The way most every website out there details the meaning of CPQ (configure, price, quote) is about the same: it’s software that helps sales people make sales quotes for complex and/or configurable products and services.
YAWN.
Here at IQX, we rarely explain it that way, because it’s not about that dry definition: it’s about the business benefits CPQ delivers. The benefits CPQ delivers to businesses–from mom & pop shops, to SMBs, to enterprise–create a far more interesting way to define the solution.
For us and our clients, the true meaning of CPQ is tied to the distinct business benefits of improved efficiency, flexibility, and scalability.
We know: you’ve heard most of these words used so many times in B2B sales and solutions that they may have lost their meaning. But here is exactly how we define these benefits as they’re connected to CPQ.
The meaning of efficiency connected to CPQ
Most of our clients say that they reduce the time it takes to create and send a professional sales proposal by 50% or more. FIFTY PERCENT. Any efficiency increases are welcome in the sales process, but 50%? That means additional hours every day that a rep can spend working new leads, doing demos, upselling existing customers and more.
Additionally, there’s a more esoteric definition of efficiency at play here. And it’s understood through the sheen of professionalism in each quote.
By using a series of professionally designed proposal templates, your sales quotes look cleaner and leaner, and demonstrate to a prospect that you’re running a tight ship, where everything is in its place and clarity and consistency reign, where efficiency is simply the daily course of action.
The meaning of flexibility connected to CPQ
Like most CPQ solutions, IQX is cloud-based, which provides extensive flexibility in where and when your team can do its job. All the standard “cloud benefits” apply: easy integrations; simplified, predictable costs; remote access; improved security; etc.
With IQX, however, there’s a slightly different meaning of flexibility connected to our solution as we have clients using it standalone (an app on a phone!), as part of a larger CRM and/or ERP platform, and even as a mini-CRM in itself.
Current CPQ-CRM integrations include single sign-on for both Zoho CRM (and Zoho Books), and Microsoft Dynamics, with most every other integration (Salesforce, Oracle, HubSpot, and more) available as well.
Additionally, some of our smaller clients (e.g., with two or three sales reps) lean on IQX as a de facto CRM as it can store critical account and contact information alongside every product and pricing configuration, every sales proposal, and every sliver of sales and proposal tracking analytics.
Meeting each client where they are is what we’re all about, and flexibility is central.
The meaning of scalability connected to CPQ
This is where the competition doesn’t stand a chance against IQX. Whereas most other companies in the space force a customer to license a minimum of 10 or sometimes 20 seats, IQX allows clients to start with as few as ONE (and for as little as $39 a seat: check out CPQ pricing here).
The meaning of scalability goes in two directions. Typically, it’s all about growth: “you can easily add seats (scale) as your business grows!” Yes, you can. But for some companies, scalability starts before the minimum 10 or 20 seats. They may be scaling from 3 seats to 5 seats.
Unlike some other providers, IQX doesn’t put a limit on where your own “scalability journey” begins. Like most other providers, we also don’t limit where it ends either.
We have watched clients double their licenses in just a few months. Why? Probably due to the increases in efficiency and improved flexibility outlined above. The meaning of these words and the benefits they deliver, the meaning of CPQ and the benefits it delivers… it’s all connected, and that’s a very good thing indeed.
