Businesses evolve over time; so, do the industry standards and best practices. Speaking of Industry standards, accuracy, efficiency, and productivity are the core aspects of a successful business practice. whether it is applying a discount on a product or generating a professional sales quote. As simple as they seem, these little processes define a business’ commitment to growth.
Identify & Eliminate Common Problems associated with Traditional Quoting
Ever wondered how businesses executed the tedious process of quoting manually using simple tools such as spreadsheets and word templates in the 90s? Well, they had not too many options to choose from.
Traditional quoting methods pertain to old-school techniques such as using Microsoft Excel for Invoicing for fast-moving business processes such as Sales.
Traditional quoting methods are time-consuming, error-prone, and highly inaccurate owing to higher human interference. In this article, we discuss some of the most common problems associated with traditional quoting that are overcome by the modern CPQ software.
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- Inaccurate Quotes
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- Lost Time & Productivity
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- Potential Discounting Errors
Configure Price Quote
C is for Configure
The term ‘Configure’ has a multifaceted approach. Configuration is applicable in more than one aspect for any business. We are configuring our business models to suit target markets or configuring our product specifications to cater to changing customer needs. In a sales perspective, Configuration is the first and foremost step to deliver what the customer wants – addressing a basic “need”. This is exactly what a CPQ Software delivers – a fully customized, accurately configured set of products addressing “individual” customer needs, rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.
P is for Price
We are living in a world of constant change, where the demand-supply chain is narrowed down to a single core aspect – Price. In a competitive business market, you cannot go with a standard, flat-rate price all the time. Volume pricing, bundle packages, referral benefits, discount coupons, voucher codes, wallet credits are some of the ways to sweeten the deal no matter whether you are selling pizza or a large ERP software. To keep an eye on the never- ending list of pricing variants is a tedious procedure, which is when a CPQ software comes into the picture. It keeps a track of the prices, discounts, pre- negotiated prices, bulk discounts, and more to deliver an accurate price quote in a matter of seconds.
Q is for Quote
The quote is the memorandum of your pricing discussions, which cannot afford any inaccuracies or inconsistencies. Potential errors on an inaccurate quote are typos, incorrect calculations, mismatched fonts, formatting issues and more. All these little things could impact the professionalism of the firm, thereby causing a damage to its reputation as well.
CPQ software overcomes all these challenges and makes the process smoother, hassle-free, and error-free, given the least amount of human intervention. The sales rep simply downloads the auto-generated quote (that can include an e-signature field), and emails it to the prospect/customer – eliminating any chaos in the process of closing a deal. Read our full blog here to understand better.
CPQ Software Means Simpler Quoting and Faster Selling
Speaking of product configuration, price calculation, and quote generation on a sales transaction, modern CPQ tools have become vital for today’s businesses. Salesforce CPQ software is one such tool that helps address most common errors and inaccuracies in sales quotes generation and delivery.
CPQ is for “A Perfect Sales Transaction
As a sales representative, your life becomes much easier when the right CPQ (Configure, Price, and Quote) software is in place. You get to choose the right product configuration as per the client’s business type, budgetary constraints, and operational requirements. Products are automatically priced, and an accurate quote is generated in a matter of seconds. This is what a perfect sales transaction sounds like!
At Prudent, we have a pool of trained, certified, and talented experts in making your sales transactions a cakewalk. Want to understand how we did it for a Manufacturing industry, read our full blog here. Curious to connect with us, reach us at Business@prudentconsulting.com