Ring the bell — often and loudly — with quotation tools for sales pros

Not sure if every sales organization has a literal bell, but more than a few of the ones we have seen and worked in have. And when the bell was rung it meant (booya!) someone had closed a sale. Sometimes, it’d ring a couple of times a week, others a couple of times a day. But with quotation tools in widespread use across a sales department, that bell gets rung far more often and more loudly. And here’s why. 

It’s all about being properly armed. Sales pros need to equip themselves with “weaponry” that enhances efficiency and effectiveness. Sales quotation tools like configure, price, quote (CPQ) software have emerged as game-changers in the arena, enabling reps to streamline complex sales processes, deliver personalized solutions, and ultimately, close deals faster via an approach that is both rapid-fire and more targeted. It’s about streamlining, personalizing, and collaborating.

Streamlining

A typical challenge for sales pros is navigating complex sales processes involving diverse product configurations, pricing options, and other (typically, client-driven) intricacies.

Quotation tools simplify these complexities by automating product pricing and configuration and other tasks, enabling reps to respond swiftly to customer inquiries, and more quickly deliver more accurate proposals.

According to research by the Aberdeen Group, companies utilizing CPQ software experience a 49% shorter sales cycle, allowing sales professionals to focus more on building customer relationships and closing deals rather than getting bogged down in administrative tasks.

Personalizing

Simply put, you need to make your customers feel special, unique, one-of-a-kind. The market is hyper-competitive, making personalization, which used to be optional, foundational. 

The good news is that sales quoting tools — by automating most every other part of the process — free you up to truly personalize every proposal you send. Most sales proposal templates let you add the prospect’s logo, put in some competitive intel, present market details, and more.

But it’s when it comes to each customer's unique requirements that CPQ really hits its stride. By leveraging data-driven insights and intelligent algorithms, the software recommends the most relevant products, pricing options, and configurations based on customer preferences and past buying behavior.

Research by Salesforce indicates that 72% of business buyers expect vendors to personalize. Quotation tools enable sales professionals to meet this expectation more quickly and more completely than ever, enhancing both customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Collaborating

Effective collaboration between sales, marketing, and ops teams is essential for driving seamless sales processes and maximizing revenue opportunities. CPQ tools facilitate collaboration by providing a centralized platform where teams can collaborate in real-time, share product information, and track sales activities.

Moreover, CPQ software offers advanced sales analytics capabilities, providing sales leaders with valuable insights into customer preferences, pricing trends, and sales performance. 

Don’t take our word for it. Even 10 years ago, McKinsey highlighted that companies leveraging advanced analytics basically crush their peers. By harnessing the power of data and analytics, sales professionals can make informed decisions, identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities, and optimize pricing strategies to maximize profitability.

It looks like the numbers are in. Leading researchers have determined sales quotation tools are indispensable for pros looking to stay ahead of the competition. By streamlining complex sales processes, enabling personalized engagement, and fostering collaboration, CPQ empowers reps in any industry to elevate performance and ring that bell a whole lot more.

Salesforce quote tools: You have a choice!

Looking for an alternative CPQ (configure, price, quote) for Salesforce? A better quote tool? We can help.

Because just like when you buy a car or a home or even a fast food lunch, you are not required to simply buy it as is, take what’s built-in or already included. You can customize your car, your home, your lunch, and your enterprise-level CRM system in most any way you want.

What drives someone to look for a different CPQ for Salesforce? Can be anything from a simple personal preference to a pressing business strategy. But one big reason we have heard from more than a few clients who have “made the switch” is often price.

In other cases, it’s the complexity of the Salesforce quoting tool, which can require extensive training to simply use on a day-to-day basis let alone modify as business needs change. (Anyone who has ever tried to upload new product and pricing configurations can likely share a horror story or two.)

While we’re confident we beat Salesforce on price, it’s here — product and pricing configuration — where we believe iQuoteXpress (IQX, the only CPQ solution designed by salespeople for salespeople) has a technological advantage. And it comes down to one simple thing: artificial intelligence.

But (as they say) wait, there’s more: clients who have switched to IQX from Salesforce’s native CPQ (as well as from HubSpot’s and Dynamics’) have also benefited from our ability to provide truly personalized support, from setting up the system to daily use to integrations, our team does the heavy lifting for our clients.

AI, support, and price: three great reasons to find a different Salesforce quoting tool.

