BUILD A FEARLESS SALES FORCE. CPQ Guide. CPQ Readiness check list Key questions to ask CPQ vendors CPQ implementation guide.

Transcription

1 BUILD A FEARLESS SALES FORCE CPQ Guide CPQ Readiness check list Key questions to ask CPQ vendors CPQ implementation guide

2 CPQ Guide The best sales teams are always looking for ways to improve efficiency, and many of the top companies, analysts, and sales experts are starting to look at Configure Price Quote solution (CPQ) as a way to take their sales to the next level. Unfortunately, adding new software to your sales process isn t always easy. Successful implementation requires full commitment from the sales organisation and UILD from sales support and IT, as well as assessment A of business cases and potential return on investment. Apparound Guide to CPQ will help you grow your understanding of Configure Price Quote solution (CPQ), determine whether to invest in CPQ solution and find how to select the best CPQ vendor. EARLESS Inside this CPQ Guide: What is CPQ Whether to invest in CPQ ALES How to choose your CPQ 7 How to make a successful CPQ roll out 9 CONFIGURE PRICE QUOTE What is CPQ CPQ (Configure Price Quote) solutions is a growing software category that commonly refers to an integrated set of software which supports the process of configuring an offer, calculating pricing, and generating a quote. CPQ solutions allow a sales force to address one of the primary needs of today s BB buyers: providing a unique combination of products and product options that match the needs of the buyer. Configure Price Quote applications can enable your sales agents to configure complex product offerings, following company-specific rules while meeting your customers needs. Configure Price Quote software enables any sales team to create quotes with accurate and consistent pricing, including discounts, upfront payments, bundles and more. CPQ solutions let you put guidelines in place that ensure your sales agents only sell using the latest approved pricing rules. CPQ solutions also ensure that your sales force can handle volume discounts and provide pre-negotiated contract pricing. CPQ software automatically pulls together the configured products and pricing, makes quality and compatibility checks, and generates a consistent and professional quotation. With only one click, a sales agent can create a quote, send the quote to the customer via , or even close the deal on the spot with e-signature. The term CPQ sometimes gets used interchangeably with other terms. Here are few examples of common CPQ related terms: CPQ (Configure Price Quote) refers to an integrated set of software, which supports the process of configuring an offer, calculating pricing, and generating a quote. Product configuration refers to a process of selecting and combining product and options to create the ideal offer for a customer. Guided selling describes a process of step-by-step guidance of the salespeople through a series of questions right to the final combinations of complex products and services and optimal offer for customers. Quotation solution means a system that calculates and produces professional sales quotations, proposals and legal contracts. Sales content management refers to a mix of technology processes, which allows a company to find, organise, and distribute sales knowledge throughout the organisation in real time. We re here to help if you have any questions about what you read. Feel free to send us an at info@apparound.com. 6 CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) refers to an integrated system, which supports the entire contract lifecycle from a proposal creation through to approval and execution.

3 CPQ Guide CPQ Readiness check list First of all, you have to ask yourself how can you determine whether the time is right for your company to invest in Configure Price Quote solution HERE ARE SIGNS THAT CPQ SOLUTION MIGHT BE A GOOD INVESTMENT: DEALS VANISH WHILE WAITING FOR APPROVAL DEALS VANISH WHILE WAITING FOR APPROVAL After winning customer attention, getting together all required information, and even preparing a mistake-free sales proposal, it is very costly to let a deal slip away because approval arrived too late. Automating the approval process lets sales agents close the deal quicker. When implementing a Configure price Quote solution, an average of 8% fewer internal stakeholders need to be involved in offer preparation and approval. Hence sales people are nearly twice more effective at avoiding no decision sales losses. [Aberdeen Group, CPQ: Better, faster sales deals enabled, Now 0]. SALES PEOPLE SPEND MORE TIME PREPARING QUOTES THAN SELLING SALES PEOPLE SPEND MORE TIME PREPARING QUOTES THAN SELLING If your sales agents are spending more time on quote preparation and other paperwork, it is crucial to automate and minimize those tasks so your agents can get back to selling full time. Implementing a Configure Price Quote solution can achieve a minimum of 0% fewer iterations of the typical sales proposal. Moreover, sales people equipped with CPQ solution spend significantly less hours searching for vital sales content, proposal templates, pricing guides, and marketing materials. As a result, sales force with Configure Price Quote solutions are % more proficient at rapidly responding to RFPs and preparing offers. [Aberdeen Group, CPQ= Better Sales Productivity, Dec 0] MARGIN IS HEAVILY DISCOUNTED MARGIN IS HEAVILY DISCOUNTED Every deal involves a certain degree of price negotiation sometimes providing a discount helps close the deal. But detailed orders may have complex pricing rules, and sales people might end up applying discounts that cut into your overall margin. CPQ solutions allow you to establish specific pricing rules that prevent unprofitable discounts. CPQ users are % more adept than others at demonstrating price by exception expertise, because CPQ guides every potential sale through pre-approved discounting scenarios, protecting the margin while enabling sales agents to give discounts without checking with the boss at each step. [Aberdeen Group, CPQ: Better, faster sales deals enabled, Now 0]. PRODUCTS ARE TOO COMPLEX FOR SALES PEOPLE PRODUCTS ARE TOO COMPLEX FOR SALES PEOPLE With guided selling functionality, and detailed product information available at the click of a button, Configure Price Quote solution can ease the burden of a complex product portfolio. Top sales organizations which implemented Configure Price Quote solutions report that their sales agents are 79% more effective at generating complex sales quotes and engaging in knowledgeable conversations with their prospects. [Aberdeen Group, Configure-Price-Quote: Better, Faster Sales Deals Enabled, June 0] MISTAKES IN QUOTES ARE COSTLY FOR YOUR COMPANY MISTAKES IN QUOTES ARE COSTLY FOR YOUR COMPANY If you find that mistakes in the quotation process are extremely expensive for your organization, implementing a CPQ solution is likely a good investment. Configure Price Quote solutions guide the user through the sales process, and generate quotes automatically based on customer decisions, saving your organization from costly quotation mistakes and dissatisfied customers. CPQ solutions have been found to save time and prevent potential embarrassment, lowering mistakes by over 0% and improving proposal quality by more than twice that of other sales automation systems.

