The meaning of CPQ for sales in manufacturing

At its heart, the manufacturing industry is about building, about putting automobiles, machinery, modular housing, and more together in the proper way and doing so as efficiently as possible.

The same dedication to repeatable, effective processes also applies to building sales proposals, which makes the meaning of CPQ (configure, price, quote) in the manufacturing industry essentially similar to the practice of manufacturing itself.

For example, automobile manufacturing. You design the car, assemble the body, powertrain, chassis, and interior, address the details (paint job, extras), and distribute to the dealerships and customers. 

Same goes with a quote: you design (or have someone else design) the proposal templates, add the products and pricing (the powertrain, chassis, and ALL), address the details (specifics for the customer), and distribute it to the customer.

By creating and leveraging repeatable processes, you not only improve efficiency, you also create more opportunities for improving workflows, collecting actionable data, and staying ahead of the competition.

But back to where it all starts: improving efficiency, how to measure that, and where the similarities are between manufacturing and “quote building.”

Comparing efficiency in quoting to manufacturing

For the most part, manufacturing companies have very similar KPIs in how they measure and improve production efficiencies. Outside production, there are countless and variable other efficiency metrics (cost of raw materials, market penetration, distribution, etc.), but we’re going to focus on KPIs in the actual manufacturing process:

• Cycle times: How long for one manufacturing cycle to complete, start to finish.

• Equipment efficiency: A focus typically on the machinery: Is there enough equipment up and running? Is it functioning at peak capacity? Does it support existing cycle times? Is there too much downtime due to malfunctions and maintenance?

• Rework rates: Nothing’s perfect. Rework rates (sometimes called “scrap rates”) capture how many “duds” come down the line in a given cycle.

Let’s compare those to your “quote assembly line.”

• Cycle times: How long does it take each member of your team to create and send a quote? How long on average? More importantly, how long do quotes sit in the pipeline before they’re signed or deemed dead opportunities?
  
  With the right CPQ system, you could reduce cycle times by more than 80%.)
  

• Equipment efficiency: What are you currently using? Excel? Word? Whatever was included with your CRM system?
  
  One of the key pieces in a CPQ system — the very meaning of CPQ, in many ways — is its product and pricing configuration engine. Creating and managing configurations in a spreadsheet is wildly inefficient as it’s decentralized (different versions of products and pricing will inevitably be stored locally) and time-consuming (as reps must sort through rows and columns to find what they need, and then copy that info into their quotes).
  
  With CPQ as part of your quoting equipment, you simply drag and drop product and pricing configurations into sales proposal templates, et voila! Additionally, these configurations are centrally controlled and administered, ensuring accuracy and availability.
  

• Rework rates: We’ll stretch this a little bit for sales quotes, because while there is sometimes some reworking required (adjusting pricing, adding/subtracting products or services, etc. — all of which you can track with a CPQ solution), the thing that matters most at this stage of your “quote assembly line” is closing.
  
  Do you know your current closing rates? Did you know you can increase them by 20% or more by using a CPQ solution like IQX? Why “rework” a quote when you can simply close  the deal?

Whether you’re in manufacturing, technology services, healthcare, or ANY business-to-business space, the fact of the matter is that you can “manufacture” more professional sales quotes with more efficiency by leveraging the power of configure, price, quote software.

Writing the right RFP response right and at the right time

An RFP response shouldn’t be something you “crank out.” Nor should it be something you ponder like a poet, waiting for the muse to inspire you (while your competition sends the quote).

Yes, there is a templated approach, but there’s also creative latitude, and an opportunity to go beyond merely presenting an offer and introducing your brand.

As with many B2B sales processes, the right RFP response starts with using the right tool: configure, price, quote software (CPQ), like iQuoteXpress (IQX).

The role of CPQ in RFP responses

What CPQ means in your RFP response process — and where it “plays” in that process — ultimately depends on the nature of the RFP.

In some cases, the creator of the RFP may simply be taking tentative steps, looking for vendors to make their case, providing top-level details on products, services, and expertise that address the moving pieces in the RFP.

But more often than not, the company behind the RFP is looking for something more actionable: specific product and service configurations (with pricing) that hit every deliverable in the RFP. 