Leveraging AI in configurations

As mentioned, one of the more cumbersome tasks for any regular CPQ user is uploading or modifying product and pricing configurations. For many organizations, this is when the sales department often hands the reins to the IT department.

But recently, IQX has added AI features to its already easy-to-use (drag and drop!) product and pricing configurator, enabling users to nearly automate every step in the process.

Instead of manually uploading from a spreadsheet or inputting by hand, AI helps immediately populate the solution with winning configurations, helping you and your team always put your best forward, and also ensuring you’re not over promising/under delivering to customers (e.g., by inserting a product into a quote that may be out of stock).

Personalized support

Whether it’s customizing your CPQ implementation, uploading your initial configurations (a HUGE step other CPQ vendors ask clients to handle), troubleshooting, or training, users of sales quoting systems often need help, and should get as much as they want.

At IQX, we’re honored to make personalized support part of every deployment and client relationship. Our team (and we’re talking about human beings, not bots) is there to offer guidance on best practices, customization assistance, performance optimization, and more. Got a question? Ask an expert.

Salesforce CPQ pricing: Easy to beat

This is a no-brainer. As of this writing, Salesforce CPQ licenses go for as much as $150 per user per month. OUCH. And that’s without the kind of tools and support we just dug into.

At iQuoteXpress, we’re pleased to offer one of the best values in CPQ (click here to learn about CPQ pricing). But value is more than a number. With our recently optimized user interface, addition of AI, sales quote tracking tools, support team, and eCommerce version (learn more here), we offer customers value in how they work, and not just in what they work with.

Looking for an alternative to Salesforce quote tools? You found it in IQX.

Quoting tools for service businesses: a competitive edge

As anyone in the service business can tell you, success boils down to one key metric: customer satisfaction. Typically, satisfaction is measured at the end of a client engagement, but where does it begin?

In our years supporting service-based businesses we have learned that customer satisfaction often starts before a person is even a customer, during the sales cycle, which is where automated quoting tools (like IQX) make a huge difference, helping you create an engaging customer experience starting with the very first RFP response.

When you leverage central features of quoting software such as a product and pricing configuration engine, a robust collection of professional and industry-specific proposal templates, and tracking tools to help ensure every follow-up action, getting off on the right foot with customers is a much easier undertaking.

Following are some of the basic benefits enjoyed by service companies when they leverage quoting tools like IQX. 

Simplifying complex offerings: Service-based businesses often provide a wide range of services with various configurations and pricing options. A configure, price, quote solution (CPQ: another name for quoting software) helps manage this complexity by enabling businesses to create customizable quotes tailored to each client's specific needs.

Enabling dynamic pricing: Services frequently involve dynamic pricing structures based on factors such as project scope, duration, and resource requirements. Quoting tools make it easier for reps by offering dynamic pricing models that take these variables into account.

Creating an iterative quoting process: Service proposals often undergo multiple revisions and iterations as clients provide feedback or adjust project requirements. Providing reps with drag-and-drop pricing and product configurations, for example, is one way CPQ tools make it easier for reps to iterate on quotes, enabling them to quickly incorporate changes and keep clients informed throughout the process. Not only does this speed the process on your end, but customers benefit from both reduced turnaround times as well as the responsiveness and flexibility of your team.

Integrating delivery processes: In the service industry, sales quotes typically delineate project delivery and resource allocation. Fortunately, CPQ tools integrate seamlessly with other business systems such as project management software, resource planning tools, and CRM systems, ensuring a smooth transition from quote to delivery. This integration enables real-time visibility into project status, resource availability, and financial metrics, empowering businesses to make informed decisions and optimize project outcomes. Additionally, it facilitates easier upsells and upgrades.

Smoothing compliance: Service contracts often involve complex legal and regulatory requirements that, ideally, are incorporated into quotes and proposals. Your sales quoting solution can help ensure compliance through proposal templates with predefined contract clauses “baked in” that help clients more easily meet industry standards and regulatory guidelines.

Scalability: Service businesses often experience fluctuations in demand, which means scaling challenges. But your CPQ partner should be able to provide month-to-month licensing that enables scalability (if yours doesn’t, call us!) to accommodate growing volumes of clients and amount of services per client. Whether it's adding new service offerings, expanding into new markets, or onboarding additional sales teams, your quoting service should provide the flexibility and scalability to support business growth without sacrificing efficiency or accuracy.