4 6 CPQ Guide 7 Key questions to ask CPQ vendors If you have decided that your organization is ready to start using CPQ solution, you want to find the solution that works best for you. AS YOU BEGIN YOUR INITIAL SEARCH OR PREPARE AN RFI, THERE Question ARE KEY Recap QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK WHEN SELECTING A POTENTIAL CPQ VENDOR: Is there adequate ROI calculation for the CPQ solution Does the solution support varied types of content in a customized structure Does the CPQ solution integrate with CRM, salesforce, or ERP systems Will your CPQ solution be available on mobile devices Will your CPQ solution function offline IS THERE ADEQUATE ROI CALCULATION FOR THE CPQ SOLUTION Make sure your sales metrics are accurately measured before and after implementing CPQ Ensure that any potential vendors can provide data about all costs versus benefits of their CPQ solution, as well as referrals and benchmark cases from other companies with similar selling processes. The only way to ensure adequate ROI on your investment is to track information like proposal error rates, time-to-sign, and the percentage of quotes that turn into orders. DOES THE SOLUTION SUPPORT VARIED TYPES OF CONTENT IN A CUSTOMIZED STRUCTURE An ideal CPQ solution will support all different types of marketing and sales content (product brochures, videos, pricing guidelines, templates, and more). Make sure the CPQ solutions will be structured so that all content is easily accessible and always up to date via the back-end or Content Mnagaement System (CMS). DOES THE CPQ SOLUTION INTEGRATE WITH CRM, SALESFORCE, OR ERP SYSTEMS Check upfront whether all your existing systems will be able to integrate easily, especially if a new software suppose to streamline existing sales processeses. Ask all potential vendors to provide examples of how integration was handled with previous customers. WILL YOUR CPQ SOLUTION BE AVAILABLE ON MOBILE DEVICES It is important that the modern sales rep in the field can access data from a smartphone or tablet. Even if highly complex product configuration is not smartphone-friendly, it should at least be possible on tablets. Check the ability to track sales performance, offer progress, and target achievements on mobile, as these are a must-have in today s business environment. WILL YOUR CPQ SOLUTION FUNCTION OFFLINE In addition to mobile functionality, your CPQ must work offline so sales reps can work from anywhere and configure orders, generate quotes, and view product information even without an internet connection. Many CPQ providers do not support offline CPQ, stating high costs and the massive workload required to implement offline quote-generation, therefor make sure the CPQ solution will have offline functionality.

5 8 CPQ Guide 9 CPQ implementation guide If you have decided that your organization is ready for CPQ solution and even have selected a CPQ vendor, you want to make sure your CPQ solution will be effectivly implemented and rolled out. TO HELP OUR CUSTOMERS ACHIEVE A GREAT CPQ IMPLEMENTATION AND INSURE A HIGH PERFORMANCE, WE PREPAREDSOME CPQ BEST PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE EARLY STAGE OF A CPQ IMPLEMENTATION. STEP : DEFINE PRODUCT CONFIGURATION RULES. The CPQ admin together with the product experts must define different types of rules: negative and positive compatibility rules. Defined configuration rules will become the basis for automated quotations and a guarantee of no errors. At this point it is sufficient to only describe business logic and terms, which later will be replicated in the CPQ system. STEP : TEST CPQ RULES TOGETHER WITH SALES PEOPLE. As soon as the configuration rules are mapped, the CPQ admin should start testing these rules as well as the entire configuration logic in order to ensure that the CPQ system will work as planned. After internal pricing and configuration testing, but prior to going live with a freshly prepared CPQ solution, it is important to do a field testing and initiate a pilot project for Proof of Concept. STEP : DEFINE CPQ USER SCENARIOS AND SELECT PRODUCT PORTFOLIO. At the beginning of the implementation it is crucial to assign a CPQ admin and build a team with expertise from each of the effected departments. The different subject-matter experts from product, sales, marketing and the IT team will help to identify the must have CPQ user scenarios for you CPQ. The team will also have to define the product portfolio to be added to the CPQ system. After the product portfolio is defined, CPQ admin with a help of the product and sales team must identify product configuration and pricing details. STEP : IDENTIFY DEPENDENCES AMONG PRODUCTS. The CPQ admin must then establish relationships among defined products and their components. This particularly applies to complex products and bundles. The CPQ admin should also map all component relationships and create price matrixes before adding products to the CPQ system. Once all components are related, it is possible to create option groups and start defining product configuration rules.

6 0 CPQ Guide What Apparound Customers Have Experienced Whit Apparound CPQ, sales people can have

7 Build a Fearless Sales Force