Because, after all, RFP stands for “request for proposal,” and that means responding with a detailed sales proposal that hits the mark and sets you apart. This is where CPQ can help you respond to RFPs twice as fast, if not faster.

CPQ empowers your sales team with the tools required to create a professional proposal — easily customizable sales quote templates and a product and pricing configuration engine. Additionally, it provides you with the means to send, track, and modify your proposal and, where and when it makes sense, transform that quote into a contract.

The nuts & bolts — and bells & whistles — of an RFP response

Essentially, we just described the nuts and bolts of how CPQ can transform your RFP response process. But there are bells and whistles, too, and that’s where the aforementioned “creative latitude” can come into play, where you can customize your quote to more specifically address not just the RFP deliverables, but the company — the brand — behind the RFP and create a response that goes past relevance and into resonance.

We’re not trying to teach an English lesson here, but the difference between relevance and resonance in the “RFP response world” is critical. Because EVERY response received will likely be relevant. But if you know how to write killer RFP responses, you can set yourself apart by creating a connection more than simply a reply. You can craft a quote that resonates with your prospect, that reflects their brand while it builds yours.

Your RFP response is your opportunity to show you understand your prospect’s long-run mission and values as well as their short-run needs. It’s the moment, in most cases, where your company and all you have to offer is introduced to a larger audience within your prospect’s organization. It’s critical to deliver a response that shows you understand the big picture.

How does CPQ help you do this? It starts with your templates, of course, which should provide you with easily customizable components where you can craft your message and insert imagery that helps create resonance. But in the end, this part of the RFP response process is the one that requires the heavy lifting as you’ll need to communicate effectively and convincingly (this whitepaper can help).

The good news is that the nuts and bolts in your RFP response — the quote template, the product and pricing configurations — are only a click away in your CPQ system, freeing you up to focus on the bells and whistles. And unless you’re in a commoditized market where price always wins, it’s going to be the effort and attention to detail that sets you apart and helps close the sale.

The meaning of CPQ in fitness equipment sales

If you have landed on this page, you’re likely in fitness equipment sales, considering using CPQ (a.k.a.: configure, price, quote solution; quote to cash app; sales proposal automation tool), and seeing what it may mean for your business.

You likely saw this post title and went, “Wow. That’s exactly what I’m trying to find out.”

The reason this article exists, and on this website, is simple: iQuoteXpress (IQX) is the choice for some of the major players in the fitness equipment sales and manufacturing space. (Your competitors are likely using IQX to get their quotes to customers faster, and to make those quotes more compelling for those customers, too.) 

IQX knows the market and we have the perfect solution to help sales reps in the market close more business more quickly. So contact us for a demo. Or read on and discover some similarities between our solution and fitness equipment sales.

A sales quote can be like a fitness center…

Whether in a gym as big as a warehouse or in a converted meeting room in an office building or in a healthcare facility, a fitness center must be configured.

Yes, there’s often a templated approach — the treadmills are together, the free weights are in a dedicated space with a padded floor, etc. — but configuration is always required based on the shape and size of the space, the needs of the customers, and more.

Same with a sales quote. Using CPQ, you can also take a templated approach, first by building sales proposal templates based on the products you sell and industries you serve.

Then, with these templates, you can then quickly configure quotes for each specific customer, dragging and dropping product and pricing configurations (also pre-designed and uploaded into your CPQ solution), thereby creating a custom quote through a templated approach.

Tracking product life cycles and sales cycles…

In fitness equipment sales, it’s never “one and done.” Equipment gets old, breaks down, or is simply considered outdated by its users. Most sales reps in the space keep careful track of product life cycles and know exactly when to reach out to existing customers to see what may need upgrading or replacing.

With CPQ, tracking is naturally a little different but no less critical. Unlike most standard CRM systems — which typically only track whether or not a quote was sent and if it was signed — CPQ tracks the “minute metrics,” the minor adjustments to a sent quote, the communications that help nudge it across the finish line, empowering sales reps to better understand and act within the most critical part of the sales cycle.

