For more than 20 years (essentially since the launch of Google Ads), PPC has meant “pay-per-click,” one of the most effective means of online advertising ever created.
But times–and acronyms–are changing. And PPC has a new meaning, and that’s product pricing configurator, the core functionality at the heart of every configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution.
A few questions need to be asked:
What is a product pricing configurator anyway?
Can you use product pricing configuration outside of CPQ? (The short answer is… yes.)
WHY would you use product pricing configuration outside of CPQ? (The short answer is… there’s not a short answer. Let’s explore in this article.)
What is a product pricing configurator anyway?
That’s a good question, and we’re glad we asked it. In short, it’s a means of assembling products and attaching pricing.
In a CPQ solution, such “assemblies” can be made and managed by an administrator and assigned to specific sales reps, territories, etc. (Additionally, in a CPQ solution, discount structures may also be configured and attached to specific products or reps.)
As part of a CPQ solution working within a CRM system like Dynamics, Salesforce, Zoho, or HubSpot, the product pricing configuration engine can also play a central role in order and inventory management, sending feedback to the CRM “mothership” regarding what’s selling, where, and why.
Can you use product pricing configuration outside of CPQ?
Absolutely. In fact, that’s where it’s currently showing a lot of potential as a game changer. And we see this as a curious evolution of CPQ itself. Early CPQ solutions leaned heavily on proposal templates and other aspects of the quote itself as selling points, but it has become the configurator that is now delivering equal or greater benefits.
Essentially, the configuration function is both the C and the P of CPQ. In some instances, the product pricing configuration functionality (the C and P) is being added to platforms like Shopify, enabling deep customization of products and services by customers themselves.
When you do use PPC in CPQ, however, you benefit from a unified process when creating and sending a sales quote. And we’d be hard pressed to find any initial B2B sale that takes place without a sales quote. And “initial” is the keyword.
In our client base, we’ve seen heavy reliance on proposals for that initial deal with a new customer, and then utilizing the standalone strengths of product pricing configuration for upgrades, reorders, and future purchases (the “why” of the following few paragraphs).
Why would you use product pricing configuration outside of CPQ?
Instead of having complex products configured by one of your own team members, you can allow customers to create their own configurations (not their own pricing, of course… unless you’re feeling generous).
Currently, we have clients leveraging the power of “PPC” to help their existing customers with replenishments, upgrades, and more. By empowering the customer with product pricing configuration, you can skip right past the quoting process and have even the most complex products be configured and ordered as easily as you would add products to an Amazon cart.
It’s a true win-win as customers are empowered to create exactly the products/services that suit them and can purchase according to their own timeframes, and sales reps are freed up to drive new business.
The future of product pricing configuration
We see it as just getting started. We have a handful of clients right now who are using IQX’s configuration engine within a Shopify instance to create a “B2B meets ecommerce” platform (learn more about our ecommerce solution). And we’re also now seeing companies touting standalone configurators as well: with even no CRM required!
However, tools like CPQ and CRM aren’t going anywhere, and when you use product pricing configuration in that larger landscape, you benefit from more granular data on the specific products, services, upgrades, and more that are actually being sold. And knowing what’s being sold means selling more.
