Are you struggling to develop a solid business case for a CPQ solution or having a hard time justifying the investment? Then, this article will help you put together a compelling business case. So broadly, we can outline the benefits of a CPQ solution in two areas: namely, cost savings through efficient processes and incremental revenue through improved and automated sales processes, detailed as follows:
Cost Savings
Efficient Quoting Process
A manual quoting process utilizing a complex spreadsheet leaves much room for error in product configuration, pricing, quote approval process, and sharing the approved quote with a customer. So what is the total timeline for a sales rep to manually prepare a quote, obtain internal approvals, and share the approved quote with the customer? In addition, what is the cost to manually keep the current product and pricing information accurate, so the sales team is sharing the most accurate product and pricing information with the customer? How much revenue has your company lost due a manual, disconnected quoting process? Is your customer enjoying a positive or negative customer experience? How will CPQ change this?
Product Configuration and Pricing Error Reduction
Human error and oversight often result in an incorrect product configuration and pricing calculation. Discovery of these errors unfortunately occurs after the customer accepts the quote. Fixing these errors is not only time consuming but costly. They could lead to lost deals, frustrated customers, or reduced profit margins. How much time has been lost correcting these errors? How does it affect the customer experience?
Integration
Additionally, with a manual Quoting process, Sales Quotes are typically generated using a spreadsheet. After the quote has been accepted, the order entry team must re-key the quote into an ERP system. With an automated CPQ solution, integration with ERP allows you to keep your pricing and product information in sync with CPQ. But also allows you to convert a quote to a sales order with one click, thus eliminating manual data entry and potential errors.
Incremental Revenue
Sales Team Productivity
With CPQ, Sales Reps are able to substantially reduce the time spent creating a quote. Allowing them to spend their valuable time on more productive activities, such as calling prospects and closing deals. Resulting in sales revenue gains.
Guided Selling, Upsell, and Cross-sell
You can streamline products and configuration capabilities using CPQ. Additionally, Guided Selling is a strong feature. Guided Selling prevents salespeople, especially inexperienced reps, from missing sales opportunities. Guided Selling empowers sales reps to provide additional options to customers during the quoting process. Enhancing the upsell and cross-sell opportunities, which leads to increased revenue.
Higher Selling Price
Inexperienced sales reps coupled with a manual quoting process are a recipe for disaster. It fosters a culture of getting to close by leveraging steep discounts. By applying strict discount rules in CPQ, sales reps will have visibility of what it will take to close a deal quickly. What is the discount threshold? How long to reach quote approval? CPQ automates the process, eliminating the need for multiple sales iterations and maximizing profitability.
In conclusion, it is proven that SAP CPQ helps customers reduce their complex quoting process from days to minutes. Reduce IT and infrastructure costs by 80% and increase sales pipeline by 119%. If you would like to see a personalized SAP CPQ demo for your sales process, please reach out to teamASAR.