The future of sales is here and it’s here to stay. Configure Price Quote, or CPQ software, is a software solution for businesses to streamline sales processes while providing an empowering user experience. CPQ software allows companies to configure complex products or services, determine accurate real-time pricing, and generate customized quotes for customers. In today’s business landscape, CPQ software is relevant due to its ability to improve customer satisfaction, sales efficiency, and accuracy.
Let’s talk about what the current CPQ software process looks like, how self-service CPQ powered by advanced product configurator software expands upon the base software model, and how to increase conversions through human touch.
To discuss the traditional CPQ software process, it’s helpful to evaluate the three core elements within the name: configure, price, and quote.
The ‘configure’ aspect of CPQ software involves the custom tailoring of a product or service to meet a consumer’s specific wants and needs. Sales representatives guide consumers through options, features, customizations, and more to ensure the final product offering is a perfect fit. ‘Price’ signifies the important step of determining the cost of the personalized product or service. For traditional CPQ software, price calculation is reliant on predefined pricing models, discounts, and pricing rules to accurately show the final price. Finally, ‘quote’ involves the creation and delivery of a unique quote to the consumer. The quote will show customized configurations, prices, and other necessary information. This serves as an offer to the consumer, allowing them to review before purchasing.
While traditional CPQ software does allow businesses to streamline complex sales processes, maintain price consistency, and provide detailed personalized quotes to consumers – it’s not without limitations. There are often human errors in either pricing or configurations and they cannot provide real-time pricing, a feature that’s becoming increasingly important in today’s fast-paced markets.
In our rapidly evolving digital landscape, consumers seek increased control and convenience over their purchases. Self-service CPQ software has emerged as a solution – allowing consumers to configure and request quotes independently through digital platforms and empowering them to make confident decisions.
So, what is self-service CPQ software and why is this transition so important? Self-service CPQ is a new approach that builds upon traditional CPQ software – now the consumer is in the driver's seat, where they can utilize digital tools and platforms to customize products or services to their exact needs and receive accurate pricing instantaneously.
This transition marks a significant shift from traditional sales processes to a consumer-driven model. Historically, product or service sales would be handled by representatives who would collect consumer information and then provide quotes once calculated. Now with self-service CPQ software, consumers receive immediate satisfaction and feel a higher level of transparency and efficiency.
Now that we know what self-service CPQ is, let’s discuss the benefits of utilizing this software solution. The main benefits go beyond just control and convenience for users – including streamlined sales processes, faster quote generation, customization, and personalization, and reduced overhead and human errors.
These benefits empower both businesses and customers, ensuring a more dynamic, personalized, continuous, and mistake-free CPQ process. It’s a win-win for both businesses and consumers due to increased efficiency and a better user experience.
When utilizing self-service CPQ software, understanding conversion is crucial to assessing the effectiveness of your sales processes. ‘Conversion’ in this context refers to the successful transition of a customer from the exploration phase to the purchase phase. It’s the moment where a prospect turns into a paying customer, after completing a transaction.
Typical metrics used to measure conversion include:
Depending on the industry, business model, and specific goals, the ideal conversion rate varies. However, the higher the conversion the better because that indicates a higher percentage of consumers who explore your products are converting. It’s important to evaluate realistic conversion rate goals specific to your business objectives and financial goals and monitor trends over time.
In the world of CPQ software, there are several key opportunities for businesses to boost their conversion rates, driving growth. These opportunities include user experience, data-driven insights, personalization, and adaptability.
Chat with the Uptok team to learn how to leverage CPQ software to drive success. https://www.uptok.com/contact-us.
