How CPQ Improves Customer Experience (CX)
Configure, price, quote (CPQ) software has emerged a winner in the sales automation space in both B2B and B2C sectors, easing the quoting process for both sales reps and customers. CPQ software transforms the sales process by streamlining and automating the laborious and often time-consuming quoting operations.
It is no secret that CPQ software can accelerate the sales force, but what about the experience from the other side? In this article, we explore the impact CPQ has on the customer experience, and how it can drive increased satisfaction and measurable ROI for your business.
What is CPQ Software?
CPQ software is an automation tool designed to accelerate the quote-to-cash process by enabling sales teams to dynamically build and deliver quotes for all selling scenarios. With the rise of AI and ML, CPQ software is going beyond sales automation to provide sales teams with prescriptive insights such as tailored product configurations, personalized product recommended, and dynamic pricing suggestions along the quoting journey. While these features empower sales people to close deals fast while maximizing the potential revenue and profitability, they greatly enhance the customer experience by enabling sales people to deliver fast and personalized services to buyers.
Significance of CPQ
According to a 2017 report from Constellation, CPQ solutions led to an average time savings of 300% compared to the manual quote building process. This efficiency has completely impacted the modern approach to pricing and selling, resulting in faster deal closure and a win-win for all parties. The speed of sales responsiveness has become especially crucial given the rise and domination of ecommerce industry. This industry provides buyers with product and pricing information instantly, enabling them to make purchase decisions quickly. Because of this, buyers expect the same kind of experience when working with potential vendors so it’s more critical than ever for businesses to arm their teams with the necessary tools to meet the buyer expectations of fast and easy. This is where CPQ software steps in to automate the quote creation process.
AI-powered CPQ software takes the buying experience to the next level. These types of CPQ solutions personalize the buying process, not only giving the customers faster service, but providing them with comfort that the salesperson understands their business needs. Let’s look at some of the benefits customers can get when your sales teams is empowered with CPQ software.
Faster Responses on Sales Inquiries – It’s easy to lose prospects in the fast-paced digitalized economy if your sales reps take too long to respond with a quote. CPQ drastically reduces the time-to-quote from several days to just a few seconds.
The traditional way of calculating and delivering a quote is hindered by several time-consuming operations. Products and services have several configurations, which make the manual quote building process quite complex. This can create a long and clunky experience for the customer.
Furthermore, building a complex configuration involves checking for compatibility and current data, determining the price that is in accordance with the overall established guidelines and validations, including profit margins set by the company. Every additional minute spent stuck in internal workflows or approvals increases the turnaround time for delivery to your customers. With a CPQ tool, sales representatives can get pricing which has been dynamically calculated based on real-time market data, and easily collaborate with multiple stakeholders to ensure potential conflicts are quickly addressed. The result? Customers can get faster responses to their quote requests.
Accurate Quotes – At PROS we know that getting quotes back to customers in a timely manner can make or break you. We know the risk of losing big opportunities when the process takes longer than anticipated. Even worse, when error-ridden configurations are created they create frustration and distrust with the customer, driving them to shop around elsewhere. CPQ software ensures a flawless degree of configuration accuracy. In addition to helping your sales team avoid costly errors, your prospects will save valuable time by obtaining the right quote the first time.
CPQ software include configuration engines which allow the most novice user to create the most complex product or service configuration accurately. These engines include the rules and constraints of what parts are compatible or incompatible and can help guide the user so that incompatible parts selections never occur. This minimizes the risk of presenting an inappropriate or ill-fitting configuration to prospects, meaning accurate configurations and pricing models can be delivered in the first go. Less back-and-forth means a quicker quote-to-sale process, and a hassle-free experience for your customers.
Personalized Offers – With CPQ powered by AI, customers can get a level of personalization that is hard to come by with traditional quoting methods. CPQ provides specific product and pricing recommendations that are provided based on customer preferences and willingness-to-pay. Your customers can rest assured knowing that the sales team can be engaged at any time for additional support, ensuring a relaxed process for buyers at their desired pace.
CPQ software powered by AI guides sales teams to select the right product configuration and pricing that is most relevant to the customer. AI-powered CPQ software engine enables dynamic quoting practices. It leverages data to identify buying patterns and analyzes price trends to provide real-time offer recommendations that closely match what each customer is looking for.
Consultative Sales Process – The efficiency and time savings CPQ software provides for sales reps can help facilitate a more personalized and consultative experience for their prospects during the sales process. The increased integration of automation means your reps have more time to fully understand the pain points and requirements of your customers. The end result is more effective communication, better responsiveness, and a more engaged customer base. By selecting the right CPQ solution, sales teams and prospects can spend less time negotiating, and more time building mutually beneficial relationships.
The Right CPQ Software
CPQ software is an end-to-end sales platform capable of providing enormous benefit to your customers, and happy customers means more opportunity to grow your revenue. Learn more about how a CPQ solution can help optimize sales execution, or connect with us to learn more about PROS Smart CPQ.