Simply put, tracking data — be it of fitness equipment use, sales quote progress, or most any other product or service that can be sold or processed — is knowledge, and knowledge is power. (In the cases detailed above, that would be the power to drive more revenue.)

Faster, better, stronger

Isn’t that what fitness equipment itself is all about? You’re providing the systems and services that help make your customers’ customers faster, stronger, fitter, better.

And the same way the products you put in place deliver those benefits to the ultimate end-users is the same way CPQ benefits you. In the end, the meaning of CPQ for fitness equipment sales professionals is that it helps you develop more professional, more custom sales proposals more quickly. You’ll be able to beat the competition to the punch and create a greater impact on every customer.

Fixing sales pipeline bottlenecks with quote software

The sales pipeline always looks so simple: prospecting at the beginning, lead qualification and demos/convos in the middle, and closed deals at the end.

But there’s one stage in the pipeline that’s more critical than any others: when you send a quote, as that’s when someone went from being interested to being invested.

And if you’re not using sale quote software at this juncture, it’s time to start doing so. Because with this easy-to-use, cost-effective business application, you can avoid some of the more common perils and pitfalls in the sales cycle, and close more deals more quickly.

Let’s take a brief look at some of the common setbacks or bottlenecks that can occur during the sales process and how quoting software – also known as configure price quote (CPQ) or quote-to-cash software – can help you navigate them, or avoid them entirely.

A lengthy sales cycle

Depending on what you’re selling, the sales cycle can be anywhere from two years to two seconds. For the most part, B2B sales reps with longer sales cycles and more complex product/service offerings are the reps who benefit most immediately and completely from using quote software.

By using CPQ – either as part of a larger solution like CRM or standalone – a rep can add both speed and “sheen” to sales proposal creation, delivery, and execution. Because once you get to the point where a prospect is ready for a quote – even if it took them years to be ready – you don’t want to waste a second in getting it to them.

With sales quote software, you have a tool that lets you create professional quotes in minutes rather than days, and send them immediately, making the most critical step in a lengthy sales cycle into one of the most efficient and impactful ones.

Losing the thread, dying on the vine

It happens all the time in sales. A prospect who was once chomping at the bit gets cold feet or “ghosts” you when it comes time to close. Rude.

But that doesn’t mean a rep lets the opportunity die on the vine. With quoting software, you have both clearer insights into the closing process (being able to see where a deal may have gone south) and automated tools to help “ping” a prospect.

Essentially, your quote-to-cash system – with its contact management and communication tools – can serve as a “personal assistant” dedicated to helping you close. While you’re off warming up new prospects, your quote software can help you keep the fire burning under existing opportunities as well.

It’s a people problem

Perhaps one of the greatest uses of CPQ is in helping solve people problems. No, it doesn’t manage relationships. It helps you do more with less.

Because one of the primary causes of bottlenecks in the sales pipeline is human resource allocation: not enough people to go around. Or too many people working on mundane tasks (like creating a sales quote from scratch using Excel or Word) instead of nurturing prospect and client relationships.

With professionally designed sales proposal templates and drag and drop product and pricing configuration, sales quote software can help you slash the amount of time it takes to make a quote by 90% (read a case study). Imagine how much more effective your sales reps would be with all that time back? Your people problems would quickly become a thing of the past, and your pipeline would be moving at top speed.

What kinds of bottlenecks are you experiencing? How are you addressing them? We’re happy to take a few minutes and show you how iQuoteXpress – the best value in sales quote software you’ll find – can help you fix them.

Leveraging quoting tools inside CRM

What’s your school of thought when it comes to customer relationship management solutions?

Old school like Salesforce — the big dog with a nearly 25% market share… and a nearly impenetrable UI.

New school like HubSpot — the quasi-humble marketing automation tool that has transmogrified into a full-blown (more like mostly blown) CRM.

“Stack school” like Dynamics — the choice for most businesses on the Microsoft Stack… or at least the one being suggested by every Microsoft Partner selling said stack.

No school — using Outlook, Gmail, and spreadsheets to fuel and foster customer relationships (not recommended).

No matter what CRM you prefer, it almost always doesn’t have every single tool a business needs, and that’s especially true when it comes to sales quoting tools, often called configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions.

