One of the biggest factors in sales success is making sure your team has the right tools in place. What kind of tools? Configure, Price, Quote – also known as CPQ . CPQ tools can make your sales reps 49% more productive . They can also help companies experience a sales cycle up to 28% shorter than usual . And, as if that wasn’t enough, companies using CPQ tools saw, on average, a staggering 26% increase in deal size . But how do you implement a CPQ software tool into your business? Read on to learn more about CPQ implementation, including how to prepare for it in advance and choose the right CPQ tool to implement for your business.
Before you get started with a CPQ tool in your organization, you’ll need to go through a process known as CPQ implementation. Ready to find out more?
CPQ implementation is the process of incorporating a new CPQ tool into your organization and setting it up to make sure it complements your existing business workflows .
Depending on the size and scale of your organization and the complexity of current business workflows, CPQ implementation could range from a very simple process done by yourself in a matter of minutes to a more in-depth project-based approach that requires specialist implementation consultants.
Here are some key areas you should prepare in advance for your CPQ implementation to succeed.
To make the whole process as easy as possible, consider doing the following ‘groundwork’ before choosing a CPQ vendor.
Once you have laid the foundations like this and prepared in advance for the implementation, you’ll be in a great position to choose a software partner.
But how do you choose which CPQ software to implement?
With all purchase or procurement decisions, you should take some time to consider your requirements carefully to ensure the best possible outcome – and choosing B2B SaaS like a CPQ tool is no different.
Typically, these requirements can be broadly divided into three categories – current requirements (the needs of your company), functional requirements (what the software will do), and soft requirements (things that indicate the experience you’ll have with the product).
Focusing on current requirements helps you get a sense of where your organization is, where it may be going, and what scale of CPQ software makes the most sense for you. These include:
Focusing on these factors first lets you decide whether an ‘out of the box’ quote-generation tool will meet your needs or if you need something more complex or custom.
It’ll come as no surprise that typically, the more custom your needs are, the higher the pricing will likely be.
When it comes to CPQ software, some of the key functional requirements you’ll want to consider will include the following:
It’s important that you don’t forget the ‘soft’ requirements either, though. You should also take time to consider some of the following when it comes to choosing the right CPQ software for your business:
Once you have your requirements, it’s time to assess the market and see what CPQ tools fit the bill for your business. To help you get started and save time, we’ve outlined 5 of the best CPQ software solutions on the market for you to explore.
Salesforce is one the oldest players in the sales-enablement technology market. According to their website, Salesforce CPQ helps businesses “sell faster and boost sales productivity with configure, price, and quote capabilities that flow straight from CRM.
Quote quickly and accurately with guided selling flows, product bundles, and discounting rules for sellers. Mitigate business risk with controls, approval workflows, and compliance built into the quoting process”.
The prices of Salesforce CPQ start from $75 per user per month when added to an existing Sales Cloud instance (priced separately). If you have a more complex product configuration and pricing rules that Salesforce CPQ cannot satisfy, they also have a more advanced version – Salesforce CPQ+ – to elevate your quoting process. The price of Salesforce CPQ+ is 150 dollars per user per month.
GetAccept offers CPQ as part of a full suite of digital sales room tools in one easy-to-use platform. Everything in GetAccept is designed to help you shorten the sales cycle and increase the amount of business you close as a result.
After admins set up product configurations and pricing rules within GetAccept, reps can easily generate branded quotes with dynamic pricing tables, personalize them, and share them with buyers.
What’s worth mentioning is that GetAccept integrates seamlessly with CRMs, including Salesforce, HubSpot, MS Dynamics, Pipedrive, SuperOffice, UpSales, and more. Taking Salesforce as an example, after configuring the product categories and pricing rules within Salesforce CPQ, GetAccept QuoteGen for Salesforce automatically creates dynamic quotes with this preset information.
Apart from the CPQ functionalities, a GetAccept subscription includes secure e-sign capability, mutual action plans, and more – saving you the time to invest and learn another tech tool to do the same stuff.
GetAccept is safe, secure, and compliant with global and local regulations such as GDPR, eIDAS, and the UK’s Electronic Communications Act 2000.
GetAccept CPQ is available in the Enterprise plan for the GetAccept Contract Room. It also offers a ‘lite’ version with up to 3 products in the product library for all price plans (starting at $15/user/month). Book a demo with our sales to learn more.
