You feel the pain points with your current CPQ process but have you taken the time to figure out what’s not working?

Solving your Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) challenges is easy to do once you’ve identified the problems with your current approach. We’re making it simple by providing a list of the top five biggest CPQ challenges businesses face today.

But first…

Why are CPQ solutions that used to be “good enough” no longer cutting it?

Business today is changing at a faster rate than ever before, driven by the rapid pace of technological advancements and the effects they are having on the way we work. Social media has altered how we conduct business and approach everything from sales and marketing to everyday communications. New collaboration tools provide opportunities for teams to work together and interact with customers or vendors with unprecedented frequency and speed. As you have already experienced, all of these changes are leading to buyer expectations for instantaneous reliable information.

The way that companies are buying is also changing as a result of this new era of constant communications. Your ability to sell is directly impacted by your level of success with adapting to these changes. Buying decisions are now being made increasingly by committee instead of by a single person. It is becoming more important to consider multiple stakeholders’ needs in order to win new business. Sales reps are also being consulted less frequently and later in the sales cycle than ever before, due to the wealth of information that is publically available. When you do get involved, you need to be ready and immediately responsive.

Now that we’ve set the stage, let’s look at the 5 biggest CPQ challenges you face in today’s competitive selling environment. With the limited control that you have over your sales cycle, you need your CPQ solution to work as efficiently as possible.

Here’s where it misses the mark:

• Your CPQ process is too slow

Too many reviews, too many revisions, and too much manual work slows down your process and allows an opportunity for your competitors to beat you to the punch. You need to be responsive when your customer is ready, not when you’re ready. Automation is the solution!

• Your proposals miss customer requests and require revisions

Customers can be demanding! Relying on manual efforts and teams of people to create proposals can lead you to prioritizing what is easiest for you, not what your customer wants.

Adding more manual reviews to solve for mistakes and oversights is equally problematic, resulting in slower responses with greater chances for human error. What’s worse is that manual processes can actually incent sales teams to repurpose old proposals as templates. The likelihood of including incorrect information and overlooking errors such as old customer names and logos is definitely higher when your reps start reusing these documents.

Automating proposal generation will solve these problems.

• Your team leaves money on the table by missing complementary offers or upsells

You might only have one chance to get your proposal in front of a potential customer. If you miss the opportunity to be a full service provider or to show that you fully understand their current and future needs, you could miss out to a competitor.

If you forget a required item in your proposal, you’ll have to explain to your prospect that their costs will increase with the addition.

Automation will include all requirements the first time and suggest relevant add ons, making it easy for reps to offer your best solution.

• Your process leads to too many errors in proposals

You don’t want to eat pricing mistakes or look too expensive. We know that adding more manual reviews only causes slower responses and opportunity for human error. An automated solution will prevent mistakes and delays.

• You are opening yourself up to too much risk

With a manual process you are risking putting out a proposal with out of date pricing, incorrect terms and conditions, mismatched items or forgotten requirements such as installation tools and training services. An automated process will solve for these risks and produce a reliable document every time.

Do these challenges sound familiar?

Are you ready to start getting effective proposals out to prospects quickly?

Address your CPQ problems and adapt to growing demand for speed and accuracy by automating your CPQ process.

Read more about how other businesses are solving their CPQ challenges in our Salesforce CPQ Customer Stories.