More–and more actionable–data: Finally, quoting software can give you new and real-time insights into the efficacy of your sales teams and methodologies. By analyzing quoting trends, win/loss ratios, pricing effectiveness, and customer preferences during the closing process, you can identify opportunities for improvement and refine sales strategies. This data-driven approach enables service providers to continuously optimize their offerings, pricing strategies, and quoting processes to maximize profitability and competitiveness.

For service-based businesses perhaps above all others, it’s about the customer experience (because the experience IS the deliverable). And a rewarding, engaging customer experience begins with that very first RFP response, which is made easier with quoting tools like IQX.

Improving sales of gym equipment starts here

Stronger, faster, leaner, more agile, simply looking better: these benefits are what most people want from using gym equipment.

Not coincidentally, they’re also the benefits those involved in selling fitness equipment — to clubs, resorts, spas, etc. — want in their sales processes. Bigger (stronger) deals, done more quickly, with less effort, and with better results.

Which is where IQX comes in, the CPQ (configure, price, quote) tool of choice for more than a few players in this niche industry. Let’s look at why, and let’s look at some numbers.

Getting swole!

Want bigger deals? Get better tools. A key benefit of CPQ tools is product and pricing configuration, which helps ensure you’re always putting your best bundles in front of your sales prospects, and at optimal prices.

A study done by the Aberdeen Group — a leader in business research and strategy — found that companies using CPQ experienced a 17% increase in deal size. Imagine adding 17% to the bottom line every time… your fitness equipment business will be at peak performance in no time!

Faster = better

Don’t take our word for it! Research from the aforementioned Aberdeen Group showed that organizations using CPQ solutions to improve sales reported a 28% increase in how quickly they can create sales proposals (compared to organizations not using CPQ-type solutions).

That kind of increase means you're getting your fitness equipment quotes into the right hands faster — a sign of a sales process in peak condition.

Pinpoint accuracy

Typically, speed and accuracy are a trade off: you want things done more quickly? Be prepared for them to be done more sloppily.

But not with CPQ. The same Aberdeen research group found that sales departments using an automated sales proposal tool like iQuoteXpress enjoyed a 27% increase in the accuracy of the information in their proposals. Faster? And with fewer mistakes? That’s a win-win.

Ramping up productivity

In fitness equipment sales, the main metric is deals closed, naturally. Close behind? Straight-up productivity. Once again, the numbers are in CPQ’s favor with a report by Salesforce — the industry’s leading CRM platform — showing that individual rep productivity spiked by 14% using a CPQ solution.

(NOTE: If you’re using Salesforce, we have some great news for you. IQX is a better CPQ than Steelbrick, has a single sign-on integration with Salesforce, and costs a whole lot less: only $39 a seat!)

Revenue

Let’s get to the bottom line, shall we? Gartner took a long hard look and found that companies using a CPQ solution to create proposals — leveraging all the tools: sales proposal templates, product and pricing configuration, proposal tracking, etc. — can enjoy a revenue bump of 20% or more. 

Dropping discounting

Sometimes, it feels like the only way to close a deal is to tempt your buyer with a discount. We get it. Here’s the thing: not only does your CPQ solution allow you to centralize and codify discounting practices (stopping reps from “going rogue”), it can also help eliminate it altogether.

It’s not a huge number like the bumps in revenue and productivity, but, according to Accenture, a CPQ solution can lead to a drop of around 4% in discounts given. Money that would have been left on the table now goes where it belongs.

Ready to take fitness equipment selling to a whole new level? We’re here to help with a demonstration of the fitness equipment industry’s CPQ of choice, iQuoteXpress.

Want to make a Zoho proposal? It’s as easy as I-Q-X

For years, iQuoteXpress (IQX) has been a proud, loud partner of Zoho (as this, this, this, and more show). As a single sign-on CPQ for Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, IQX has helped countless Zoho users create compelling sales proposals.

But if we were to choose one keyword, one customer-facing benefit, that has defined the partnership more than anything else it would be “automation.”

Because just as Zoho CRM and Zoho Books help automate critical business functions such as customer relationship management and accounting, IQX helps automate the work that fuels both of those systems — the work that creates customers to manage and revenue to account for — creating, sending, tracking, and closing out sales proposals in Zoho.

The benefits of automating the sales proposal process in Zoho are as limitless as the revenue opportunities, but let’s dig into a few specifics.

