What are the best Zoho CRM extensions? The ones that close sales!

It’s no secret: we’re big fans of Zoho, having single sign-on solutions for Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, having written multiple articles about and for Zoho, and consistently finding synergies between Zoho’s customers and our own.

Recently, we explored some of the ways Zoho customers are extending their solutions via applications available in the Zoho marketplace, and we have found more than a few that can help Zoho and IQX customers do what they’d like to do best: close more sales.

Zoho Forms

Native to the platform, Zoho Forms makes it incredibly easy to capture and/or update customer and prospect contact information, and immediately update/integrate that information in your Zoho CRM. This app also has lead source tracking abilities, ideal if you’re using, for example, Google Ads to drive interest.

Klenty Email Automation for Zoho CRM

It’s no secret that email is (along with organic search) one of the best ways to transform visitors into customers. With Klenty, you can create triggered email flows based on user behavior, and automate key prospecting workflows that can save you 15 hours or more weekly. All within Zoho.

Zoho Webinar for Zoho CRM

For most B2B selling processes, a webinar is critical to closing. This app works within your Zoho CRM, meaning you never have to “leave.” Everything you need to create, promote, present, and follow-up a webinar is baked in. And for only $19 a month!

iQuoteXpress SSO for Zoho CRM

Yeah, we’re biased. Ours is probably the best CPQ for Zoho CRM (and Books!). With a single sign-on solution, professionally designed sales proposals, a simple drag-and-drop interface, and as much support as you require (building your product and pricing configurations, creating integrations and reports, optimizing workflows), no one comes to close to helping you close more sales with Zoho than IQX.

Xoxoday with Zoho CRM

A “rewards” application that can help reawaken cold leads, motivate customers to create referrals, and fuel overall engagement, Xoxoday requires no additional software installation. It gives your sales reps a new and effective arrow in the quiver by presenting rewards, coupons, and other incentives.

Map My Customers

For the sales organization with multiple reps covering multiple territories, a tool like Map My Customers is indispensable. Not only does it enable easy visualization of a territory for an individual rep (along with critical sales information, like hours of operations), it also lets an administrator easily optimize field activities through a robust reporting engine.

Zoho Creator for Zoho CRM

Customizing your Zoho CRM to fit your unique approach to selling is critical to closing more business. With Zoho Creator, you can create or import applications into Zoho and use them as if they were native, adding tabs, etc., so that you never have to leave Zoho CRM to use any tool of the trade you require.

Zoho SalesIQ

Closing sales is about having actionable data at your fingertips at all times. SalesIQ gives you data you can use, revealing, for example, how many times a prospect visited your pricing page or watched a promotional video. The tool also “manages sales operations” by deploying chatbots, automatically routing visitors from a chat request to a rep, and much more. It’s the brains behind your Zoho selling solution.

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Zoho CRM has hundreds of applications, some specific to regions of the world, some specific to certain financial needs, but most with a focus on helping you get more from the solution that helps you get more from your customers. Here, we focused on specific extensions that can and should be used in the selling process, as selling is (for us and our customers, anyway) what it is all about.

Proposal automation software: humble beginnings of CPQ

When it first came on the market, CPQ software was touted as being one major thing: proposal automation software. It was about sales proposal templates, automating the building and easing the sending of sales quotes, and being able to more clearly track every proposal sent.

Let’s call that meaning of CPQ the flip-phone equivalent to today’s smartest smartphone.

Because today CPQ means a whole lot more. Yes, it’s still essentially a “bottom of the funnel” sales tool, and it’s still used to build and send quotes. But businesses of all sizes and across all markets are finding new and effective ways to drive more value from this ever-more flexible, cloud-based solution.

No longer merely a quote builder, CPQ plays a central role in simplifying complex sales… as you shall soon “C.”

Product & pricing configuration/configurator

The crux of CPQ’s transformation from sales proposal automation software to the cornerstone of complex sales is the C in CPQ: configuration. It’s the ability to simplify, centralize, and automate the “assembly” of a complex product.

For example, suppose you sell machinery consisting of hundreds – or even thousands – of components, like heavy equipment used in the construction industry. The equipment you sell may have just a few choices for a chassis, but the options after selecting a chassis become exponential immediately. 

