10 Reasons Your Business Needs a CPQ Solution

Updated 30 Jan 2023
Published 03 May 2022
Satyam Chaturvedi 3130 Views
Salesforce CPQ Solutions

Nowadays, salespeople spend the majority of their time on non-critical operations such as creating proposals or generating quotations, instead of closing deals. Increased automated sales and less physical work will lead to faster profit generation for your business.

Salesforce CPQ software eliminates your company’s sales process’s nuisances and speeds up the creation of quotations. Salesforce claims that CPQ speeds up quote generation by 29% and increases upselling by 35%.

Salesforce CPQ: Overview 

CPQ stands for Configure, Price, and Quote. Its main role is to swiftly and accurately create quotations for any orders submitted. It is common for CPQ technologies to function in conjunction with CRM platforms and ERP applications. This ensures that all data is seamlessly integrated into the system.

CPQ tools are used to produce quotations based on pre-defined criteria. This guarantees that information relating to quantity, discounts, or any modifications is immediately taken into consideration. It lowers the risk of an inaccurate quote.

Salesforce CPQ Softwares
Image Credit: salesforce.com

Questions To Consider Before Implementing Salesforce CPQ

#1. Are your employees unable to handle the complexities of product pricing?

If your organization is interested in personalizing and growing its product line, your sales teams will have to deal with fluctuating pricing. They need an easy to navigate catalog with the capability of dynamically combining various product and price options as they are modifying it. Manually doing this task is time consuming and prone to mistakes since sales staff can quickly lose sight of where they are in the process.

Complex formulas are required to balance various discounts, bundles of products, and subscription renewals, all of which might be difficult for a single person to do.

What Salesforce CPQ Can Do:

Your sales reps will be able to deliver sophisticated pricing and many options for product-feature bundling with ease and confidence thanks to the Salesforce CPQ tool. Pricing lists are automatically updated depending on product entries and volume discounts, which removes the need for any human computations.

In order to speed up the decision making process, pre-approved pricing thresholds and those that require permission might be established. As an added benefit, the Salesforce CPQ system immediately notifies the legal and financial departments of any pricing changes, allowing them to examine and approve them as needed.

Salesforce CPQ Software
Image Credit: salesforce.com

#2. Is your sales team struggling to upsell and cross-sell?

Salespeople are often left out of the loop when a company introduces a new product into its lineup. This is especially true in the absence of a structured sales process. Because of the difficulty of keeping track of newly categorized items, sales representatives frequently miss out on upselling and cross-selling.

A manual guided selling technique may be applied only by experienced salespeople that have worked with your company for an extended period of time. Manually doing this task might be rather challenging for new recruits. This might cost your business countless sales and contract renewals.

Additionally, it can hinder the quote-to-cash process, resulting in quotation delays or problems associated with complicated bundling choices.

What Salesforce CPQ Can Do:

Using Salesforce’s guided up-sell feature, sales personnel may quickly access a variety of high-value items. All new goods are automatically updated, and the application makes upselling ideas to reps during the quotation and renewal processes.

A variety of possible combinations of products, services, and other offerings are made available to sales representatives in this manner. Because the procedure is automated, it has a significant impact on renewals. Quotations are prepared in a timely manner, resulting in faster pricing and closings.

#3. Are your sales staff dealing with lengthy approval processes?

Approvals play an important function in speeding up a project’s progress within a business cycle. In addition, this step is prevalent with several difficulties, which typically delay the pricing process. This can have a significant influence on any sales plan that has been devised in advance.

When approvals are multi-level, it is possible for a step may be denied, necessitating an iteration and restart of the process. In these situations, manual delegation is out of the question due to the additional lag time it would incur. Delays like this might put customers in a state of uncertainty or worse, dissatisfaction.

What Salesforce CPQ Can Do:

The foundation of Salesforce CPQ is built with several functions that automate the sales cycle. Everyone involved in the sales cycle may use the application, not only sales reps. This includes team managers, financial staff, legal counsel, and anybody in charge of inventories.

The tool aids in keeping everyone on the same path. Automated processes are in place to notify the appropriate parties when a sales decision requires permission from a number of different groups. This includes financial, legal, and management departments, as well as all three. Pricing may be determined by keeping track of the approvals.

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CPQ systems save time for salespeople by automating the process of creating bundles and pricing, which otherwise would have to be done manually.

These bundles may be put up by a subject matter expert (SME) and the CPQ system performs the rest, allowing customers to choose from a wide choice of alternatives.

The R&D department can also benefit from using the Salesforce CPQ system to assess demand and product trends. Consequently, your product and business become significantly solution-oriented and customer-centric.

Read Also: Benefits of Salesforce Sales Cloud Integration for your Business

#4. Is your sales team’s efficiency suffering?

A lack of a software solution might make the quotation process a challenging one for your employees. Sales inquiries might be difficult to understand for them due to the complexity of the issue at hand.

A new quotation may be created from a combination of older quotes, however, this may not be very successful. Many sales reps resort to administrative activities in order to boost their quotation abilities.