Saving time with Zoho and IQX

By integrating IQX’s robust CPQ functionalities (configure, price, quote — another name for sales proposal automation) with Zoho’s, a business can dramatically reduce the need for manual data entry and document generation, and empower a sales team to to focus on more strategic and revenue-generating activities.

With professionally designed sales proposal templates in IQX and automated workflows in Zoho, the entire sales quoting and closing process is expedited, enabling quicker responses to customer inquiries and reducing the sales cycle. A concrete example of the adage, “time is money.”

Creating consistency with Zoho and IQX

Consistency is something a customer can see. More importantly, it’s something they — and your own employees — experience.

Leveraging IQX and Zoho to create a templated, automated sales proposal process ensures both consistency and accuracy in your quotes. Additionally, with predefined templates and standardized content, a business can maintain a cohesive and professional image across all its proposals and connected content. This consistency helps enhance your brand identity, building confidence in prospects and comfort for clients.

Perhaps more important is the consistent experience you create for your sales team. With a templated process and repeatable workflows, every quote built — no matter which rep may be doing the building —  has the same look and feel. Additionally, your team is all working with the same set of tools, which drives both consistency and collaboration (the next benefit!).

Fueling collaboration with Zoho and IQX

While CRM stands for “customer relationship management,” a CRM solution also helps better manage staff relationships by providing a shared platform and tools that, by design, support collaboration across the enterprise.

Adding IQX to Zoho furthers collaboration as 1) the systems integrate (THE definition of collaboration) and 2) they ensure the information in sales proposals is aligned with customer information in both Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, providing a more complete view of the customer.

Also, integrating these systems enhances communication across departments, minimizing disconnects and fostering more cohesive and efficient workflows. As a result of this collaboration between both technologies and departments, the selling process is streamlined, reducing delays and improving the experience for sales reps and customers alike. Which brings us to our next benefit!

Improving the customer experience with Zoho and IQX

There’s no better, more proven path to driving revenue than by creating rewarding customer relationships. With Zoho and IQX working together, you can easily enhance personalization and customization (foundational in ANY relationship) in every sales proposal.

Zoho CRM helps you gather valuable customer data, preferences, and interactions — all of which helps you create a more engaging proposal, one that resonates with the unique needs and preferences of the prospect. This kind of personalization not only strengthens customer relationships but also increases the likelihood of closing deals successfully.

Fueling BI with Zoho and IQX

Finally, automation in your sales proposal process provides improved sales analytics and insights. Zoho CRM and Zoho Books provide robust reporting and analytics features, but adding a CPQ like IQX enables an even deeper dive into the metrics, allowing businesses to track the performance of sales proposals, identify bottlenecks, and optimize processes.

This data-driven approach empowers organizations to make informed decisions, refine their sales strategies, and adapt to changing market conditions. The ability to analyze proposal metrics and customer interactions provides valuable insights that can drive continuous improvement and innovation in the sales process.

A match made in heaven right here

You can get started with sales proposal automation in Zoho in the Zoho Marketplace or by contacting us. Experience the benefits of an automated selling process that delights customers, engages staff, optimizes analytics, and drives more revenue. It’s as easy as I-Q-X.

Quoting software and the SMB: A perfect fit.

What makes for the perfect match? Most would say, shared interests, mutual attraction, similar goals and life plans. True. But in so many cases, it’s often about meeting a need, or many needs, which is why quoting software and SMBs are basically a match made in heaven. Because the needs of the SMB are perfectly met by quoting software (a.k.a., configure, price, quote, or CPQ).

And while the needs of the SMB are basically consistent with the needs of ANY business–from mom and pop shops to Fortune 100 enterprises–it’s in the SMB world where meeting those needs quickly and completely often decides if an SMB thrives, or if it dies.

We see the most pressing needs of the SMB (and how sales quoting software helps meet them) as follows:

1. Time efficiency

2. Consistency/branding

3. Cost savings

4. Collaboration

5. Sales insights

6. Scalability

Time Efficiency

Time is always money, and the modern SMB has to make the most of every minute. Every time a sales rep is focused on administrative tasks is a minute they’re not selling.

But quoting software automates and streamlines the proposal creation process, saving countless hours of time for SMBs with limited resources (iQuoteXpress has been proven to reduce the amount of time it takes to create a proposal by as much as 70%). With professionally designed sales proposal templates that can be quickly customized – and templated workflows as well – an SMB can spend less time on every quote (and have a better quote, too!).

