What Is CPQ?
A Manufacturer’s Best
Friend!
Time is one of your most valuable resources — you need time to pursue new opportunities and to grow your business. Yet, so many manufacturers still waste time taking orders manually, directly through a sales rep, without the assistance of configure, price, quote (CPQ) software. Take this example of a typical quoting process:
You manage a small, independently owned manufacturer of specialty delivery vehicles. A sales rep receives a call from a company looking to order 10 trucks for their fleet. Your rep goes through all available options with the customer, explaining what your capabilities are.
Then, the rep contacts the manufacturing floor and talks to the engineers and machinists to put together a bill of materials (BOM). Only at this stage is your team able to determine if they can meet the customer’s requested specifications.
Of course, as this process takes place, someone has to record all information, determine what customizations are required, and apply those pricing rules to the quote. After all this, it could take days to finally generate a quote.
It’s tough to wait for a major order that can make or break your company’s bottom line — and each day that passes is another day your potential customer could switch to a competitor. Even after you deliver the quote, the customer could come back to update their specifications or alter the product mix, forcing you to start the quoting process all over again.
There has to be a better way.
A quick, accurate quoting process takes more than an Excel spreadsheet to pull off. That’s a 20th century solution for a 21st century business.
You need CPQ software to do the job.