Because while there are some features in leading CRMs that can help you create quotes, said features are often lacking in any ability to help you create professional-looking, compelling, on-brand quotes, not to mention the ability to granularly track each sales quote.

In this article, we’re going to show you how to leverage quoting tools inside your CRM system. And if you’re not using a CRM system, we’re going to show you how to leverage these tools to kinda/sorta have a CRM system using the right kind of CPQ solution alone.

Seek single sign-on solutions

Most important in ensuring adoption of any quoting tool you add to your CRM system is ensuring single sign on. Standard SSO benefits include a more secure solution, and removing one more opportunity for the time-suck that is “I lost my password; please send me a code to reset.”

But what we have seen when clients add our CPQ solution to their CRMs is near-immediate adoption of the new quoting functionality as it appears as just another feature to users, rather than a new solution or system. iQuoteXpress currently has SSO CPQ for Dynamics, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and Zoho Books, as well as an open API that enables SSO with most any enterprise CRM or ERP solution.

Centralize pricing and discounts

Salespeople will try almost anything to close a deal, as they should. However, that sometimes mean using outdated product pricing (quickly going off a spreadsheet they have locally stored rather than taking the time to ensure accuracy) or delivering drastic discounts.

With the right sale quote tool, however, you can centrally administer and control pricing and discount structures–remotely, no less! It’s all done via CPQ’s “backbone,” the product and pricing configurator.

Not only does the configurator give managers more control, it also empowers sales reps to more quickly put quotes together. Where they once had to pull product and pricing information from a separate database or Excel file, they now simply drag and drop configurations right from within the CPQ app embedded in your CRM system.

Leveraging CRM inside your quoting tool

See what we did there? Flipped this article’s title on its head! Because for small businesses that don’t see the need for–or simply can’t afford–a CRM system, there are tools and features in your quoting solution that can make for a “quasi CRM.”

You can create and manage accounts, create and manage contacts, track sales, track productivity, and even forecast revenue based on sales quotes in circulation. Additionally, there are analytics tools that help you get a clearer view of your pipeline and optimize processes, sales quote templates, and more to increase closing rates.

From once simply being little more than a collection of sales proposal templates to functioning as a mini customer relationship management solution, quoting tools have come a long way in a short time. And we’re just getting started.

Sales proposal templates and the art of branding

Every product/service you sell = your brand. Every word out of your sales reps’ mouths = your brand. Every quote you send = your brand.

Which means sales proposal templates can and should be a BIG part of your brand.

Think about it: in most cases, until you send your client a sales quote, your company/offer/products/services/YOURSELF are likely only known to a handful of people, or even sometimes only one person – your main contact: the person you’ve been calling and emailing and giving demos to.

But when you send a quote, that person or small group has decided that you are now worthy of “meeting the rest of the family.” And this time, you won’t be there to coach anyone along, nor to add supporting context and content, field questions in real time, or otherwise do the interpersonal relationship type things that have brought you to where you are so far.

Your sales proposal now has to do the heavy lifting for you, speaking not just for your offer but for your brand. And this is where the professionally designed sales proposal templates that come with most configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions can help express your brand identity and further customer engagement.

Here are some specific tips to keep in mind when building, selecting, and customizing an ON-BRAND sales proposal template.

Don’t cut corners: go pro!

In most cases, your CPQ system will come populated with quote templates that seem to cover every need, and are often adapted to suit specific vertical markets and/or business use cases.

In most cases, this is still not enough.

Consider using a professional graphic designer to help customize those templates or build new ones. Because even if the proposal templates fit your general market, it’s highly unlikely they’re an exact match for your brand.

This is a very smart–and typically one-time–spend. A decent designer shouldn’t cost more than $100 an hour and shouldn’t take more than a day or so to help create some simple quote templates that help you stand apart from the competition and show off your brand.

K.I.S.S. –  Keep it simple, salesperson!

More is not less: it’s too much. When building a sales proposal template from the ground up, remember that you’re building a showcase, not a warehouse.

You need not detail every use case, cram every detail, show every angle. In most cases, your prospect already has these details and doesn’t need them all over again.

