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Configure Price Quote (CPQ): The definitive guidePricing capabilitiesPricing capabilities provides pricing details based on the product definitions and commercialbusiness model rules. It can be tailored to different customer sets, time zones, currenciesand other validation criteria. The pricing model also often caters for approval processes andauditing, as well as defining profit and loss management.Product bundling and offersManage the discounts and incentives that can be applied to customer deals. This can beconfigured so sales teams can present multiple options to customers. Approval processeswill ensure continued profit and loss analysis.Guided sellingGuide sales users to the most relevant products and services for every customer through aseries of user prompts. This provides visual selling aids that help improve conversion ratesand offer up and cross-sell options.Eligibility rulesDefines the criteria to limit customer eligibility for products. This can be based on a numberof criteria such as discount and promotion eligibility and results in fewer errorsdownstream.Quoting capabilitiesProvides the ability to generate quotation documents. Quote documents can contain anyrelevant sections and can be created dynamically based on the information configuredduring the quoting process.Workflow and approvalsThis feature lets you set-up approval matrices for the different approvers at applicablestages of the overall sales process.Integration pointsIntegration is key to unlock CPQ’s wider benefits. Integration between CPQ systems andother Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)systems is typically performed through an API.So we’ve covered the common features you’ll find in a CPQ solution. But to find anapplication that won’t rapidly become outdated, you also need to think about the future.10

Configure Price Quote (CPQ): The definitive guideCHAPTER 5Finding a future-proof CPQ solutionNo one’s going to press pause on technology’s progress, or stop your customers adoptingnew behaviors in the future. So to remain useful, CPQ will have to continue to adapt.You can’t afford to waste time or money investing in a CPQ solution that won’t cater foryour continually changing marketplace.So let’s take a look at the essential themes or functionality a future-ready CPQ providershould have a handle on – or at least have on their roadmap.Integration to a wider architectureCPQ is a proven way to boost your sales, and a powerful tool in its own right. But thepressing need to go beyond the initial sale and give customers an exceptional ongoingexperience – for the entirety of your relationship – is beyond CPQ alone.CPQ comes into its own as part of a wider integrated modular architecture. You get the fullbenefits of the solution when it’s working in concert with functionality like Product Catalog,Order Management, Contract Lifecycle Management and Digital Commerce.This increases the importance of finding a vendor that can give you this modular platform,while also providing reliable and robust integrations across its architecture. This of courseincludes the ability to integrate with your current or preferred CRM and ERP.Checking a CPQ solution’s current integrations and APIs should make whittling down yourshortlist a simpler task.Subscription sales readyThe form of the sale itself is shifting. More industries are moving towards an ongoingservices model – or selling outcomes, not products. If it’s not already, your product modelcould be going in this direction.Some of today’s CPQ solutions aren’t set up to handle the intricacies of an evolving sale or asubscriptions model. If a CPQ vendor can’t offer simple subscription must-haves – like11

Configure Price Quote (CPQ): The definitive guiderenewals, pauses, upgrades, cancellations and entitlements – they probably aren’t equippedto meet your business’ needs, today or in the future.Self-serviceYour customers and partners expect the option to self-serve.An Amazon-like B2B self-service function not only vastly improves your customerexperience, it relieves pressure from other areas of your customer support teams.Self-service is often reliant on exposing your CPQ functionality to external users. So if yourCPQ isn’t up to scratch, self-service becomes a less simple proposition. You also need toconsider a solution’s integrations with Digital Commerce, ability to sell across channels andperformance for high-volume or high-complexity business sales.Rapid bundlingYour technical products aren’t what differentiates your business. An innovative product maygive you the edge for a short period, but a competitor will soon develop something similar.And developing new products takes time.So how can you offer something original to your customers? And how can you offer thisvalue quickly?Being able to create, launch and bundle your products is a brilliant starting point. But notevery CPQ has the functionality to give you this shortcut to commercial freedom.The ability to bundle new offerings in minutes, not months, gives your product andmarketing teams a competitive edge. It gives your business the chance to bring newconcepts and offerings to market. To innovate commercially and still deliver on your promiseto your customers.Smart technologyThe leading vendors are using smart tech to power the next generation of CPQ solutions.So what kind of technology should you expect a CPQ solution to be using?The addition of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, predictive analytics and nextbest action adds a perceptive layer to either automate actions, or guide your people. Movingforwards, the importance of these features will only increase. Both to help you optimizerevenues through the likes of cross and up-sells and to provide the one-to-one personalizedexperiences customers increasingly expect.12