A lot of their time is consumed by managing several platforms and customer connections manually. All of this contributes to a decrease in their ability to function effectively. It’s easier to create quotations, get rates, and manage proposals with the help of CPQ software.

What Salesforce CPQ Can Do?

Members of the organization may end up utilizing up to four distinct modes of operation to gain access to the information they require to do their jobs.

Nearly 75% of organizations do not automate the approval processes. However, high-performing sales teams have been shown to employ three times as much sales technology as those that do not. There can be no doubt that technology has a critical role to play in boosting team productivity.

Salesforce CPQ
Image Credit: salesforce.com

No matter the size of the company, Salesforce CPQ offers sales teams the versatility they need in the selling process. As the demands of your team change, CPQ tools may be scaled up or down to meet those changes. The audit trails and reports required by the finance, accounting, legal, and tax departments can be generated automatically as a result of the automation of the process.

Salesforce CPQ also handles currency exchange rates and relevant taxes in cases whenever the company is multinational.

#5. Is the income and profitability of your business stagnating?

Maintaining an upward trajectory in sales and efficiency is a major problem for companies that are doing well or have achieved break-even. It’s easy to get into a groove that keeps everything on a level in the workplace. A company’s primary goal is to expand its size and scope while simultaneously increasing its bottom line.

Software programs such as CRM platforms and knowledge management systems are used by businesses to improve sales in order to achieve this goal. In order to boost productivity and profitability, this list of automated operations must contain CPQ software as well.

What Salesforce CPQ can do?

Salesforce CPQ solutions allow sales organizations to focus on recreating all of their best-selling techniques, even with new hires. When a new employee joins the team, there is no time lost on training and getting them up to speed.

Even for a beginner, being able to generate accurate quotations that result in contract closing and contribute to the company’s bottom line. There is no information fragmented with CPQ solutions since all departments are on the same page. 

No matter how big or small the company gets, the team will be able to handle its complexity using Salesforce CPQ. As your business expands, the tool will continue to give assistance to your employees. There are several administrative tasks that are automated, resulting in a reduction in the time it takes from quotation to payment. The method may even be expanded to handle larger customer orders.

Benefits of Salesforce CPQ

CPQ from Salesforce is a game-changer when it comes to solving client problems like subscriptions, bulk discounts, and product bundles. Salesforce CPQ software has a number of advantages for both your sales staff and your company as a whole:

Enhance Accuracy and Profitability 

Using Salesforce CPQ, you can streamline and automate an entire price strategy and execution lifecycle to address the most difficult business issues.

Create Quotations and Proposals in a Matter of seconds

It is possible to combine your sales process with multiple apps and tools to increase sales profitability and assist you in making better and more informed business decisions, thanks to Salesforce CPQ’s great templates.

Easy Cross-selling and Up-selling

Your customers’ preferences are tracked by Salesforce CPQ, which recommends the best combination of salesforce products and services. Cross-selling and up-selling are made easier, and more customers are acquired, as a result.

Error-free Pricing and Contracting

As you go through the process, Salesforce CPQ guides you and your sales team step-by-step. Moreover, this tool has all of the information on policy and pricing changes, which improves the overall accuracy.

Guided Selling

Salesforce uses guided selling to streamline and improve the sales process. It’s an intriguing new feature that allows sales professionals to enter customer information into a tool and build customized product bundles based on their individual needs.

10 Reasons Why your Business needs Salesforce CPQ

Complexity Of Products And Pricing

Products with a dynamic price structure and the ability to expand and customize are typically difficult to manage. These complications will lead to blunders, miscommunication, and dissatisfied clients if sales personnel are unable to manage them effectively.

There are also intricate algorithms for renewals and dynamic price systems that include discounts and other complex offers.

Salesforce CPQ lets salespeople swiftly create and exchange quotations using pre-set criteria for pricing and discounts for any item, regardless of the product format.

Key Indications: 

  • Dynamic pricing and complex product bundles.
  • Delays in processing and receiving quotations.
  • Numerous setup issues across various transactions.

Quoting and Contracting In An Outdate Manner

Any firm still quoting or contracting clients by hand using outdated techniques such as paper or outdated platforms like Microsoft Word and Excel should seriously consider switching to Salesforce CPQ.

It not only saves time and avoids human errors, but it also speeds up the quotation process significantly. Using a single system, the sales reps will be able to sync up with each other and operate efficiently.

Key Indications: 

  • Inaccuracies in quotations are caused by human mistakes.
  • Delays in setting up the quotation.
  • Drop-in closure rate.

Keeping Track of Products Is Difficult

In order to be successful at guided selling, a sales representative must have a lot of experience, time, and commitment. Salesforce CPQ’s guided selling feature assists sales reps in identifying client needs and recommending optimal solutions.

Cross-selling and upselling opportunities are highlighted. Sales reps may use this automated process to increase sales, provide more optimized and tailored solutions, and provide clients with precisely what they want.