Attempting to both store and keep track of components in a spreadsheet, and then create – to a customer’s unique specifications – a complete, usable product by spreadsheet or other manual process is a heavier lift than most heavy equipment can handle.

However, a configuration engine that has all components stored and most every configuration of those products at the ready helps streamline the process, automating the building of viable deliverables, enabling customization, and ensuring the final deliverable meets all specs. 

“Meets all specs” should be a given, but there are often rules and/or limitations attached to product components that may result in a manual configuration not meeting specs. E.g., the customer may want trailer X with truck Y, but built into your CPQ solution are rules that prevent that assembly as truck Y does not have the horsepower to haul trailer X. While this would be an easy mistake to make in the manual world, it’s impossible to make with rules-based configuration driving product options.

The configuration engine in CPQ is now perhaps its greatest benefit, and is even being used independently of any sales proposals via customer self-serve portals where they are in charge of their own configurations. While not ideal for initial complex sales, such self-serve mechanisms are the perfect fit for companies selling products that require replenishment (as customers need not bother a sales rep for new parts to existing products: they simply place the order).

A bit about pricing

It’s not all about product configuration. There’s the P as well, pricing.

In the past, pricing sheets made the rounds, sales people knew what their margins were, how much room they had to move with discounts, added services, and similar incentives. Then, they could use proposal automation software (if they had it) to make a professional looking sales quote.

Now, pricing can be 100% centralized and administered with CPQ. A sales manager can create geo-specific pricing, fix discount structures, and more. Not only that, but pricing administration can be specific to reps as well (more experienced reps may get more wiggle room, whereas rookies don’t).

In the end, the meaning of CPQ today has practically traveled light years from mere proposal automation software. With automated product configuration and central pricing administration, CPQ is now more like proposal optimization software.

Using quoting software as a mini CRM: A brief “how-to”

Behold the mini-fridge and its mini-freezer! True, it cannot make ice, it does not have a water tap, and you can’t store a Thanksgiving turkey in it. But for offices, dorm rooms, hotels, and more, the mini-fridge is more than enough.

For businesses not ready (or not willing to pay for) an enterprise-level CRM system, there’s a mini-fridge equivalent, the mini CRM.

It’s quoting software, a.k.a., a configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution–which holds account and contact info, stores documents, tracks sales and sales quotes, and helps automate the most critical part of the sales process. For many businesses, a CPQ solution is more than enough CRM.

“Do I really need a CRM solution?”

If you’re serious about sales and marketing, and building lasting, rewarding customer relationships, the answer is “YES.”

You absolutely need a way to store information on those relationships, to track sales, to automate renewals of recurring-revenue products and services, and (if you’re in leadership) to track the progress of your sales teams.

The question is what kind of CRM is best for you. We’re not talking about brands here. Dynamics, Salesforce, Zoho, Oracle, HubSpot–these are all great CRM platforms (and, side note, iQuoteXpress integrates with them all).

Thing is, most of these platforms typically cost well over six-figures annually, which can put them out of reach for SMBs or companies with only a few sales reps. But these companies still have the need to track relationships and sales, and quoting software meets that need (and many more).

Let’s take a look at the similarities and the differences between a standard CRM solution and CPQ.

“What does quoting software do that CRM does, too?”

There is definitely some overlap, some redundancy in the solutions, and in some key areas.

Storing accounts and contacts: you’d be hard-pressed to find the difference between how this information is stored in an enterprise-level CRM and a CPQ solution. The fields are nearly identical, and as both solutions are cloud-based, reps can access customer information from anywhere.

Tracking sales and forecasting: for tracking sales, quoting software may actually do a better job than a standard CRM system as it allows you to granularly track the progress of every sales quote in circulation, which is perhaps the most accurate way to forecast revenue.

“What does CRM do that CPQ doesn’t?”

In a word, marketing. CRM solutions often contain or allow you to add-in features such as…

• an ESP (email service provider: name your provider–MailChimp, Constant Contact, Klayvio, too many to list),

• marketing automation (such as Pardot),

• and lead nurture (such as Marketo).

