If you have been looking for ways of transforming your organization by modernizing the way you sell complex manufacturing products, your search probably led you to “CPQ”. This is not just a buzzword around the sales community, CPQ is a tool that is having a profound impact in the way manufacturing products are being sold.
What’s so special about CPQ?
In simple terms, CPQ stands for Configure, Price, [and] Quote. It is primarily a sales tool that empowers sales teams to confidently and accurately create complete quotes from end to end.
When it comes to B2B sales of complex products (especially in manufacturing), the right CPQ ensures that the products are configured to the specific requirements of the customer. In other words, CPQ allows for 100% error-free quotes.
It then calculates the best price for that specific configuration by taking into account things like exchange rates, product availabilities, discounted pricing, etc..
Finally, it is able to combine all this information and generate all the documents required to submit a complete and detailed quote.
The real magic of CPQ comes from its speed. Traditionally, obtaining a detailed quote of a complex product took days, weeks or even months. Compare that to the top-performing CPQs today that can generate a quote within minutes. In today’s world of Smart Commerce, CPQ becomes indispensable for keeping up with increasing customer requirements.
So, yes CPQ is indispensable to remain competitive in today’s B2B commerce landscape. But how do you know if CPQ is right for your organization? To answer this, we came up with the most common reasons why you should consider getting a CPQ.
Here are (just) 10 reasons why…
1) You wished quoting was less labor-intensive. It currently requires ‘too many’ stakeholders to complete a detailed custom quote.
2) In recent past, your organization has lost deals for not meeting deadlines
3) Your organization has lost deals due to quoting errors or misconfigurations
4) You sell complex products that require customization for every customer
5) Precision matters – The quote needs to include technical/detailed specifications
6) Only highly trained, experienced salespeople are able to produce a quote
7) You have an international sales team and the information is equally scattered
8) Your sales teams, who are pressed for time and results, end up offering too many price discounts to customers
9) You sales teams struggle to quote maintenance costs, or product lifecycle management into the sales quote
10) Your customer requires visuals (including color realistic imaging, 3D visuals, etc.), before making a purchasing decision.
If one (or more) of these points sound familiar, you should definitely look into buying a CPQ. In this case, we encourage to look at places like G2 Crowd, or Gartner.
In fact, Gartner, following a comprehensive study with industry experts and scholars, has named Tacton as the “go-to” for CPQ in the manufacturing industry as part of their “Magic Quadrant”. It’s an achievement that we are working hard to repeat for years to come.
Original photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@akipotpot