Consistency/branding

Many SMBs are often too bogged down in operations to consider the big picture of brand building, but it’s a strong, consistent brand that can help win deals and make an SMB into a Fortune 100.

Your quoting software can help here by ensuring you give customers the same look/feel with every quote. Take the time to contract a professional designer and build some branded proposal templates. For even just a few hundred dollars, you can create quote designs that set you apart from the crowd and build your brand for years to come.

Cost savings

Let’s not kid ourselves: for SMBs, enterprises, and ANY business, it’s all about keeping costs low. While they do mean an initial set-up fee and ongoing license costs, CPQ systems almost always deliver profound ROI, helping you do the work of ten sales people in one-tenth the time (and, as stated above, time = money).

Improved collaboration

While sales teams can be competitive, a win for any rep is a win for the entire SMB, and your quoting solution will allow your team to easily share winning proposals, product and pricing configurations, pitches, and more. It also helps create a level playing field for reps, giving them the same tools in their tool boxes.

Sales Insights

Find out the where, why, what, and how and every proposal, and better understand client interactions with quoting software. Most SMBs don’t need a full-on business intelligence platform, but the data attached to each winning proposal (and even some losing ones)? Priceless.

Scalability

It’s the rare SMB that doesn’t want to grow to enterprise level, so scalability in solutions is critical. Your CPQ system should scale right alongside, and not quarterly or annually: to best manage budgets and workloads, look for a CPQ provider that offers month to month licensing so you can scale as you see fit (not as they do).

The benefits show that quoting software and SMBs are the perfect fit. For SMBs looking to sell smarter, give us a ring. We can show you exactly how it’s done.

Building a home, building a quote: The meaning of CPQ in the modular housing industry

Want to build a modular home? There are specific steps to follow, with the essentials being design, manufacturing, transportation, assembly, and inspection/quality control.

Want to build a sales proposal using configure, price, quote (CPQ) technology? Just like with a modular house, there are specific (and amazingly similar!) steps to follow:

• design (of the system and of the sales proposal templates and product/pricing configurations that populate it)

• manufacturing (creating of a specific proposal for a specific RFP)

• transportation (sending the completed proposal to the client)

• quality control (tracking all quotes, ensuring your process and people are at max efficiency and efficacy)

The meaning of CPQ should be inherently known to those in the modular housing space as it mirrors what they do for a living: a templated, repeatable process, but tailored for each resident/customer.

Not so coincidentally, the benefits derived from choosing a modular home over a traditionally constructed home also reflect the benefits gained from CPQ.

The basic benefits of modular housing and CPQ are as follows:

Speed

Modular homes can be built much, much, MUCH faster than traditional homes. And quotes can be made 10x faster using CPQ than by using traditional methods like spreadsheets and Word.

Cost savings

Not only do modular homes cost less to put up (due to efficient factory production and eliminating the bulk of on-site construction labor costs), but they usually cost less to maintain, too. And quotes? Simple: time = money, and the time savings enjoyed using CPQ to create, send, and track proposals is money in the bank.

Consistency

Modular homes benefit from factory production and the repeatable processes baked into any production line. Like a printing press zipping off copies, the homes are created the same way each time. With CPQ, sales quotes also enjoy more consistency as they start from the same proposal templates, and go through the same process each time: select a layout, add products and pricing, customize for the client, and let it fly. An additional benefit of this type of consistency is the opportunity to observe and optimize the process over time.

Customization

While seemingly a contrast to consistency, customization is in fact a complement to it, and a key benefit. While the basic structure of a modular home–the frame, wiring, the plumbing–remains consistent, each homeowner is free to customize aspects of the layout, the appliances, the color, and more.

Same with sales proposals: while the template is consistent, key elements are customized for each prospect (product and pricing configurations, most importantly, but also content elements, such as imagery, calls to action, and more). 

Energy efficiency

Today’s modular homes are often built with energy efficiency front and center, being well-insulated and equipped with modern heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems that consume less watts and emit less waste.

What does this mean in terms of CPQ? Well… something entirely different. A CPQ system is simply a cloud-based business application, but it does conserve energy is a specific way: the energy of your team as they build quotes. Most CPQ systems reduce the time and effort (i.e., the energy) it takes to make a quote by 70% and that’s time that can be spent driving new business.

Let’s get building!

