Step Into the Future with CPQ

Strona główna > Salesforce > Step Into the Future with CPQ

Step Into the Future with CPQ

Explore Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) Challenges and Solutions

Are you ready to improve how your business configures, prices, and quotes its products? With a modern CPQ system, you can leave outdated processes behind and embrace tools that streamline your workflow and boost efficiency. Along this path, you have the tools to succeed.

What Is CPQ, and Why Does It Matter?

CPQ—short for Configure, Price, Quote—is the engine that drives efficient sales processes. It’s like the navigator guiding you from a customer’s initial interest to a signed deal and beyond. By configuring tailored solutions, accurately pricing them, and generating precise quotes, CPQ ensures your journey from lead to billing is smooth and error-free.

Common CPQ Challenges: Navigating the Stormy Seas

Sophia Perez, a sales manager at Infiwave, a communications service provider, knows these challenges all too well. Her team uses an outdated CPQ system that feels like driving a car stuck in first gear while competitors zoom ahead in sleek electric vehicles. These are the roadblocks she and her team face:

  • Manual processes: Eligibility, availability, and pricing checks involve back-and-forth emails, slowing down the sales cycle.
  • Errors in quotes: Small mistakes snowball into customer dissatisfaction and margin erosion.
  • Poor user experience: Outdated interfaces and rigid workflows frustrate employees.

Do these challenges sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. Many businesses struggle with legacy systems that act as glitches in their sales cycle, holding them back from achieving full potential.

CPQ: Your Compass in the Sales Cycle

In the intricate journey from lead to cash, CPQ is your compass, ensuring you never lose your way. By integrating with CRM systems and automating critical checks—like product availability, customer eligibility, and pricing validation—a modern CPQ solution keeps your sales team on course, reducing errors and enhancing efficiency.
Imagine a system that:

  • Filters products based on customer context, showing only what’s relevant.
  • Automates pricing calculations, discounts, and profit margin checks.
  • Supports seamless contract creation and order submission with a click.

Advanced CPQ systems even act like co-pilots, offering real-time insights and guiding decisions with built-in intelligence.

The Future of CPQ: Your Ticket to Tomorrow

The world of CPQ is evolving rapidly, with new trends paving the way for a brighter future:

  • Self-service capabilities: Empower customers to create their own quotes through intuitive interfaces.
  • Vertical specialization: Industry-specific solutions tailored to your unique needs.
  • Enhanced user experience: Sleek, modern designs that are easy to use and visually appealing.
  • Intelligent personalization: Systems that adapt to customer preferences, ensuring a bespoke experience every time.

Sophia dreams of leaving the glitches of her outdated system behind. She sees a future where her team moves effortlessly through the sales cycle, guided by a CPQ system that’s not just a tool but a partner in success.

Take the First Step

Every great journey begins with a single step. Modernizing your CPQ system isn’t just an upgrade—it’s a transformation. Let us help you chart the course to a future where efficiency, accuracy, and customer satisfaction reign supreme.
Are you ready to leave the past behind and embrace the future of CPQ? The road ahead is clear, and your destination awaits.

CPQ in Action: The Sales Cycle Process

Click on any term in the diagram to see its definition in the CPQ context.

Lead

Opportunity

Quote

Contract

Order

Provisioning

Activation

Billing

Lead

A lead represents the initial contact between a potential customer and the business. This occurs when a prospective buyer expresses interest in a product or service, such as by filling out a form, calling a sales representative, or engaging with a marketing campaign. Once the interaction takes place, a lead record is created in the CRM system, capturing essential details that will help the sales team determine the next steps.

Opportunity

If a lead shows genuine interest and meets certain criteria, it is converted into an opportunity. This stage involves a deeper assessment of the customer’s needs, potential deal size, and likelihood of closing. An opportunity record is created in the CRM, helping sales representatives track the progress of negotiations, customize solutions, and prepare for the next phase of the sales process.

Quote

At this stage, the CPQ system comes into play by generating a tailored quote based on the customer’s requirements. The quote includes product configurations, pricing details, and eligibility checks to ensure the offering aligns with the customer’s needs. Automation in CPQ ensures accuracy and consistency, reducing manual errors and accelerating the process of delivering proposals to potential buyers.

Contract

Once the customer reviews and agrees to the quote, a contract is drafted to formalize the agreement. This document outlines the terms and conditions, including pricing, service level agreements, and legal obligations. Depending on company policies, the contract may need approval from legal or finance teams before it is presented to the customer for signing.

Order

After the contract is finalized and signed, the sales team creates an order that captures all the necessary details required for fulfillment. This includes technical specifications, product configurations, and any additional customer requests. The order is then submitted to the order-management system, where it moves forward in the sales cycle.

Provisioning

Provisioning involves preparing the necessary products, services, and resources required for delivery. This step ensures that the right inventory, technical infrastructure, or service setup is available to meet the customer’s request. In cases involving physical products, this may include warehouse coordination and shipping logistics.

Activation

Once provisioning is complete, the product or service is activated and made available for customer use. For software or digital services, this may involve account setup, licensing, or system integrations. In industries such as telecommunications, activation may include configuring network access or scheduling an on-site installation.

Billing

The final step in the process is billing, where an invoice is generated based on the agreed-upon terms. The invoice reflects the pricing details outlined in the contract, including any applied discounts or promotions. Once the customer receives the invoice, they proceed with payment, completing the transaction and officially closing the sales cycle.
Modern CPQ systems ensure every step—from lead to billing—is streamlined and accurate, making the sales cycle more efficient and customer-friendly.

