CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) is software that allows companies to quickly and accurately generate quotes and proposals based on the needs of their customers. It enables businesses to automate and streamline aspects of their sales process, which may have historically caused challenges. In this post we’ll review how CPQ can help your business processes, and the difference between Salesforce CPQ and the new kid on the block – Industries CPQ.
Areas where CPQ can help improve business processes:
Speed of quoting: Sales representatives may find themselves dedicating excessive time to crafting quotes rather than processing orders. This is often due to the sluggishness of outdated CRM systems and custom quoting platforms which struggle to generate quotes promptly. CPQ can significantly increase the speed of quoting.
Diverse product variations: Many businesses deal with a substantial number of product SKUs (stock keeping units), often numbering in the thousands or even millions. The complexity stemming from numerous and intricate products poses significant hurdles for traditional systems to navigate, but is core to CPQ’s functionality.
Consistency across channels: Companies aspire to offer consistent product offers based on the same set of product data across various sales channels. However, achieving this consistency in outdated systems can be challenging, and discrepancies in the accuracy and uniformity of quotes across different channels may result in order cancellations and missed business opportunities. CPQ helps to ensure consistency across the organization.
Demand for personalization: Customers now expect quotes that not only align with their preferences and eligibility but also take into account product availability. Making this context-sensitive information readily available to sales agents has proven to be a formidable task, but one that CPQ systems are ready to take on.
What’s the difference between Salesforce CPQ and Industries CPQ?
Salesforce CPQ
Salesforce CPQ is a powerful tool that helps sales teams automate the quoting process and create accurate quotes in real-time. It is designed to be easy to use and allows sales teams to quickly configure products, price quotes, and generate proposals. Salesforce CPQ can be used for any industry (with some customizations), and is ideal for businesses that have a complex pricing structure, as it can handle even the most complex pricing rules and discount schedules.
Some of the key features of Salesforce CPQ include:
- Guided selling: Salesforce CPQ provides a guided selling experience that helps sales teams configure products and create quotes quickly and accurately.
- Product configuration: Salesforce CPQ can handle even the most complex product configurations, making it ideal for businesses that offer a wide range of products and services.
- Pricing and discounting: Salesforce CPQ can handle complex pricing rules and discount schedules, making it easy for sales teams to generate accurate quotes.
- Quoting and proposals: Salesforce CPQ allows sales teams to quickly create and send quotes and proposals to customers, helping to speed up the sales process.
That all sounds wonderful, and certainly useful for businesses that need to create quick and accurate quotes.
What’s a common scenario when organizations would use Salesforce CPQ?
A company uses Salesforce Sales Cloud, and they maintain a complex pricing structure build out within spreadsheets. The terms and conditions associated with the pricing are highly dynamic, and there is a rigorous process in place for approvals and legal review. The intricacies of their product pricing require the involvement of Sales Support and Solution Engineers due to their complexity.
Industries CPQ
Industries Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) is a cloud-based system intricately integrated into the Salesforce platform and tailored to a specific industry to streamline the process of quoting and order capture. This solution empowers businesses to configure product offers that precisely cater to individual customer needs. Leveraging the comprehensive Enterprise Product Catalog’s product, service, and resource data, Industries CPQ equips sales teams with advanced order-capturing capabilities and guided selling tools. This empowers them to propose optimal products and services to customers across diverse sales channels.
Some of the key features of Industries CPQ:
- Industry focused: It is tailored to meet the unique demands of various industries
- Industry compliant: Within the Telecommunications sector for example, products are structured following distinct layers in accordance with TMForum standards
- Enhanced usability: A uniform user interface ensures a seamless experience for marketing, sales, and service teams.
- EPC: The Enterprise Product Catalog (EPC) serves as an Industry Cloud module desinged to facilitate the management and structuring of product data within a unified interfae
- Omni-channel compatibility: Industries CPQ’s inherent design facilitates deployment across multiple channels, providing a consistent experience.
- Adaptability to complexity: Designed to accommodate the intricate needs of businesses navigating complex application and IT environments across various industries.
- User-friendly design: Equipped with natural language rules, visual administration, and reusable rule components, making it intuitive for product administrators.
- Scalability tested: Successfully demonstrated carrier-grade (a high-level of quality, reliability, and availability) performance at scale.
What’s a common scenario when organizations would use Industries CPQ?
The company operates in the Telco, Media or Energy Industry. Their customers are both B2B and B2C and the market is heavily regulated. They have Operations Support Systems (OSS) and/or Business Support Systems (BSS) to support business activities, and any pricing/quoting solutions must integrate with these.
Conclusion
In summary, Salesforce CPQ and Industries CPQ are both powerful tools that can help businesses automate the sales process and create accurate quotes in real-time. While Salesforce CPQ is a robust tool for automating the Sales process within any company with quoting needs, Salesforce Industries CPQ is tailored to particular verticals and comes with industry-specific functionality.
Want to know more about CPQ? Or chat about how we might be able to help you? Get in touch!