These tools are critical if you have a marketing team creating lead-gen campaigns and generating MQLs (marketing qualified leads) for your sales team.

“What does quoting software do that CRM doesn’t?”

In a word, closing. While CRM solutions are ideal for “top of the funnel” workflows in sales (tracking incoming leads, tracking leads-into-opportunities, etc.), when it comes to the bottom of the funnel, they usually fall short.

A CPQ solution, however, rises to the occasion of closing sales by helping you…

• Quickly create professional sales proposals: with dozens of templates, your quoting software makes it easy for even a first-time to make a sales quote that looks like it was designed by a pro.

• Optimize product and pricing configurations: critical to expeditious proposal creation is the ability to access and easily add winning product and pricing configurations, which is a core functionality in CPQ:

  • Centrally administered: configurations can be built and controlled at the leadership level (or not… your call)

  • Drag-and-drop: reps simply click to add individual products and bundles to quotes, with a clear path outlined for winning upsells and upgrades

• Centralized management of discount structures: sales leaders can control (by geo, market, or simply preference) which rep has access to which discounts.

• Granular tracking of quotes: CRM usually only offers “sent > signed.” But that’s rarely the path a sales quote takes. There are iterations, conversations, pings, replies, and on and on. Your quoting software lets you get into (and more easily manage) the nitty-gritty involved in getting a sales proposal across the finish line.

“Do I need quoting software AND CRM?”

A hedging answer is all we can offer: it depends.

For enterprise-level companies and some SMBs, the answer is yes, you need both. In these cases, CPQ is mostly used for product and pricing configuration and building/sending proposals. E.g., contact management is typically left exclusively to CRM (as a business needs a single source of truth for this info).

For some other SMBs and companies with smaller sales teams, quoting software may be enough as it helps you close more sales more easily, and tracks the most critical part of the sales process.

To go back to the mini-fridge analogy: if you need an ice machine and a place for a whole Thanksgiving turkey, you’ll need more than a mini. But if what you’re after is a turkey sandwich and a six-pack, mini is more than enough.

How’d it get in there? Creating a product catalog in a CPQ solution.

On the surface, creating a product catalog in a CPQ solution sounds so simple: you just… well… create it. How hard can it be?

The truth is that in many CPQ solutions out there, getting your products into the solution–the way you WANT them in the solution–can be a complex undertaking. E.g., if you’re using Salesforce, there are actual online classes to take that show you how.

Most of us don’t have time for a 15 minute YouTube video let alone a series of tutorials. Which is why even after a business makes an investment in a CPQ solution, the product catalog therein may be lagging, and reps may still be building quotes using spreadsheets because they don’t see what they want–what they’re used to–in the new system.

So how do you do it? How do you take a spreadsheet of hundreds or even thousands of SKUs and “automagically” roll them into your CPQ system? If you’re using iQuoteXpress (IQX), the short answer is you don’t. Because we do it for you.

Leave the heavy lifting to the experts

By definition, a CPQ solution should be making life easier, not harder, for your sales reps. If the system isn’t intuitive or if they can’t find what they’re looking for in the product catalog, they won’t use it.

This isn’t a problem unique to CPQ. User adoption, or lack thereof, is a challenge for every business application. The secret to success and ensuring you hit the ground running is to have every piece in place so all your team needs to do is take the wheel. I.e., don’t make them sit through an online tutorial!

At IQX, we provide a level of implementation support you won’t find anywhere else. Our team works closely with yours, creating bundles and populating the product catalog in your CPQ solution in the exact way you and your team need it done.

When the day comes to go live, you can rest assured that what your reps see in their shiny, new sales proposal tool will be the exact product and pricing configurations they know. The difference will be that instead of entering them manually into each quote, they can now simply point-click.

Single sign-on integration

A familiar product catalog is critical to ensuring successful adoption of a CPQ solution across your business. But perhaps even more importantly is a familiar interface. Which is where seamless integration with CRM is critical. To get people using a new tool, you need to put it in their existing toolbox.