Lead

Opportunity

Quote

Contract

Order

Provisioning

Activation

Billing

Lead

A lead represents the initial contact between a potential customer and the business. This occurs when a prospective buyer expresses interest in a product or service, such as by filling out a form, calling a sales representative, or engaging with a marketing campaign. Once the interaction takes place, a lead record is created in the CRM system, capturing essential details that will help the sales team determine the next steps.

Opportunity

If a lead shows genuine interest and meets certain criteria, it is converted into an opportunity. This stage involves a deeper assessment of the customer’s needs, potential deal size, and likelihood of closing. An opportunity record is created in the CRM, helping sales representatives track the progress of negotiations, customize solutions, and prepare for the next phase of the sales process.

Quote

At this stage, the CPQ system comes into play by generating a tailored quote based on the customer’s requirements. The quote includes product configurations, pricing details, and eligibility checks to ensure the offering aligns with the customer’s needs. Automation in CPQ ensures accuracy and consistency, reducing manual errors and accelerating the process of delivering proposals to potential buyers.

Contract

Once the customer reviews and agrees to the quote, a contract is drafted to formalize the agreement. This document outlines the terms and conditions, including pricing, service level agreements, and legal obligations. Depending on company policies, the contract may need approval from legal or finance teams before it is presented to the customer for signing.

Order

After the contract is finalized and signed, the sales team creates an order that captures all the necessary details required for fulfillment. This includes technical specifications, product configurations, and any additional customer requests. The order is then submitted to the order-management system, where it moves forward in the sales cycle.

Provisioning

Provisioning involves preparing the necessary products, services, and resources required for delivery. This step ensures that the right inventory, technical infrastructure, or service setup is available to meet the customer’s request. In cases involving physical products, this may include warehouse coordination and shipping logistics.

Activation

Once provisioning is complete, the product or service is activated and made available for customer use. For software or digital services, this may involve account setup, licensing, or system integrations. In industries such as telecommunications, activation may include configuring network access or scheduling an on-site installation.

Billing

The final step in the process is billing, where an invoice is generated based on the agreed-upon terms. The invoice reflects the pricing details outlined in the contract, including any applied discounts or promotions. Once the customer receives the invoice, they proceed with payment, completing the transaction and officially closing the sales cycle.
Modern CPQ systems ensure every step—from lead to billing—is streamlined and accurate, making the sales cycle more efficient and customer-friendly.

Overcoming Challenges in Your Sales and Order Processes

Every business faces obstacles that slow down their sales cycle and impact customer satisfaction. Let’s address some of the key challenges your company might be experiencing and explore how modern solutions can help you overcome them.

Creating Quotes and
Orders Takes Too Long
Inaccurate Quotes and Orders
Business Process
Bottlenecks
Falling Short on
Customer Expectations
Struggling to Keep Up
with Market Changes

Does generating quotes feel like an uphill battle? You’re not alone. Many sales teams find themselves bogged down by outdated processes and fragmented systems. Here’s what you might be facing:

  • Scattered information: Critical quoting data is stored across multiple systems, making it time-consuming to gather and consolidate.
  • Complicated tools: Legacy CPQ systems can be cumbersome, with steep learning curves that frustrate your team and delay results.
  • Missed opportunities: Without prompts for upselling or cross-selling, potential revenue slips through the cracks. Complex quotes, like those for multisite orders, become even more daunting.

Solution: A modern CPQ system brings everything into one streamlined platform. It integrates seamlessly with your CRM, simplifies the quoting process, and uses intelligent prompts to identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities—saving time and maximizing sales potential.

Have you ever had an order go sideways because of missing or incorrect details? This is a common frustration, especially when dealing with a vast product catalog and regional constraints. The issues may include:

  • Compatibility confusion: Knowing which products work together or are available for specific customers or regions is a challenge.
  • Pricing errors: Managing discounts, frame agreements, and other context-specific pricing scenarios can feel like navigating a maze, leading to incorrect quotes or unapproved discounts.

Solution: Advanced CPQ systems offer automated validation checks, ensuring accurate product configurations and pricing. By reducing manual errors, they help you build trust with your customers and maintain healthy profit margins.

Sometimes the roadblocks aren’t in the tools but in the processes. For example:

  • Delayed approvals: Waiting on a manager’s approval can cause frustrating delays that drive potential customers to competitors.
  • Duplicate data entry: Re-entering the same information across quotes, contracts, and orders wastes time and increases the risk of errors.
  • Limited visibility: When you can’t easily check order progress or reservation details from the same interface, it creates inefficiencies and slows responses to customer inquiries.

Solution: A unified system automates approvals, streamlines data flow from quotes to contracts, and provides end-to-end visibility—all in one platform. This keeps your team agile and responsive to customer needs.

Customers today demand seamless, personalized service. Without the right tools, providing this level of care becomes a challenge:

  • Inconsistent experiences: Different sales channels may offer conflicting quotes or inaccurate information, leading to frustration and lost business.
  • Lack of personalization: Competitors are tailoring offers to fit customer preferences and eligibility—why not you?
  • Cumbersome order changes: When customers want to modify existing orders, the process can become unnecessarily complex and time-consuming.

Solution: Modern CPQ platforms enable omnichannel consistency, ensuring customers get the same accurate quotes across web, in-store, and other channels. With built-in intelligence, you can tailor offers to match customer preferences and make order changes in just a few clicks.

In a fast-moving market, delays in launching new products or services can leave your business trailing behind. Common pain points include:

  • Slow time-to-market: Developing, testing, and launching new offerings takes too long, leaving you vulnerable to competitors.
  • Misaligned teams: Poor collaboration between marketing, product, and engineering departments results in errors and delays.

Solution: An integrated CPQ system accelerates the time-to-market process. With collaborative tools and shared workflows, your teams can align better, ensuring new products are market-ready without delays or mistakes.

guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Categories

Help us fundraising “Together for Ukraine”!

Donate