Key Indications: 

  • Sales and renewals have fallen significantly.
  • Cross-selling and up-selling prospects can be dropped in at any time.
Read Also: A Comprehensive Guide to Salesforce Integration with 3rd Party Applications

Time Management

Salesforce CPQ should be considered if the sales team is spending more time quoting than closing deals. When quoting is done frequently without a technological solution, it can become tedious and boring. To be successful, a company’s ability to sell quickly is essential.

So if the sales staff wastes time on quotations or manually preparing product listings, they won’t be able to close the sales in the specified period.

Product grouping and price structures like discounts and bundles may be automatically taken into account by Salesforce CPQ quoting automation procedures. It is now possible to distribute product offers across different channels using analytics-driven algorithms. It’s easy for everyone to keep up-to-date since Salesforce does it automatically.

Key Indications: 

  • A lack of focus on sales conversions due to a lack of focus on administrative tasks.
  • Drop in the effectiveness and productivity of the sales staff.

A Lengthy Process of Approval and Evaluation

A lengthy approval procedure might cause gaps in the sales funnel and transactions. Enhanced approvals feature in Salesforce CPQ optimizes both process and business requirements.

Multi-approval chains may now function together seamlessly, paving the way for new, more efficient forms of approval. Additional regulations can also speed up the process. Salespeople may see exactly what approvals they need to get when they develop a quotation with all the information readily available to them.

Key Indications: 

  • Long and unchanging quotation approval processes.
  • Conversion rates suffer as a result of approval delays.

Salesforce CPQ System

Inaccurate Sales Quotes

Inaccurate or deceptive sales quotations reflect a lack of professionalism or ignorance about the items or services that are being sold. It has an effect on the clients and diminishes the conversion rate.

Salesforce CPQ bridges the CRM-Quote-to-Cash workflow gap seamlessly.  It allows any company to shorten the sales cycle and focus on client interactions by integrating with Salesforce.com.

Key Indications: 

  • Incorrect quotations that result in loss.
  • A decrease in the brand’s monetary worth.
  • The rate of conversion has fallen dramatically.

Discounts are Required too Frequently to Close Deals

Discounting excessively to close sales is unsustainable in terms of increasing revenue margins and return on investment. In order to maximize revenue, Salesforce CPQ tracks closure rates, up-sell and cross-sell possibilities, and the appropriate price bundle to enhance order size. This benefits the ROI by providing consumers with discounts.

Key Indications: 

  • Order deal sizes are reduced.
  • Impact on profit margins and revenues.

Data is not Standardized

CRM, quoting, and contracting data must be kept in one place for the benefit of a business. It is possible to combine Salesforce CPQ with ERP and CRM platforms. As a result, all departments have access to up-to-date and standardized data. This helps to minimize mistakes and confusion.

Key Indications: 

  • Customers are dissatisfied when their information is inconsistent.
  • Brand reputation is tarnished by mistakes and misinterpretations.
  • Significantly longer decision making processes.

Making Mistakes is Costing you Money

Salesforce CPQ is an effective tool for lowering the number of mistakes that occur across the whole sales process. Salesforce CPQ has the potential to increase profit margins by reducing the amount of money lost on quoting and contracting.

Key Indications: 

  • Low-profit margins because of excessive overhead.
  • Poor adherence to corporate policy.

Problems During Renewal

Contract management or subscription renewal procedures might be tough to follow manually. Businesses may tailor their use cases and offers using Salesforce CPQ. For all subscriptions and renewals, Salesforce CPQ creates a contract record that may be used as a basis for tracking and managing contract-based or asset-based operations.

Key Indications: 

  • There are no auto-renewals, which results in a decrease in customer retention.
  • Without an effective contract renewal procedure, loss in revenue.

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Conclusion

Salesforce CPQ offers enterprises substantial growth in productivity and the opportunity for significant returns on their investments. Investing in Salesforce CPQ now has several advantages, especially because more firms are realizing the importance of CPQ when it is connected with ERP.

FAQs for Salesforce CPQ

  • What is the process for using Salesforce CPQ?

    Sales representatives can rapidly and accurately quote pricing using CPQ software, which incorporates customization options, modifications, and discounts. Salesforce CPQ is a cloud-based platform that offers the sales staff easy-to-use software that can be accessed on any device.

  • When is Salesforce CPQ appropriate for use?

    Salesforce CPQ is great for sales teams that deal with intricate products that are packaged in unique ways. The use of CPQ might be a solution for any sales force that regularly changes quotations by hand on the basis of data from several systems.

  • What are the Benefits of Salesforce CPQ?

    Salesforce CPQ automates a substantial portion of the quote-generating process, saving sales teams time and effort. For businesses, this efficiency saves a lot of money and human capital as well as improves customer satisfaction, which in turn increases profits.

  • How much time does it take to deploy Salesforce CPQ?

    A rapid, out-of-the-box start might take as little as two weeks depending on personal business requirements.

Satyam Chaturvedi

Satyam Chaturvedi is a Digital Marketing Manager at Arka Softwares, a leading app development company dealing in modern and futuristic solutions. He loves to spend his time studying the latest market insights.

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