IQX can integrate with every major CRM solution on the market. With single sign-on for Dynamics 365, single sign-on for Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, and an API that makes adding IQX to Salesforce, HubSpot, Oracle and other platforms an easy undertaking, IQX “fits right in” to your existing system.

As with the product catalog, it sounds easy: seamless integration. But how do you do it?

Again, as with the CPQ product catalog, you leave the heavy lifting to IQX. Our engineers ensure that your new application doesn’t come with any of the aforementioned “user adoption” challenges as the app feels and operates more like a new feature in your existing CRM. It’s a seamless integration on the back end and, more importantly, a seamless experience on the front end.

From uploading and integrating every product into the catalog, to integrating the system, to creating an engaging experience for every rep… you can leave it all to the experts at IQX.

Making sales quotes in the cloud: some down to earth benefits

Cloud-based quoting software empowers a sales team to be selling anywhere and all the time. Better still, it empowers a sales team leader to easily access and oversee the “sales quote pipeline,” anywhere and all the time.

It’s 2022: so we shouldn’t have to explain in too much detail the benefits of using cloud-based technology, but the basics are:

• scalable (add/subtract users as needed);

• accessible (use cloud apps anywhere with a web connection)

• predictable (one fixed monthly operating expense);

• flexible (easily incorporate other apps/datasets);

• and cost-effective (no more maintenance fees, no more upgrades).

This naturally applies to all cloud-based apps, but it’s especially critical for sales as sales, more than most any other part of your business, is “always on.” Especially if you’re a global enterprise with reps scattered across the world.

Pulling from the list above, central benefits for making sales quotes with a cloud solution are accessibility and flexibility.

Accessibility: Sales reps need on-demand access

Sales teams have a different motivation than other teams. More than any other department, sales is numbers-driven: quarterly revenue, % of leads into opportunities, # of quotes in the pipeline, and on and on.

As such, sales is typically a 24/7 department, ready to jump into action the moment a lead goes from warm to hot, willing to set up a demo while on PTO, able to build and send a quote in the middle of the night. Which is why a cloud-based sales proposal solution is the only option for successful sales teams.

A rep needs to be able to access quote software no matter where they are, which means your application needs a versatile mobile interface and easy-to-use drag-and-drop tools to select templates, add products and pricing, and conduct follow-up.

But it’s not just individual reps who benefit. A sales team leader also needs on-demand access to the team’s quoting solution, and dashboards that tell them–in a glance–which quotes are moving forward, which may have stalled, and which reps are involved across the board. Only a cloud-based app enables this level of oversight and administration.

Flexibility: Data needs to be shared; reps need support

In the cloud, flexibility usually means integration: can this app easily connect to that one, can data be passed between platforms and easily centralized, do connections between solutions hold or break?

For quoting software, the ability to easily, flexibly integrate with other systems–such as Dynamics, Salesforce, Zoho, and Oracle–is a core requirement. Primarily because it’s the rare case where a company starts with a cloud-based sales proposal solution and then seeks to add a larger CRM or ERP system after. It’s usually the opposite.

Ideally, integration between your back-end and quoting app is via single sign-on, making the app more of a feature of the back-end (rather than “feeling” like a 3rd party solution outside of it). We say “ideally” as most sales departments live-eat-breathe-sleep inside a CRM like Salesforce, and ensuring their tools are in the same toolbox helps ensure adoption.

iQuoteXpress currently has single sign-on with Zoho CRM and Dynamics 365, and an API that makes it easy to integrate with most any other backend: Oracle, HubSpot, even Shopify. 

IQX gets it

Unlike most of the other cloud-based sales quote solutions, iQuoteXpress was designed by sales people for sales people. Every feature and function was put in place in order to put closing first.

iQuoteXpress was also designed to be flexible enough to integrate with major back-end CRM and ERP systems, and also to be used standalone, making it ideal for SMBs or any company without a larger back-end system.

In fact, as it stores contact and account information and offers sales reporting and analytics, iQuoteXpress can even be used as a de facto CRM. And it always has been, and always will be, in the cloud where it’s accessible, flexible, affordable, and so much more.

