Work Smarter, Not Harder, Part 1: Less Training and More Time-Saving

Benefits of CPQ – Part 1

CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) solutions offer many ways to help customers work smarter, not harder. 

They can help Sales Teams, Channel Partners as well as customers to do that. But it can be challenging and time-consuming to find the right CPQ solution, and hence one precondition for success is that the best CPQ solution for a specific business is selected and implemented. 

When that is done correctly, customers can expect to see various benefits like sharing best-selling practices become common in their company.

More benefits are that it is possible to sell more products and services and to sell them faster. CPQ solutions in general help to eliminate errors, streamline the sales process, and close more deals. 

In a three-part series for this Christmas calendar special, we will have a look at six specific examples where CPQ helps you work smarter.

Note that we in this series mention only products, to make it easier to read, but it includes both products and services. 

Less Training for Sales Team

Product knowledge is key for every successful Sales Team, but to get the product knowledge to the Sales Team is easier said than done, especially when the team is larger. Because then it is simply not possible for a product manager to advise each Sales Rep individually about each product. 

In this example, a CPQ solution helps to work smarter, not harder by building knowledge about products right into the CPQ solution. This gives Sales Reps the possibility to focus on the key selling points of their products instead of memorizing many nitty, gritty product details from all kinds of sources in many (unproductive) hours. 

In the end, there is always a workable solution that can be sold.

Save Time by Providing Price Guidance

Adding pricing information to a quote is another task that can become complex and time-consuming very quickly. That is because not every customer pays the same price for the same products. 

There are various reasons for this, and so when pricing information like list price and applicable discounts are different for different customer groups (e.g., gold, silver, bronze customers), then it helps to communicate clearly and early with customers and Sales Reps and set expectations about how long it will take to process for example a discount request from a customer.  

CPQ solutions help to work smarter, not harder by building these pricing rules into their solutions. This gives Sales Reps the opportunity to provide clear and consistent information to their customers early and quickly. 

Next in our series on benefits of CPQ: Learn how automation with CPQ can improve route to market and personalized quotes.

Note: Not every CPQ solution provides every capability mentioned in this series. Nevertheless, CPQ solutions can help most teams to work smarter, not harder, and the examples above are just a small sample of the improvement opportunities they provide.