Put your best foot forward: one or two clean images of applicable products against plenty of whitespace. Make the relevant, selling details POP and leave the rest for the fine print.

With sales quotes–especially digital ones–it’s better to have multiple pages that give product images and benefits room to breathe than to try and fit it all on one page. Related note: if you’re sending printed quotes, don’t print on two sides. It creates a crammed experience for your recipient and can often result in details being missed.

Tell a story–a RELEVANT story

Another thing to bake-in to every proposal is your brand story. It shouldn’t read like a Wikipedia page or anything, but there should be some facts and features about your business and your values alongside the facts and features connected to your products and services.

However… this is not a place to say “me, me, me!” When telling your brand story, tell it through your customer’s eyes, make it relevant to them, modify when necessary. E.g., if your prospect is within the same state, hammer that home in your brand story: “Like most companies from Wisconsin, we believe in putting people first,” etc.

Your brand story is more WHAT YOU DO than WHO YOU ARE. Because, in the end, every prospect you’re pitching is far more interested in what you can do; rather, what you can do for them.

___

A strong brand makes for a strong sales pitch, and the strength of your brand must be in every customer contact: that first call, that first demo, every sales proposal template, every quote sent, and every customer relationship. Build your brand the right way, and you’ll build relationships that last a lifetime.

Has the meaning of CPQ changed since 2022?

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).

IQX NAMED AN “EASIEST TO USE CPQ”

G2, the largest and most trusted software marketplace serving more than 80 million people annually, lists iQuoteXpress in its 2023 Top 20 report

Los Angeles, CA, March 2, 2023 – iQuoteXpress (IQX), a pioneering configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution was chosen by G2–a software marketplace and reviewer serving employees in all the Fortune 500–as one of its top 20 vendors in the “easiest to use CPQ software” report. See the report here.

As with the previously released Forrester report, “The Configure, Price, Quote Solutions Landscape, Q1 2023” (in which IQX was also singled out), the G2 report lists many major companies in the CPQ space in its top 20 list. G2 has placed IQX at position 12 with a usability score of 8.3 out of 10.

“The hits keep coming,” said IQX General Manager, Martin Spritzer. “First the Forrester report, and now G2. In the former case, we were delighted to be singled out as a leader in the industry itself. And with G2, we’re even more delighted as making our solution user-friendly has been a focus since day one.”

IQX (available at www.iquotexpress.com) has an open API, and pre-built integrations for Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, Microsoft Dynamics, and Salesforce, and is also widely used alongside leading CRM and ERP platforms. It includes a variety of professionally designed proposal templates, a flexible product and pricing configuration engine, contact management tools, and a wide range of sales reporting tools and dashboards.

IQX allows administrators to centralize control over discount structures, product bundling, pricing, and a host of other business needs and rules. The solution can be customized at both the macro and micro (individual user) levels. The extensive customization options set IQX apart as a leader in its space and the company serves most every market: commercial fitness, security, furniture, HVAC, agribusiness, manufacturing, IT, and more.

“Being recognized by both Forrester and G2 this year is a testament to the hard work being done by our team and our relentless focus on delivering satisfaction and value to our customer,” said Spritzer.

“Many of the competitors in these reports charge hundreds of dollars per seat, six-figure set-up fees, and don’t help customers with key CPQ tasks, like setting up and uploading product and pricing configurations,” added Spritzer. “But IQX helps with all of that and more, and starts at just $39 per seat. So we say to everyone out there evaluating CPQ software on Forrester, G2, Capterra, GetApp, and beyond: you can have it all, and have it all for less with IQX.” 

About IQX: IQX is a US-based company with customers in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Its namesake product is a robust, cloud-based proposal solution accompanied by personalized support to help each unique customer use it to its fullest. 

Quote software and other 2023 biz app trends

What are the biggest business applications trends for 2023 and beyond?

Some are the same as they’ve been for a few years now: cloud, digital transformation, etc. All good. These will be “trends” until adoption across the business world equals 100%.

Some sound a little out there: influencer marketing in B2B (are we ready for Tik Tok dances pitching CRM solutions?), blockchain for B2B (have we learned nothing from FTX and other houses of cards?).