Dynamics CPQ: From sales proposals to product configurator to sales enablement

Microsoft has long known that CPQ (configure, price, quote) tools have a broader application than simply helping sales reps quickly crank out killer sales proposals.

But everywhere you look, it appears that most 3rd party vendors offering CPQ for Dynamics are still focused exclusively on adding it to D365 Sales. Not saying we don’t get that: after all, iQuoteXpress was designed by salespeople for salespeople, and in our early years, we were all about quotes, quotes, and quotes… sometimes, also about quotes.

What we’re seeing though is how the fundamental strengths of CPQ are being rolled out across enterprise systems.

Proposal data is BI

For example: the data collected by CPQ’s sales reporting and analytics feature (which empowers a business with granular reporting on every quote). This is being captured and codified and rolled into revenue forecasting dashboards.

Go back 10 years, even just five, and you’ll see that forecasting for sales proposals was limited to quotes sent and signed. Where they were in that process “didn’t matter.” But it does.

In fact, the data collected in Dynamics 365 on proposals “in process” is far more important than after the fact as it is actionable. A sales leader can quickly see roadblocks in the closing processes across all reps, spot trends, and respond at a departmental or even enterprise level.

Product configuration for ALL Dynamics solutions

Microsoft rightfully touts the use of product configuration as “becoming the rule rather than the exception, in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer relationships.” And the word “both” is the kicker.

As specialists in creating custom product and pricing configurations for a wide range of clients, we know the power of this feature. And it’s all about “self-service.” For most of our clients, we are empowering their sales teams with the means of quickly creating product and pricing configurations they can drag-and-drop into quotes. We give them the engine that lets them quickly serve these configs themselves.

But lately, we have had more and more clients wanting to take this functionality and hand it directly to their customers, creating self-service mechanisms for their customers that make those customers happy (by putting them in control) and save our clients money (by not having a rep walk customers through the configurations).

Example: a large manufacturing client of ours in the heavy equipment space has nearly 5,000 SKUs. In every initial sale with a new customer, our client uses IQX to create a custom quote with the exact configurations each customer requires.

However, every product they sell has a shelf-life (heavy equipment is guaranteed to wear down). When a customer comes back, needing replacement parts, they can simply use the product and pricing configuration tool (embedded in an ecommerce back-end) and serve themselves.

So while CPQ works great with D365 Sales, it’s now also being used to help create product and pricing configurations across the platform: D365 SCM, D365 Customer Service, D365 Commerce, and more.

Dynamics 365: built for sales enablement (with a little help from its friends)

The beauty of Dynamics is its modular nature. You add what you need, and nothing more. You can add modules for commerce, for human resources, for finance, for customer journeys, and more.

When you add CPQ to Dynamics, you add an application, yes, but you also extend Dynamics from being a supporting back-end system (for customer data, accounting, marketing, and operational tasks) into being a sales enablement solution that helps drive revenue:

• on the B2B side (by empowering reps with the ability to make proposals quickly) and

• on the B2C side (by giving customers the means of making the products of their dreams).

Not only that, but CPQ helps you uncover a new, more actionable data set that you can act on in real-time to drive sales. A level of reporting that further enables each individual sale, and furthers sales enablement across the enterprise.

The difference between “quote to cash” and CPQ

What’s the difference between quote to cash and CPQ? It almost always depends on the type of CPQ system you’re using.

In most every “quote to cash” software solution (QTC), a configure, price, quote tool is the cornerstone of the overall application, the piece of the puzzle that helps a rep turn a discussion with a prospect into a sales quote and that officially kicks off the actual sale.

However, more and more CPQ solutions are also providing functionality that helps a sales rep close the sale, collect the payment, and track every step along the way.

We’re going to discuss a few of the ways CPQ has evolved over the years to become a full-service QTC solution, but first let’s answer a key question.

Can you have a quote to cash solution without CPQ?

The answer is a whole-hearted “sorta!” The first word in QTC is quote, and there’s more than one way to create a quote. You can use Word or Excel, you can use a sales proposal template, you can even put it in a text or write it on the back of a cocktail napkin.