At iQuoteXpress, we’re proud to count many modular housing manufacturers, sellers, and distributors as clients. We understand how your business works and can help you get started building quotes faster so you can help others build and get into homes faster. Contact us to get started building quotes today.

CPQ PI: Sales Quote Tracking Detective

It was a sweltering summer day in the city of Opportunity. The sun beat down on the cracked pavement, casting long shadows that seemed to stretch forever. The city was bustling with businessmen and women, each one hustling and bustling in search of their next big deal. But in the world of sales, there was a mystery afoot - the case of the vanishing sales quote.

As I entered my dimly lit office, the ceiling fan creaked overhead, barely making a dent in the oppressive heat. I poured myself a glass of bourbon and lit up a cigarette, the smoke curling lazily towards the ceiling. It was a day like any other, until a dame walked in.

She was a real looker, with fiery red hair and a voice that could melt an iceberg. She introduced herself as Betty, a sales manager at a local manufacturing company. She had a problem that needed solving, and she'd heard I was the best in the business.

She told me plain and simple: "I've got a problem. Sales quotes are vanishing left and right at our company, and it's costing us a pretty penny. I need someone to get to the bottom of it."

I leaned back in my chair, taking a drag from my cigarette. This was no ordinary case; it was a case of sales quote tracking, and I was just the gumshoe to crack it wide open.

"Tell me everything," I said, my voice gravelly and low.

"Well," Betty began, "it all started a few months ago. Our sales team would send out quotes to potential clients, but they seemed to disappear into thin air. We had no way of knowing whether they were received, opened, or even considered. It was like they were vanishing into a black hole."

I nodded, taking another sip of bourbon. This was a classic case of the missing paper trail, a puzzle that required a keen eye for detail and a knack for uncovering secrets.

"Have you tried tracking these quotes?" I asked.

"We've tried everything," Betty replied. "We've sent follow-up emails, made phone calls, and even resorted to carrier pigeons. But we're no closer to finding the facts."

It was clear to me that traditional methods weren't going to cut it. This called for a modern approach, a way to track those elusive sales quotes in the digital age.

"Betty," I said, stubbing out my cigarette, "I'm going to need access to your sales quote system. Heck, your whole back-end platform: every biz app, every sales doc, every bit. I'll take a look under the hood and see if there are any clues hiding in the shadows."

She agreed, and I headed over to her office the next day. I examined what they were using to make, send, and track quotes, and it had more holes than a stack of Swiss cheese. Their system was outdated, lacking the ability to track when a quote was opened or how long it was viewed.

I recommended an upgrade to a modern CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, one backed up by an even more modern CPQ (configure, price, quote) solution, a killer combination that would allow them to not only send quotes but also track their progress. With this new system in place, they could see when a quote was opened, how many times, and for how long. It was the missing piece of the puzzle.

As the weeks went by, the new system proved its worth. Sales quotes were no longer vanishing into the abyss. The sales team could track their quotes in real-time, follow up with potential clients at the right moment, and close deals more efficiently.

Betty was over the moon with the results. She thanked me with a kiss on the cheek and a promise of future business. As she walked out of my office, I couldn't help but smile. Another case solved, another mystery unraveled, another day in the life of Charles Price Quinn, Private Investigator: a.k.a., CPQ PI.

The meaning of CPQ in retail and wholesale

The most commonly asked question in retail: How much?

The retail and wholesale industry relies heavily on not just accurate pricing, but compelling pricing. To gain more insights and better serve customers, retailers are leaning into configure, price, quote (CPQ) software to help them both streamline the shopping experience and land on the best possible pricing.

In retail, the meaning of CPQ is closely tied to process, specifically, the processes of configuring products, presenting prices, and empowering sales reps and customers to automatically generate quotes, which provides a better customer experience (e.g., by empowering customers to configure products) while helping ensure accurate pricing.

In this article we will explore the meaning of CPQ and how it can be used in retail and wholesale settings to improve accuracy, reduce errors, increase customer satisfaction, save time, money, and give customers a better shopping experience. We'll look at the benefits of using CPQ as well as potential challenges associated with implementation and emerging trends in the industry.

Benefits of using CPQ in retail and wholesale

The power of CPQ cannot be overstated when it comes to retail and wholesale operations. By using CPQ, businesses can streamline many sales processes and eliminate manual data entry, reducing lead times and resulting in more accurate product information for customers.

