Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software is a popular solution used by businesses to streamline the quote generation process for customised products. CPQ helps to reduce the administrative burden of quote generation while improving customer experience, ushering leads further into the sales funnel and driving higher rates of conversion.
Businesses can implement CPQ processes by using Excel spreadsheets or deploying dedicated CPQ software. Many companies opt to create web apps for this purpose based on their existing spreadsheets, using low-code application platforms such as EASA. Tools like these provide a cost-effective and accessible means to implement CPQ without the need for an expensive, custom-coded solution.
So, if you’re struggling to produce accurate, fast quotes for your clients, CPQ software may be a wise investment — but how exactly will your business benefit? Let’s explore some of the key advantages of implementing CPQ in sales operations.
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1. Shorter sales cycles
One key benefit of CPQ is its ability to expedite a business’ sales cycle. Traditionally, creating accurate, bespoke quotes for customers can be a time-consuming and error-prone task, contributing to the administrative load your sales team deals with. In fact, data suggests that salespeople typically only spend around 23% of their time actually making sales, while the remainder of their day is lost to arduous clerical tasks to support the sale itself.
But with CPQ, sales teams can efficiently generate quotes by configuring products and services under an automated system. This minimises the risk of errors and inconsistencies between the quotes that your customers receive. In turn, automation empowers your sales team to claw back lost time spent on admin and redirect their attention to the human-oriented aspects of sales — namely, nurturing authentic customer relationships and closing deals.
An optimised sales cycle translates to faster lead-to-revenue conversion, providing businesses with a competitive edge and increasing revenue potential.
2. Increased quoting capacity
Thanks to the reduced time spent managing manual quote generation, CPQ enables sales teams to handle a higher volume of quotes. When your salespeople can streamline and automate any complex configuration and pricing processes, they are free to respond to customer inquiries promptly and efficiently, even during peak periods of business.
Staff working above their capacity creates real consequences for businesses — with lost productivity and poorly managed leads costing companies over $1 trillion each year. With CPQ, however, your business is free to scale its quoting capacity without needing to compromise on quality, consistency, or turnaround time.
Effectively, this means that you can run a lean, well-oiled team of salespeople without needing to expand the workforce or spend time auditing for pricing discrepancies or revenue leakage. All in, this will boost your overall productivity and push members of staff to strive for higher targets, ideally joining the ranks of just 24% of salespeople exceeding their quotas.
3. Higher customer satisfaction
It’s worth highlighting that CPQ doesn’t only benefit the business side of a sale — it can also significantly enhance the buying experience for customers. With the ability to rapidly generate accurate and customised quotes, sales reps can respond to customer inquiries in real time, demonstrating responsiveness and professionalism that will improve the customer experience.
Naturally, an improved buying experience does also cycle back around to benefiting the business. Based on individual customer preferences, CPQ allows for easy upselling and cross-selling by suggesting relevant product configurations. By strengthening customer relationships and building consumer trust, this consultative selling approach earns repeat sales. Research shows that 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that “recognise, remember, and provide them with relevant offers and recommendations” during selling.
Plus, CPQ allows businesses to provide transparent pricing that is consistent between different customers, which has been shown to contribute to positive brand perception.
Ultimately, CPQ works to optimise the sales process and enable you to deliver faster, more accurate quotes in high volume — boosting customer satisfaction and increasing revenue.