Configure Price Quote (CPQ): The definitive guideIf a CPQ provider isn’t already using some of this technology – or at least featuring itprominently on their roadmap – it’s worth questioning if they have the vision to take yoursales forward.Slick user experience (including mobile)A friction-free customer experience is key, but the user experience of your CPQ is also vital.Low adoption rates, bad feedback and poor performance can kill the rollout of any newtechnology. If your people can’t use your CPQ solution, or struggle to pick it up, your projectcould fail before it leaves the ground.On the other hand, if users can switch imperceptibly between your CRM and CPQ you’ll geta lot more out of the solution. Not only will user adoption be high and performance at itspeak, but training your people will be easier across your platforms.This slick UX needs to also work seamlessly on mobile. With a poor mobile UX, you’releaving your field sales ill-equipped and your business lagging behind the curve.OmnichannelWe’ve mentioned self-service, mobile and eCommerce. Your CPQ needs to cater to themodern buyer journey which naturally jumps across channels and is rarely continuous.This means a future-proof CPQ has to be available through any channel, including selfserve and offline mobile. And, with customers liable to abandon orders and come back onwhatever channel’s convenient, a CPQ also needs to be equipped to pick up the samejourney, regardless of channel or device.People & partnershipYou can have the best tech in the world, but if your vendor doesn’t help your business getthe most from it, it’s wasted. Finding a truly future-proof CPQ application will rely just asmuch on the partnership you build with your vendor as the solution itself.So do your due diligence – find a vendor that has proven tech, but also a team you’reconfident you can form an honest and productive partnership with.13

Configure Price Quote (CPQ): The definitive guideCHAPTER 6How CPQ boosts sales productivity & profitsShorten your sales cycleCPQ simplifies the sales process. Ratherthan jumping between systems,salespeople can access all the relevantinformation they need in a singleapplication. This makes it quick and easyto quickly construct the right quote andproposal for every customer, on anychannel – cutting your sales cycle.What’s the real impact? Telstra reduced the number ofsystems needed for a solutionsale from 23 to 1.Virgin Media reduced inboundto-order time by 70%.Sell with pin-point accuracyCPQ can eliminate quote errors frommanual and spreadsheet-based productconfiguration with a rules engine thatdelivers the right quote, at the right time,even for the most complex productportfolios.Errors are minimized more by drasticallyreducing manual intervention from otherteams with real-time guided selling acrosscomplex products. Meanwhile, you canensure compliance (and thereby orderaccuracy) by only selling valid productsand bundles that can be delivered basedon customer eligibility and availability.What’s the real impact? StarHub saw a 70% reductionin manual order rejections andclarification requests.British Gas reduced order errorsby 25%.Skyrocket sales productivityThe automated processes in CPQ not onlyeliminate errors, but increase your salesproductivity.By removing unnecessary admin andstreamlining the sales process, CPQ letsyour sales reps spend more time doingwhat they’re good at – selling. You canalso free up your salespeople to add valueon complex deals by exposing your CPQto give customers self-service for moresimple orders.What’s the real impact? UPC Switzerland saw salesproductivity go up by 148%.14

Configure Price Quote (CPQ): The definitive guide A1 Telekom Austria configurescomplex customer offers up to3x faster.Boost revenueCPQ helps you drive more revenue in anumber of ways. First, by quicklyconstructing the right quote and proposalfor each customer to increase conversion.Secondly, by reducing customeracquisition cost through efficiencies,including unassisted channels and lesserrors.On top of this, CPQ unlocks bigger dealsizes and higher customer lifetime valuewith personalized bundles, up-sells andcross-sells.What’s the real impact? VodafoneZiggo increasedcommunities sales revenue by24%.DPG Online Services cut costsby more than 25%.Increase your conversionsShorter sales cycles, faster fulfillment andaccurate orders mean CPQ willimmediately increase your conversions.Supplement this with guided selling thatharnesses analytics and AI to personalizeand give relevant products and servicesfor every customer – and you’ll seeconversions jump.What’s the real impact? UPC Switzerland saw salesconversion increase by 10%and new sales per week double.TV4 increased ad sales revenueby 31%.Provide a better customerexperienceAs we know by now, CPQ helps youdeliver a faster, more accurate buyingexperience. But it can do so much more.By giving you better visibility of yourcustomers, CPQ empowers you to providea vastly improved experience. Combinedwith AI, automation and CRM customerinsight – including purchase history, usagedata, and entitlements – CPQ is thestarting point for providing the kind ofreal-time personalized buying experiencecustomers expect.What’s the real impact? Informa BI gave its customerssingle sign on, self-service andcut provisioning of digitalservices from 48 hours toinstantaneous. 6All statistics from CloudSense customerresults. See the stories atcloudsense.com/customers.615

Configure Price Quote (CPQ): The definitive guideCHAPTER 7How CPQ benefits your business beyond salesWe know CPQ is a game changer for sales.It empowers your sales team to sell faster and smarter with accurate quotes, guided sellingand tailored cross and upsells.But the benefits of your CPQ solution should reach far beyond the realm of sales. Here’s aquick look at the other areas CPQ can benefit your business.Product ManagementGo-to-market fasterCPQ empowers your Product and Pricing Managers to develop and implement go-tomarket plans faster. The ability to launch new product offerings and bundles rapidly andchange pricing in real-time gives Product Management a refreshing commercial freedom.But you don’t have to relinquish the reins completely. Advanced CPQ solutions will let youkeep the rest of the business in check with rules around your product configuration andcombinations. Better still, this can all be completed with clicks, not code – leaving your ITteam with more time for their own projects.MarketingRespond quickly & run new promotionsWith CPQ, your Marketing team can quickly and easily develop and run new promotions.The agility and ability to respond to what’s happening in your marketplace – whether it’srivals’ offers or time constrained events – is priceless for Marketing productivity.Customer SupportGet full visibility of customersThe real-time visibility of quotes, orders and services – alongside a full customer history – isa game changer for your Customer Service.16

