced approval time
- Reduced time to quote
- Reduced complexity
- Reduced configuration errors
- Increased up- and cross-selling
- Improved customer experience
As an effect of implementing CPQ, there are plenty of opportunities to increase your revenue and margins.
SO WHAT?
CPQ is a tool for companies that, when implemented correctly, generates increased revenue, margins, and sales efficiency within the organization.
Instead of spending more than half of the time, manually generating quotes, writing proposals, and getting approvals, CPQ frees up time to create more leads. CPQ works together with your CRM to make the sales process easier, faster, and more organized.
If you want to learn more about CPQ and how it can increase your company’s revenue, feel free to reach out to us at Hanei Consulting Group.
If you want to learn more about CPQ and how it can increase your company’s revenue, feel free to reach out to us at Hanei Consulting Group.
About us
We are a team of independent professionals from diverse backgrounds who want to make consulting simple. We have extensive experience from strategy- and technology consulting firms, start-ups, and corporations, where we have solved problems in 50+ countries – from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. We are the architects of your growth.
