Configure, price, quote (CPQ) technologies are some of the most useful for telecom sales professionals. CPQ connects sellers and buyers through quickly generated complex sales quotes that create the best sale for both parties by providing accurate prices and reliable connectivities.
And yet, there are differences between CPQ technologies. One particularly important difference is in the functionality of standard CPQ and intelligent CPQ:
- Standard CPQ, the most commonly used technology, requires the user to pick items from a catalog, harnessing minimal logic in the quote creation.
- Intelligent CPQ is built with intelligent forms and presents the user with a quote based on the service requested and the responses to the questions in the quoting form.
Ultimately, users of standard CPQ are falling behind. Not only does the program require the user to perform manual research—opening up the process to human error—but the time spent on creating the quote eats up time that could be spent on higher-level sales tasks.
The solution? Intelligent CPQ.
Read on to learn how you can harness the power and functionality of intelligent CPQ to drive sales and regain control over revenue.
How Intelligent CPQ Drives Sales
An intelligent CPQ tool is the jumping-off point for companies that meet their limits with customer relationship management (CRM) software. Although CRMs are a necessary tool used in the processes of collecting data, tracking activity and performance, and managing customer relationships, an intelligent CPQ tool picks up where a CRM meets its limits.
As a bridge between the two systems, a CPQ centralizes and automates:
- Customer data
- Prices and discounts for services
- Contract renewals
- Business rules
This makes a full quoting solution available within minutes to both sellers and buyers.
According to research reported by SuperOffice, intelligent CPQ functionality provides companies with the opportunity to:
- Increase average deal sizes.
- Spend less time producing a quote.
- Improve quote productivity.
- Shorten the sales cycle timeline.
The two primary ways that CPQ functionality drives sales are by:
1. Freeing Up Time for Sellers Who No Longer Need to Perform Manual Tasks
One of the unspoken tasks of the seller is finding areas to trim time spent so that they can devote more of it to selling. According to a study by Pace Productivity, sales professionals:
- Spend 22 percent of their time on general administrative tasks
- Spend 11 percent of their time on client-related administrative tasks
Compared to other industries, telecommunications is highly complex, which means you can safely assume these percentages are higher.
With an intelligent CPQ solution, sellers can trim down time spent on administrative tasks and even manual research by acquiring automated quotes.
2. Creating More Visibility for Sellers
An intelligent CPQ solution connects sellers and buyers together in a telecom ecosystem. With automated quoting transactions, both players can experience increased visibility and opportunities for their services and products.
How Intelligent CPQ Helps Regain Control to Drive Revenue
Performance is rarely the primary issue when a salesperson is unable to meet their quota. Instead, their main concern should be disconnected sales channels and errors when quoting and pricing. This lack of control over the sales process often results in a loss of revenue.
Using an intelligent CPQ solution, you can regain control of the sales process by:
- Simplifying complex processes that allow you to reduce friction and errors and scale and grow faster
- Aligning all channel users to utilize the same procedures and eliminate the guesswork in selling
- Replicating the success of top-performing sellers by tracking their selling behaviors and creating standards that help other sellers meet those expectations
In time, this leads to driving revenue by:
- Eliminating errors in quotes through automated quote creation
- Tracking and jumping at upsell and cross-sell opportunities
- Controlling arbitrary discounting by eliminating pricing errors and implementing pricing controls
Harness the Power of Intelligent CPQ with MasterStream ERP
Your standard CPQ is no longer going to cut it. Let go of manual research, save time and dedicate it to higher-level selling, and eliminate errors in the CPQ process by harnessing the power of MasterStream ERP’s intelligent CPQ solution.
Want to see our intelligent CPQ solution in action? Find out how MasterStream improved sales velocity and CPQ speed for a leading unified communications-as-a-service provider.
