6. Personnel bottleneck
A huge sign that a company needs a CPQ solution is one that relies on one internal expert to handle all of the quotes for your company.
Think about it this way: if one (or even two) people are really the experts for your quotes, what happens when those individuals are out of work for whatever reason? Your business will suffer as their inboxes fill up and the production team lies idle.
Even worse, if one of those experts quits the company, how long will it take you to train someone new and get your quoting process back up and running? A CPQ solution allows just about anyone to generate a quote with a little training.
7. Reduce sales downtime
Generally speaking, sales training depends on the complexity of the products being sold and the system being used. Because CPQ solutions streamline the process, it ensures the training time is reduced. Before using CPQ, full training may take years or months. After adopting a CPQ solution, training can be reduced to weeks (or even just a few days) depending on how complex your business is.
8. Better sales forecasting
9. Improved engineering efficiency
By automating the configuration and quoting process, you’re freeing up a lot of engineering time. You hire your engineers to design new products and to find ways to make your existing products better.
But their time is eaten up when they have to stop work to check over the specifications for a new order for a particular customer. CPQ software solutions automate that configuration process and let your engineers work to create new products.
10. Invest in customer experience
The final sign that you need a CPQ is that you’re ready to step up your customer experience game. Offering configuration, especially with the option to configure products directly online, gives your customers the control over the product that they want.
No longer will they have to settle for a one-size-fits-all product, but they can, instead, get the product that meets their individual needs. This also will give your business a consistent brand that makes you popular in your market. There will no longer be scattered quoting and configuration. Everything can be run directly through the CPQ to generate the professional, sharp look that is essential.