Configure Price Quote (CPQ): The definitive guideCombine this with rules, workflows, next best action and artificial intelligence and yourcustomer support teams are more than equipped to provide a convenient, personalizedcustomer experience.Executive TeamPlan go-to-market and growthMuch like your Marketing and Product teams, the commercial freedom offered by CPQ givesmembers of the Exec team the ability to instantly react to the market. With your sales andproduct information stored coherently in one place it’s also easier to review the way you’regoing to market and the most efficient ways to grow.Fulfillment & FinanceIncreased visibility and controlFor Finance, CPQ provides control through auditable approvals for pricing discounts.What’s more, your CPQ and its complementary modules should provide the bridge fromyour CRM to your ERP.The resulting seamless transition of data and processes downstream to other parts of thebusiness – and the visibility it provides – help Fulfillment and Finance teams to accuratelyforecast and report on revenues and margin.PartnersExtend your sales organizationYou can expose your Product Catalog and CPQ capabilities through branded self-serviceportals to directly connect your partners to your sales and delivery processes. This makesyour partners an effective extension of your own sales organization, empowering them tosell more and removing any risks they go off-piste from your sales process.17

Configure Price Quote (CPQ): The definitive guideCHAPTER 8Getting your implementation rightUltimately, the best CPQ tools have similar technology capabilities.So, once you’ve whittled down your shortlist, your success with a CPQ application won’tjust come down to functionality. It will rely on you being able to make the most of a solution.In the long-term, this is an ongoing effort – one that takes a village, made up of yourvendors, people and partners. But it begins with implementing your chosen applicationquickly and cost effectively.There are lots of elements to any successful CPQ implementation, but we’d put these threepoints right at the top.Define your objectivesAs we’ve seen, CPQ can benefit your business in numerous ways. So at the outset of a CPQproject it’s easy to fall into the trap of taking a scattergun approach to your goals.This is particularly true if your current functionality is limited to legacy systems or excel.While ‘faster quote time, more sales, better order accuracy, easier onboarding etc.’ are validoverarching objectives, to get the most out of CPQ, your goals should be specific andmeasurable.So set benchmarks against your current capabilities, or research industry norms. Forexample: Quote time will be 33% fasterReduce manual steps from configuring a quote to winning a sale from 15 to 3IT man hours spent on product launches will reduce by 80%Increase online sales by 20%,Reduce order errors by 25%New commercial offer launch time will go from 3 months to 3 days.Tangible benchmarks and KPIs firstly help you choose the right solution – one that canprove it has the capability to satisfy your goals. Beyond that, your benchmarks will help youcontinually iterate and understand areas that still need work.18

Configure Price Quote (CPQ): The definitive guideAs well as helping measure the success of your project, putting down metrics makes yourpriorities clear from the outset. What’s more, it ensures they won’t get lost along the way.In summary, define and set measurable objectives at the beginning of your project. Sharethem across your teams and with your partners, and continue to measure your progressagainst them as you go.Get your users on boardWe just touched on sharing objectives with your teams at the beginning of a project.Because rather than being handed a shiny new tool at the end of a project, users should bepart of the process from an early stage.In fact they should be beforehand, to ensure you’re actually addressing their challenges, notjust their perceived challenges.Day-to-day users will pick up practical points technology focused teams miss. And givingusers input and ownership will not only make the tool easier to use and more effective, butmassively increase adoption rates.19

Configure Price Quote (CPQ): The definitive guideFind vendors with services expertiseGartner found that a vendor’s services expertise correlated to the highest level of customersatisfaction.Figure 17CPQ’s position at the heart of your business means implementation isn’t always simple.There are a number of moving parts. As a result, you need experienced heads, comfortablewith complexity, to get your implementation right.Ideally, your vendor should integrate the app itself, or have a proven relationship with thepartner doing the integration.So what’s the easiest way to find out if a vendor has a proven track record in services?Good old fashioned research. Read and watch case studies, check out analyst and peerreviews. Best of all, get feedback from someone who has been there.A vendor that’s a good fit for your business will have customers with similar use cases, justask them to put you in touch.Gartner: How to Select a Configure, Price and Quote Vendorhttps://www.gartner.com/document/3971098?ref solrAll&refval 260751475720

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ConfigurePriceQuote(CPQ):Thedefinitiveguide 2 Contents INTRODUCTION p. CHAPTER 2 Common reasons for implementing CPQ p. CHAPTER 3 The evolution of CPQ p. CHAPTER 4 Core CPQ capabilities p. CHAPTER 5 Finding a future-prof CPQ solution p. CHAPTER 6 How CPQ boosts sales productivity & profits p. CHAPTER 7 How CPQ benefits your business beyond sales p.