But… if you’re serious about getting a professionally designed, highly targeted, absolutely on-brand sales quote to a prospect – and getting it there quickly – there’s no way you’re using Word or Excel. You’re using a CPQ solution as it facilitates speed and professionalism in building, sending, and tracking quotes.

As (or perhaps more) importantly, CPQ provides a fundamental functionality in the QTC process – product and pricing configuration. The ability to both locally create and centrally administer how products are put together was a “quiet” benefit of early CPQ systems, which mostly promoted themselves as sales proposal automation tools.

But the demand for product configuration functionality has been moving away from sales quotes alone into QTC, eCommerce, and even into the hands of consumers. For example, a consumer may be selling or shopping for a camera. It’s product configuration features that automatically enable adding components or services ranging from tripods to lenses to extended warranties, etc. (Now imagine this at the B2B level where a manufacturing client can – with no help from a rep – double monthly order sizes, upgrade service packages, etc. Easy money.)

So… can you have a QTC solution without a CPQ backend? Yes, you can. You can also have a hamburger without fries… but why would you?

What makes a CPQ solution into a QTC?

In a word (rather, a few words), sales tracking and reporting. A CPQ system has within it (or should) sales analytics tools that help you see when a quote was sent, by whom, any changes made along the way, and so on.

What transforms a CPQ into a QTC is extending that tracking to cover payments as well, which can be done via a simple integration with a backend ERP or financial system that records collections and payments. In some cases, for smaller businesses, the CPQ’s ability to store Account and Contact information provides more than enough functionality to serve as a de facto QTC.

QTC sometimes provides the ability to automate parts of the collection process (e.g., sending invoices), but beyond that there’s very little a QTC can do that a CPQ can’t also do.

So… what makes a CPQ solution into a QTC? In most cases, nothing more is needed. It’s simply a different name for the same thing. In other cases, quite a bit more is needed. With IQX, it’s the former case: you’re good to go. If you still have questions, we can demo IQX for you and show you how to get all your quote to cash needs met by one of the easiest to use and most affordable CPQs on the market.

More than sales quotes: the 2022 meaning of CPQ

In 2022, CPQ doesn’t really mean what it used to.

For most of the past 20 years, configure, price, quote software was viewed primarily as a B2B sales tool used to quickly generate professional proposals. It still does that, but consider this…

For most of the past 150 years, the phone was used primarily to make person-to-person calls. The device we still call a “phone” continues to provide that basic functionality, but has evolved to do…well.. just about everything.

We’re not saying CPQ does everything, but it’s currently evolving and being used to do a whole lot more than simply create sales proposals. Here are a few ways the meaning of CPQ is changing in 2022.

Less emphasis on the Q, more on the C and P

Perhaps the greatest change in the CPQ space in recent years has been businesses often “isolating” the product and pricing configurator (the C and the P), and creating customer-facing systems.

A product and pricing configurator both empowers your customers to create the exact solutions they require, and also frees up your staff to focus on driving new business.

This doesn’t mean people aren’t still using CPQ to build and send quotes. But many businesses are now realizing that the sales quote process–which can be lengthy– is typically only required for new business. Existing customers who need to restock or update or upgrade can, and should, be given the tools to do so themselves.

CPQ in eCommerce

In 2021, iQuoteXpress launched our CPQ B2B eCommerce solution, which allows B2B customers to “essentially direct the sales process, to explore product, pricing, and service options, and to navigate a B2B sale as easily as they shop on Amazon.”

Turns out we were ahead of the game, as most every provider in the space is now touting CPQ as an ecommerce solution.

In some cases, there are existing ecommerce companies adding product and pricing configuration to their sites (and even enabling customers to create quotes, when needed).

But what we’ve seen in our clients is kind of the reverse. Using elements of the Shopify platform, we’re empowering clients to add ecommerce shopping capabilities – adding products to a cart, processing payments, etc. – to their existing CPQ platforms.

The benefit is an easier means of meeting customer expectations. Why? Because by putting customers in the “driver’s seat,” as it were, they set their own expectations, dictate their own “shopping” experience, and are concurrently more engaged and satisfied. It’s an easy win-win.

CRMPQ?

