Sales can be a hectic business. To remain competitive, you need to keep up with customer trends, read the market and stay on top of technological innovations. Many sales teams are now making use of Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) quoting software to help automate and improve their sales process. CPQ not only provides faster and more accurate quoting but also saves time, freeing you up to concentrate on developing potential customers and business opportunities. If you haven’t invested yet, here are six reasons why quoting software is the way forward for UK businesses.
1) Streamline The Sales Process
Modern sales often involve complex product configurations and custom options. With spreadsheets and ad-hoc quoting methods, it can be hard to keep track of customer-specific selections and how these affect price. Incompatible configuration options can complicate the process and price calculations may be difficult. By centralising your product information, managing the configuration process and automatically generating prices, CPQ business quoting software streamlines the sales process from start to finish – ensuring sustainable and competitive pricing that meets your target profit margins.
2) Track Customer Interactions
As well as simplifying the process of customer product configuration, CPQ software provides important data on customer interactions. Pricing is expedited using data from production costs, market conditions, discount programmes and other factors. Personalised quotes can be automatically generated and sent out to customers and other stakeholders by email, SMS, or through a link to a website customer portal. Responses and questions may be tracked, and with CRM integration, the whole customer interaction timeline becomes available for analysis.
3) Compare Proposals
Quote proposal software has extensive data capturing capacities. Armed with a wide range of financial and customer service metrics, data analysis helps to refine sales and pricing strategies and can ultimately bolster your products’ appeal to customers. In a crowded market, this kind of insight can give your business a valuable edge.
4) Stay Organised
Managing the entire sales process from a single platform can have significant benefits for organisational efficiency. Complex configurations can otherwise be hard to keep track of. Plus, with many service and product delivery functions now digitised, software integrations can reduce manual data handling between platforms. By reducing the time spent on administration, sales staff can be more productive in the interpersonal activities that drive sales.
5) Improve Accuracy
Accuracy is crucial in sales. If customers receive quotes with incorrect figures or inconsistent pricing, it can easily dent confidence and reduce profitability. This may deter an individual sale, but worse, it could make your business a net loss or affect your reputation as a reliable service provider. Without a consistent quoting system, mistaken calculations or ad-hoc discounts are all too common. CPQ automatically generates correct prices and records quote data for future comparison, helping facilitate better financial planning and sales forecasts.
6) Create Custom Configurations
In digitally-enabled B2B marketplaces, there are many alternatives available, so product configurability and personalisation can make all the difference to securing long-term supply partnerships with important customers. By centralising product data and customisation options, CPQ software makes it easier to offer the personalised quote configurations that customers want. What’s more, prices can be calculated directly through the platform, taking into account all relevant factors, and quotes are then generated automatically, shortening your sales response time.
Request A Quote
Investing in the right CPQ platform can quickly recoup its costs by means of increased productivity and efficiency in the sales quotation process. To discuss our CPQ solutions and the benefits to your business, please call 0121 669 1111 today.
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