Show me a salesperson who craves more administration and I’ll show you someone who won’t hit their target. Admin is an anathema to most salespeople. Trying to...
Show me a salesperson who craves more administration and I’ll show you someone who won’t hit their target. Admin is an anathema to most salespeople. Trying to avoid doing lots of admin might be one of the main reasons they moved into sales in the first place. There are five main ways that implementing a CPQ system can save administration time: 1) Rekeying Information CPQ is generally integrated with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. So, it’s straightforward for...
Show me a salesperson who craves more administration and I’ll show you someone who won’t hit their target. Admin is an anathema to most salespeople. Trying to avoid doing lots of admin might be one of...
Asset based ordering (ABO), which is sometimes referred to as Subscription Ordering, is a powerful capability that extends the reach of CPQ. For businesses that...
Asset based ordering (ABO), which is sometimes referred to as Subscription Ordering, is a powerful capability that extends the reach of CPQ. For businesses that sell subscriptions, recurring licenses, support agreements or modular solutions, it can allow these transactions to be handled effectively beyond the initial sale and gives great scope for managing renewals. Critically, it also provides the capability for up-sell and cross-sell opportunities to be captured, delivering...
Asset based ordering (ABO), which is sometimes referred to as Subscription Ordering, is a powerful capability that extends the reach of CPQ. For businesses that sell subscriptions, recurring licenses,...
Many CPQ projects that start with good intentions for sales somehow change into ‘an administration efficiency project’ along the way. While that’s a great...
Many CPQ projects that start with good intentions for sales somehow change into ‘an administration efficiency project’ along the way. While that’s a great benefit of implementing CPQ, let’s keep looking at the way CPQ can drive sales opportunities. CPQ is often the salesperson's key portal into the world of their deals. Having the ability to present the right prompts and information to a salesperson at just the right moment opens up amazing opportunities for decision making....
Many CPQ projects that start with good intentions for sales somehow change into ‘an administration efficiency project’ along the way. While that’s a great benefit of implementing CPQ, let’s...
In many organizations, getting a deal approved can be a long and complex process. In the B2C world, we’ve become accustomed to instant decisions and fast...
In many organizations, getting a deal approved can be a long and complex process. In the B2C world, we’ve become accustomed to instant decisions and fast turnaround. For example, I recently upgraded my iPhone to the latest model because I’m on the Apple iPhone Upgrade Program. If you haven’t seen it, you get a credit agreement for your phone, pay in installments, and then a year later can trade in the old phone for the latest and greatest. In the course of the upgrade, I had...
In many organizations, getting a deal approved can be a long and complex process. In the B2C world, we’ve become accustomed to instant decisions and fast turnaround. For example, I recently upgraded...
Marketers have used brand advertising since the 1950s, when brands were established to create emotional value with consumers, signal better quality or value,...
Marketers have used brand advertising since the 1950s, when brands were established to create emotional value with consumers, signal better quality or value, and to differentiate a product or service from the competition. Simon Clift, the former CMO of Unilever said, “A brand is the contract between a company and consumers.” This brand ‘contract’ represents the feeling of trust that a consumer has in that a brand will deliver on its promise of value when that product or...
Marketers have used brand advertising since the 1950s, when brands were established to create emotional value with consumers, signal better quality or value, and to differentiate a product or...
One of the oft touted features of CPQ is 'guided selling’, a series of easily understandable questions about a customer's needs to the salesperson who is trying...
One of the oft touted features of CPQ is 'guided selling’, a series of easily understandable questions about a customer's needs to the salesperson who is trying to configure a product or service. By answering these questions, the CPQ system will present relevant choices to the salesperson – sometimes just one clear recommendation of what to sell is made by the system. Contrast this with a typical configurator where all options are presented to the salesperson. It may be well...
One of the oft touted features of CPQ is 'guided selling’, a series of easily understandable questions about a customer's needs to the salesperson who is trying to configure a product or service....
We've been taking a deep dive into the real benefits of Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solutions and what lies beneath the headlines. Now let’s shift focus to a...
We've been taking a deep dive into the real benefits of Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solutions and what lies beneath the headlines. Now let’s shift focus to a benefit further down the 'quote-to-order' process. CPQ marketing materials often state that it can provide 'Error-Free Orders.' What does that really mean, and why should you care? Firstly let's look at where CPQ typically sits in the quote to order process: CRM<>CPQ<>ERP/Order Management. One of the key jobs of a CPQ...
We've been taking a deep dive into the real benefits of Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solutions and what lies beneath the headlines. Now let’s shift focus to a benefit further down...
In this on-going series of blogs that dive deep into the benefits that CPQ can bring, we've looked at how CPQ can help your salespeople sell faster and how it...
In this on-going series of blogs that dive deep into the benefits that CPQ can bring, we've looked at how CPQ can help your salespeople sell faster and how it can give your organization better control of margins. Now let's consider the 'Q' in CPQ - better looking quotes (and proposals). When I speak to salespeople about creating quotes and proposals, I always get conflicting stories. All of them value the impact that a well written quote or proposal can have. But, but many...
In this on-going series of blogs that dive deep into the benefits that CPQ can bring, we've looked at how CPQ can help your salespeople sell faster and how it can give your organization better control...
Profit Margin = Revenue - Cost / Revenue If we want control of our margins, we really need control of how our salespeople allocate revenue on a deal, and how it...
Profit Margin = Revenue - Cost / Revenue If we want control of our margins, we really need control of how our salespeople allocate revenue on a deal, and how it relates to our organization’s cost base. Let's take a look at how companies set their prices. Broadly speaking, the price of any product or service can be set as ‘cost plus’, or ‘what the market will bear.’ The latter generally involves some analysis or guesswork to establish a standard - often called 'List Price',...
Profit Margin = Revenue - Cost / Revenue If we want control of our margins, we really need control of how our salespeople allocate revenue on a deal, and how it relates to our organization’s...