And some are downright exciting, like low-code development, expansion of 5G, and AI-fueled chatbots (maybe not this last one… are you listening, Sydney?).

Finally, there’s one that should be on the list for anyone serious about driving more sales (and is B2B really, truly about anything else?): quote software, either standalone or as part of a larger CRM/sales/marketing solution.

Yes, we’re a sales quote software provider and so, yes, we’re biased. But here are two simple reasons – connected to two 2023 trends – why this biz app should be at the top of the list for trends to follow and tools to adopt for business success in 2023.

Professional sales proposals (& the cloud)

Quote software empowers your reps with the ability to make professionally designed quotes in a few minutes. Imagine if every proposal leaving your business looked as if it was created a design agency, replete with your brand palette and imagery.

Additionally, with a unified set of sales proposal templates you present a unified front to prospects and customers alike. It’s all about consistency in look, feel, and messaging, and a centralized collection of reusable proposals makes consistency a given across the board, no matter which rep might be sending a quote to which customer.

Let’s tie this into the other trends predicted for 2023: Obviously, a sale quote template is not an example of “AI in action,” but it does enable you to create a repeatable process that saves time and money. Also, with your quote software tools in the cloud (another trend), you can create, send, and manage quotes from anywhere.

Product and pricing configuration (& digital transformation)

The product and pricing configurator in your solution is (or should be) a clear-cut example of one of the most critical biz app trends of the last ten years: digital transformation.

Products and pricing have typically been stored on spreadsheets or deep in databases. To include this information in a proposal, sales reps often had to find the spreadsheet or PDF, search the document, and then copy/paste (or worse, manually type) information from it into a sales quote. There are myriad opportunities for error in this process.

More dangerous to a business is that most reps–to save time–will store product and pricing documents locally and often be giving information to clients that’s outdated or otherwise inaccurate. (We can’t count how many sales managers we know that have been forced to honor outdated pricing because that’s what made it into the quote).

But quote software makes adding products and pricing as easy as drag and drop. Reps use one of the aforementioned sales quote templates, and then add APPROVED products and APPROVED pricing to the quote–all while staying in the same biz app.

Less manual labor, less opportunity for error, better looking quotes, higher close rates: those aren’t biz app trends for sales–they’re timeless.

IQX RECOGNIZED IN FORRESTER CPQ REPORT

New report, “The Configure, Price, Quote Solutions Landscape, Q1 2023,” names iQuoteXpress  a “notable vendor” in serving the needs of small to midsize businesses

Los Angeles, CA, 2/13/23 – iQuoteXpress (IQX), a pioneering configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution was singled out by renowned business research firm Forrester in a new report, “The Configure, Price, Quote Solutions Landscape, Q1 2023.”

The report lists many major companies in the CPQ space, and identifies IQX as a global business serving clients with annual revenues of $25 million or less in North America, EMEA, and APAC.

“We’re delighted to be recognized by Forrester,” said IQX General Manager, Martin Spritzer. “It’s a testament to the hard work being done by our team, and the results being enjoyed by our clients who use IQX to reduce sales proposal processing times by as much as 70% and improve closing rates by as much as 25%.”

The solution (available at www.iquotexpress.com) has an open API, and pre-built integrations for Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, Microsoft Dynamics, and Salesforce, and is also widely used alongside leading CRM and ERP platforms such as HubSpot and Oracle. It includes a variety of professionally designed proposal templates, a flexible product and pricing configuration engine, contact management tools, and a wide range of sales reporting tools and dashboards.

IQX allows administrators to centralize control over discount structures, product bundling, pricing, and a host of other business needs and rules. The solution can be customized at both the macro and micro (individual user) levels. The extensive customization options set IQX apart as a leader in its space and the company serves most every market: commercial fitness, security, furniture, HVAC, agribusiness, manufacturing, IT, and more.

“One thing the report didn’t mention was pricing,” said Spritzer. “Many of the solutions we appear alongside in the report charge hundreds per user and six-figure set-up fees But with licenses starting at just $39 per user, IQX remains one of the absolute best values in the CPQ market.”