A big shout-out to our friends at Gartner for their recent report, “Avoid These 9 Corporate Digital Business Transformation Mistakes.” When we read through it, we couldn’t help but see some parallels between how things misfire at the highest level of a company during an overall transformation, and how they misfire at the “sales proposal automation” level in Dynamics.
Gartner says a business may “Misread the true scope of digital change.”
Yes! While Gartner focuses on how a business will misread what’s happening in its overall vertical as it implements a digital transformation, we’ve seen more than a few companies misread the horizontal of sales as they consider adding CPQ to Dynamics. The misread is typically that the status quo will hold — they don’t need to update how they’re building quotes — and it’s only after getting beat on a few deals are they able to “un-misread” the scope.
Gartner says “too much inward thinking” gets in the way.
Could not agree more. When some companies implement price quote software, they start by looking inward, which is great at first. What internal processes can we optimize or eliminate by adding CPQ? When it’s time to generate sales quotes, the internal thinking must transform to an external focus. E.g., your quote templates. It’s not about you: it’s about your customer, and your customer’s pain points. Ensure that what’s reflected in each proposal is the face of the customer reviewing it — their language, their logo, their industry, etc.
Gartner says transformation can have goals that are “vague,” and employees can have “fixed minds.”
Adding CPQ to CRM is a decision that benefits an entire enterprise: more accurate and professional quotes, sent faster, and tracked more completely in order to drive more revenue. That’s a clear, defined goal. The challenge in the D365 Sales world is ensuring the whole team is on-board. With sales reps, old habits die hard (i.e., they have fixed minds about how a sales quote should be handled), which is why we recommend a single sign-on CPQ for D365. Make this new tech slot right into their current system, and they’ll be making progress immediately.
Gartner insists transformation avoid being “technology-centric.”
Specifically, Gartner tells us to “watch out for buying into the hype of the ‘next big thing.’” While some people new to using CPQ do indeed experience it as a “next big thing,” we recommend you present it as an alternative to an old, slow thing. Most reps are probably making their quotes using Word and/or Excel. CPQ is a simple step-up. Don’t position it as a massive revolution (though it can revolutionize revenue by increasing closing rates by 25%); rather, position it as a simple evolution.
Gartner advises us to guard against “culture blindness.”
Unlike the challenge of digital transformation — which can and should reach into every corner of your enterprise — the beauty of adding price quote software to CRM is that it’s more of an upgrade than an overhaul. Additionally, you need not really worry about an entire company’s culture: you only have to worry about your sales department’s culture. Sales, fortunately, is often the most numbers-driven group in any enterprise, and while you’ll have a rep or two that is slow on the uptake in adopting CPQ into their daily process, once the whole team sees the numbers, the darkness will lift, and they’ll start creating quotes in a whole new light.
Thanks again to the team at Gartner for their insightful, timely report. While we can’t help you digitally transform your enterprise from top to bottom, we’d be happy to play a central role in transforming how you create, send, and track sales proposals in Dynamics.
Specifically, Gartner tells us to “watch out for buying into the hype of the ‘next big thing.’” While some people new to using CPQ do indeed experience it as a “next big thing,” we recommend you present it as an alternative to an old, slow thing. Most reps are probably making their quotes using Word and/or Excel. CPQ is a simple step-up. Don’t position it as a massive revolution (though it can revolutionize revenue by increasing closing rates by 25%); rather, position it as a simple evolution.
Gartner advises us to guard against “culture blindness.”
Unlike the challenge of digital transformation — which can and should reach into every corner of your enterprise — the beauty of adding price quote software to CRM is that it’s more of an upgrade than an overhaul. Additionally, you need not really worry about an entire company’s culture: you only have to worry about your sales department’s culture. Sales, fortunately, is often the most numbers-driven group in any enterprise, and while you’ll have a rep or two that is slow on the uptake in adopting CPQ into their daily process, once the whole team sees the numbers, the darkness will lift, and they’ll start creating quotes in a whole new light.
Thanks again to the team at Gartner for their insightful, timely report. While we can’t help you digitally transform your enterprise from top to bottom, we’d be happy to play a central role in transforming how you create, send, and track sales proposals in Dynamics.
