Questions about Cloud Configure Price Quote (CPQ) solutions have popped up in most of my inquiries from B2B sales leaders this past year. My new report, the CRO’s Guide to Sales Acceleration with CPQ, was a labor of love inspired by these many conversations I had with sales executives, field sellers, and members of the Sales Enablement Society, on their sales effectiveness challenges. With B2B sales cycles lengthening and complexity growing, CPQ solutions deliver compelling ROI whether it be increasing the average deal size or accelerating the sales cycle. With so many aspects of sales controlled by the buyer, CPQ empowers sellers be more effective in an area they can control - delivering an accurate quote to the customer quickly.
The report aims to help sales leaders achieve the following:
- Understand the value CPQ solutions can deliver
- Data to help you build a business case
- Questions to ask when selecting a vendor
- Success stories for inspiration
- Implementation tips and best practices
I found 10 primary benefits of CPQ solutions, each with direct correlation to accelerating sales cycles, increasing margins, and streamlining processes so sellers can focus on selling. One of the key findings from my research was how long and arduous a manual quote process could be - 10 business days from submitting a request to delivering a quote to the customer. From the many discussions I had with users, CPQ solutions delivered a 300% average time savings compared to manual quotes. More concerning was how many errors these manual quotes often contained, such as outdated pricing or missed upsell opportunities by not including compatible solutions or service tier upgrades. Please see my infographic below for all 10 Benefits of CPQ.
Lastly, I’ll share one comment I heard consistently from all the CPQ end-users -- “I wish we had started sooner”.
Constellation clients can access the full report, or visitors can download an excerpt, at http://bit.ly/2tMxZA5. Are you a current CPQ user or considering deploying the solution? Leave me a comment below and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