More than a few of our clients are using CPQ solutions as a de facto CRM: in 2022, we have already received multiple inquiries from new prospects asking about CPQ as a “mini” CRM. For SMBs, this makes sense for a variety of reasons:

1. CRM solutions can be very, very expensive. For a business with revenues under $5m annually, the investment in an enterprise-level back-end is simply undoable.
   

2. Many of the functions in CRM are in CPQ. Contact storage, account management, sales analytics–all of these and more are standard with most every major CPQ solution.
   

3. Managing/tracking sales IS managing/tracking customer relationships. CRM (customer relationship management) solutions can be very helpful in larger organizations with complex lead generation programs and nurture campaigns that require detailed tracking and reporting.
   
   But for most companies, the primary metric is sales: quotes sent, deals won. And CPQ has that covered, and in deep detail.
   

2022 should be a huge year for B2B sales and the technologies that power them. As we move on from the pandemic, we’re going to need to kick-start revenues, and CPQ–in itself and as part of other selling solutions–will be a cornerstone in helping drive more revenue more quickly.

The meaning of CPQ in 2022? It means business.

The Experlogix Alternative: Why Pay More for Quoting Software?

The word is out. You don’t have to settle for Experlogix when it comes to adding a robust, fully integrated configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution to Dynamics 365. iQuoteXpress (IQX) offers the same quoting software functionality and features, but at a fraction of the cost (and with a few more benefits, too!).

Experlogix pricing: is cheaper better?

It’s not that Experlogix costs are wildly off-base. In fact, they’re often right in line with licensing costs on enterprise-level ERP solutions. Which is why, for most mid-size companies, Experlogix usually doesn’t cost out.

There are dozens (hundreds?) of CPQ providers in the market, and when the market gets saturated, companies often engage in a race to the bottom, lowering prices, one after the other. Which is not a good thing, as quality often suffers.

When you’re looking at pricing of quoting software – be it Experlogix, IQX, or ______ – remember that what you’re actually looking for is value. And value is usually more than a number.

Why pricing in CPQ matters… and why it doesn’t

If you’re Amazon, you probably don’t worry too much about the cost of any individual software license: you simply view it as a cap-ex, a capital expenditure, the cost of doing business, no returns generated.

However, with CPQ, you can – nay, you MUST – expect ROI on your spend. Because every sale has a CPA attached (cost per acquisition). If you’re measuring the amount of time your salespeople spend on any given sale, the building, sending, and tracking of sales quotes figures into that number, and would be key to determining CPA.

With IQX, our customers generally see quoting times reduced by as much as 70%, which makes ROI a near guarantee as IQX is priced at around $1 per day, per seat. Most CPQ providers don’t publish their pricing, but it’s critical for any CPQ customer to take that “per seat” price into account.

But, while price matters, it’s not the only thing. When evaluating CPQ providers such as Experlogix, IQX, et al., dig into supporting services: before implementation, during implementation, and after.

Also, with IQX, support is free, and setting up product and pricing configurations, a cornerstone of the implementation process, is included. In calculating ROI, calculate the cost of such services as well. Sometimes, some CPQ providers will “get you” on the back-end with support costs.

Integration with Dynamics

Finally, one of Experlogix’s biggest selling points over the years has been integration with Dynamics. Yes, it’s true: Experlogix does integrate with Dynamics. So does IQX, so does just about every other CPQ solution on the market.

What you’re looking for in a Dynamics CPQ integration is a single sign-on that essentially makes CPQ into just another feature with Microsoft’s CRM solutions.

Salespeople are notoriously creatures of habit. Getting them to use new solutions is often an uphill climb. But getting them to use new features in the solutions they already use? A win.

Is IQX better than Experlogix?

“Better” is usually in the eye of the beholder. But ROI isn’t. If you’re currently using Experlogix, we’d like to give you a tour of IQX as we believe you’ll find every feature you require and at a fraction of the cost. The only thing you have to lose is overhead.

The new meaning of PPC: Product Pricing Configurator

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:

1. What is a product pricing configurator anyway?

2. Can you use product pricing configuration outside of CPQ? (The short answer is… yes.)

3. 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.