In addition, CPQ solutions can dramatically reduce sales cycles by quickly generating accurate quotes for customers–especially critical in the wholesale space. This ensures businesses close deals faster than ever before while still providing the necessary customization options that customers need to make informed decisions about what they want to purchase.

Streamlining the experience in retail and wholesale

It’s all about the customer experience, and CPQ can help streamline and optimize that experience, providing customers with real-time information, and empowering them with the tools to essentially create their own experience, especially in portals where customers can configure products according to their exact needs (which — win-win! — helps business owners save time and money).

Additionally, CPQ can help those same store operators reduce manual work associated with pricing and discounting, ensuring customers only see accurate information.

But that’s just the start of a killer customer experience as CPQ solutions are also capable of offering product recommendations based on customer preferences, helping.customers find what they need — and what they might not have known they needed — quickly and easily.

Putting the AI in retail with CPQ

It’s true: you can’t spell retail without AI. And currently, you can’t compete in retail without it either. An AI-powered CPQ system can automate manual processes such as cataloging, pricing rules, product recommendations, order processing and lead times, resulting in faster response times for customers. 

More importantly, it can learn as it goes, providing customers with personalized recommendations based on existing preferences and real-time decisions customers may be making as well. And when you have a system that responds to customer needs in real-time, you have a system that delivers big wins.

Truth be told, CPQ has still not saturated B2C retail and wholesale spaces the way it has B2B markets. But that’s changing fast, and businesses have to adapt to the new reality and discover the meaning, and magic, of CPQ in retail.

Keep the pipeline moving with sales quote software

A steady flow of leads through the sales pipeline is the lifeblood of a business. Which makes managing and nurturing those leads essential to the health of a business: anything gets clogged up, and your business can suffer something like a heart attack.

This is where sales quote software functions like cardio. With its advanced features and streamlined processes, quoting software (a.k.a., “configure, price, quote,” “quote-to-cash,” “sales proposal automation”: its names, like its uses, are virtually endless) has become an indispensable tool for keeping the pipeline moving and healthy.

And just like a proper cardio workout, there are specific features and benefits to look for in both the solution and the process. Let’s take a quick look at some specifics.

Speed & accuracy

One of the primary reasons sales pipelines “get clogged” is a slow and error-prone quoting process. Using, say, Excel, Word, or whatever random tool came with your CRM to manually create quotes not only consumes valuable time but also increases the risk of errors–which invariably leads to customer dissatisfaction.

Sales quote software automates the process, enabling sales teams to generate accurate and professional-looking quotes within minutes. By eliminating the manual input of data and calculations, errors are minimized, and quotes are consistent, instilling confidence in both the sales team and potential customers.

Personalization & customization

Let them know you know who they are. As importantly, let them know you know who YOU are. Personalize each quote for each customer and customize each template to suit your brand.

Through a user-friendly interface (or what should be, anyway), sales reps can quickly tailor quotes by adjusting quantities, services, and pricing structures to match specific customer requirements. Personalized quotes not only demonstrate a commitment to meeting the client's needs but also increase the likelihood of converting leads into customers by showing them that your company values their individual business objectives.

And adding your brand’s look and feel to each sales proposal template can help set you apart from the dozens of other RFP responses your prospect is likely sifting through.

Real-time collaboration & approval workflows

In sales, there’s no time like RIGHT NOW, and that means working in real-time.

Your pipeline likely involves multiple stakeholders: sales representatives, managers, and sometimes even legal or finance teams. Sales quote software offers collaborative features that allow teams to work together seamlessly, regardless of their physical locations.

Real-time collaboration ensures that all parties involved can contribute their expertise and review quotes simultaneously. Moreover, built-in approval workflows help prevent bottlenecks by ensuring that quotes move swiftly through the necessary approval stages, eliminating delays and ensuring a fluid pipeline.

Sales quote tracking & analytics

What you don’t know can absolutely hurt you. Which is why the leading sales quote solutions include proposal analytics tools and dashboards that offer insights into your quote pipeline, helping you understand the performance of different quotes, pricing strategies, and reps.

With this data at hand, sales leaders can make informed decisions to optimize their approach, allocate resources effectively, and focus efforts on leads that are most likely to convert. Why guess what’s working when you can analyze it and know?

Sales is the beating heart of most every business. Ensure that it operates in top form by leveraging these features and more in your sales quoting software.