Last year’s buzzwords are often this year’s blather. Just as last year’s hottest business apps are often this year’s “been there, done that.”
But that’s just marketing, just perception. The value behind the apps and the trends and the words used to describe them should be relatively fixed.
That said… sometimes it’s not. Sometimes an app designed for Task A is instead used for Task B, and the meaning changes.
So let’s look at that and the meaning of CPQ (configure, price, quote solutions). What has changed in how we define and use this tool over the past year? As far as we can see, the definition of CPQ in 2023 comes down to one thing: customer experience.
CPQ and the customer experience, part 1: faster, friendlier
Let’s first look at the more traditional, time-tested way configure, price, quote solutions impact the customer experience, and that’s through business-to-business sales proposals.
Prior to CPQ, the sales quote process between a rep and a customer could be pretty uneven across any given enterprise or department.
Depending on who was creating the quote, it could be in different formats (Word, Excel, even in the text of an email), it could have critical information in different parts of the quote (or not there at all), and color schemes/branding/wording could all vary based on the individual. The customer experience was, at best, uneven as well.
Not only would the look and feel of proposals be varied, but in so many cases, products and associated pricing could vary, too, and not simply because of sales rep discount structures. Reps would create a quote based on locally stored (and woefully out of date) spreadsheets or other documentation that could result in quoting the wrong price, or–worse for the customer–quoting products that are out of stock or that a company no longer carries.
But with CPQ, these negative customer experiences are a thing of the past. With professionally designed sales proposal templates and centralized–and centrally overseen–product and pricing libraries, every quote leaving your company looks and feels the same (good for your brand!) and has only the most recent pricing on available products (good for your business!).
CPQ and the customer experience, part 2: empowerment
Perhaps the most impactful way the meaning of CPQ will change in 2023–rather, continue to change–is in how the solution is being leveraged by B2B companies to empower customers with B2C functionality.
By incorporating some or all of CPQ’s toolset into online portals and, for lack of a better B2B term, “shopping carts,” businesses are giving customers new ways to self-serve, which both improves the customer experience (no waiting, they’re in charge, etc.) and reduces costs for the business (no reps attending every step of every sale).
To cite just one use case, a manufacturing client has leveraged CPQ’s product and pricing configuration tools to allow its customers to conduct restock orders on their own.
With tens of thousands of SKUs to manage, “self restocking” would be an inconceivable task for a customer to manage–not knowing product names/numbers, digging through endless product listings and spreadsheets, etc.
But CPQ makes it a breeze for them to select every nut, bolt, and fastener they may need: all the manufacturer has to do is sit back and collect the payment.
When we look back over the years, we see many ways we’ve defined the meaning of CPQ–sales proposal automation, quote maker, quote-to-cash, etc. And while the meaning may have changed a bit over the years, the value CPQ delivers has been constant (and constantly growing bigger).
