Account management. Lead nurture. Sales forecasting. Quote making. Beet farming. There are things CRM software does well (accounts, leads, forecasting), things it does so-so (quote making), and things it doesn’t do at all (beet farming… and, in some CRMs, also quote making).
It’s not CRM’s fault that people try to use it for, well, everything. The solution is invariably the one sales and marketing people are most familiar with and therefore the one they use to solve most every business challenge. It’s the hammer that makes every problem look like a nail.
The fact is that not every problem is a nail. And when it comes to creating, delivering, and tracking sales quotes, most CRM systems simply don’t have what it takes.
Making a convincing, customized, professional sales proposal takes more than what’s typically built-in to a CRM system. It takes a specialized solution. It takes quoting software (a.k.a., configure, price, quote, or CPQ). And here’s why.
Professionally designed sales proposal templates
Your CRM system doesn’t have them. Most CRMs have a few checkboxes and fields into which you manually enter products and pricing, and then… that’s it.
But your sales proposal is where the rubber hits the road! In many cases, it’s where your company is introduced to the decision makers and stakeholders, and also introduced alongside other competitive quotes. It has to look better than good: it has to stand apart from the crowd.
This may seem like a specious argument because, to use a cliche, “you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.” But guess what? EVERYONE judges a book by its cover. The cliche that matters here is “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
If you’re using quoting software, you’ll benefit from an eye-catching sales proposal template that sets you apart and sells you well. But if you’re only using what “comes with” your CRM system, your quote will often look like… well… crap.
Dynamic product and pricing configuration engine
Using a CRM to insert products and pricing into sales quotes is often a manual labor intensive task. In many cases, too (especially with on-premises CRM systems), the products and pricing may not always be up-to-date as they may be stored separately on spreadsheets in local machines.
With quoting software, however, product and pricing configuration is centralized and streamlined. A rep doesn’t need to check the latest pricing sheets or other documents: it’s all baked into their CPQ system. They simply select a proposal template, and drag and drop the latest configs in there.
Additionally, this centrally administered engine empowers sales leaders to control pricing and discount structures remotely, and grant different levels of permission to different reps. E.g., a rep with 20 years of experience may get to set his/her own discounts, whereas a newbie can’t.
Advanced, granular quote tracking tools
If you have used your CRM solution to create and send quotes, you have probably seen that tracking is often reduced to a couple of key metrics: quote sent/not sent and deal won/lost.
The fact of the matter is that there are often countless events in between sent and won/lost that should be captured and analyzed. Adjustments to quotes, inquiries and replies, addendums, and more. If you’re not tracking these metrics in your “quote signing process,” you’re missing a big part of the picture.
Quoting software gives you this granular proposal tracking data; CRM typically does not.
CRM/CPQ integration
If you’ve read this far, 1) thank you and 2) don’t throw out your CRM system and replace it with quoting software. In our experience, they go together like a screwdriver and a toolbox. Your CRM is that toolbox, containing custom apps and solutions for specific tasks: revenue recognition, lead nurture, and, of course, creating/sending/tracking sales quotes.
While it can be used standalone, our opinion is that CPQ is even stronger when integrated with CRM systems. Ideally, integrated as a single sign-on solution that makes it “feel” as if it’s a feature in the CRM rather than an extension. That way your reps who see every problem as a nail will have access to a screwdriver when they need it – even if they think they’re still only using a hammer.
