If you’re a sales rep, you likely know where most of your outstanding sales quotes are.
You may not be tracking quotes from start to finish, but you have a rough idea of what’s waiting to be signed, by whom, and — most importantly to you — what your commission will be once the deal is done.
If you’re a sales manager, you likely know the status of some larger proposals out there, but likely don’t have granular data on each and every one in process.
And why would you? After all, each one only has a direct connection to whether this quarter’s numbers will be hit: what’s the big deal? (That’s sarcasm, of course: hard to convey in the written word.)
Contrary to what most CRM systems would have you believe, there’s a whole lot more to tracking sales quotes than simply sent and signed, than won or lost. There are a multitude of steps along the way that must be monitored and — when necessary — acted on.
The good news is that, like most current business challenges, “there’s an app for that,” and that business application is configure, price, quote (CPQ) software. With CPQ, tracking quotes from start to finish is not only easy: it’s automatic.
If you’re not already using CPQ for sales quote tracking, here are a few good reasons why you should get started doing so, and ASAP.
Not all sales reps are created equally
One of the many things Glengarry Glen Ross taught us is that sales reps come in many flavors: rock stars like Ricky Roma (played by Al Pacino), to bare minimum guys like George Aaronow (Alan Arkin), to schlubs like Shelley Levene (immortalized by Jack Lemmon). These guys basically had to get by on their guts and their wits: not a CRM system or sales quoting app to be had. The schlubs didn’t stand a chance.
But with CPQ software in the mix, you can make most any rep into a Ricky Roma. With sales proposal templates and easy drag-and-drop product and pricing configuration, it lets every rep create a sales proposal — in just a couple of minutes — that’s professional, custom, and compelling. And, as it’s cloud-based, reps can use it from anywhere, ensuring no opportunity is missed.
When it comes to sales quote tracking, CPQ can help a manager identify the Rickys and the Shelleys, and share the tactics used during the signing process that can help the latter become the former. (A manager might also keep a closer eye on the quotes put in by his Shelleys than by his Rickys.)
Missed opportunities, missed revenue
Quotes don’t always come back the same as when they went out. By this, we mean that it’s pretty common to iterate during the quote-signing process. With a CPQ system tracking and monitoring every possible pivot, sales leadership has more immediate and actionable insight into possible opportunities for upsells and upgrades.
For example, a client of ours was recently in the process of selling a CRM solution. The request came back to augment the quote to include a more robust email application in the solution.
Whereas the rep saw an opportunity to do a mere value-add, his manager — tracking the quote through his CPQ’s dashboard — saw a bigger opportunity for a full-featured marketing automation system. An opportunity to add an additional 3% in licensing fees became an opportunity to nearly double the size of the deal.
More data, more deals
Finally, when you move from “sent/signed” to more granular sales quote tracking, you are collecting far more data on the most critical step in any sales cycle.
Knowing when to ping a client, when to upsell/upgrade, when a manager should get involved to unclog bottlenecks: these kinds of actions are only made possible if you have the data. It’s this kind of information — and the ability to quickly respond to it — that takes an organization from simply tracking quotes to fast-tracking quotes.
Leveling the playing field… driving more deals… getting more actionable insights. Using CPQ to track quotes makes it all possible.
