One of the most powerful ways to increase sales is the functionality of robust Configure Price Quote (CPQ) tools. CPQ tools elevate your entire sales experience for the end user–salespeople, customers, or partners–and streamline processes on the back end for your sales, engineering, and shop floor teams.
Thanks to CPQ tools, your customer can get a customized quote instantly–no more delays, back-and-forth, and pointless follow-ups. Your salespeople can free themselves from the confusion and stress that comes with manually configuring products and calculating prices and quotes. And your engineering team benefits from auto-generated CAD files and BOMs, which reduces the burden of custom engineering. It’s a win all around.
Implementing CPQ tools for your business increases efficiency, reduces human errors, and provides all the benefits of automation. It helps your sales force close more deals more quickly and lets customers self-serve (if that’s the path to purchase they choose.)
Read on to learn more about configure price quote tools and the seven killer features that have the most significant impact.
What Are CPQ Tools?
CPQ (configure, price, and quote) tools help manufacturers of complex, configurable products simplify, streamline, and automate their sales process.
Instead of configuring products manually–choosing from thousands of options–CPQ tools contain sales and fabrication rules that help match customers to their optimal configurations automatically before auto-generating prices and quotes. In addition, the best CPQ tools also generate CAD files, BOMs, and further documentation for the engineering department and shop floor.
With CPQ tools, manufacturers can accelerate their sales cycle from days to minutes, super-charging sales efficiency. Complicated and time-consuming tasks become straightforward and instantaneous, making life easier for everyone. They can improve brand value by enhancing the customer experience, turning disaffected buyers into evangelists.
7 Must-Have Features for Your Configurator Software
Want to improve your customer experience and drive better results for your business? Check out these essential power features of top-performing CPQ tools. These features will have a major impact on your bottom line.
1. 3D Visuals and Interactive Selling
The best CPQ tools have visual product configurators–interactive visual interfaces that sales and end customers can use to design products in 3D. These configurators provide product information in an engaging, visual, user-friendly format. By allowing the end user to see your product line presented with various customizations, you can give your sales force the tools they need to secure customer buy-in quickly.
Neither your sales team nor your end users want to spend time poring over boring and highly technical product descriptions. Visual selling is effective, immersive, and enjoyable and can take your sales to the next level.
2. eCommerce Integration
Configurator software integrates seamlessly into leading eCommerce platforms (on-prem and cloud) so that you can bring your visual product configurator directly into your own website.
The resulting functionality will help you convince customers to try your product, all within the span of a few “clicks” instead of using the person-hours and expenses associated with trade shows, conferences, and sales calls. Your business can cut down on time and money by switching to a CPQ tool for sales that helps you reach a global audience with your product.
Customers around the globe can all see the manufacturing options and pricing in real time for your products and customize them for their own needs. Today’s B2B sales are driven by this sort of self-serve approach, and CPQ software tools are essential to achieve it.
3. Dynamic Pricing
CPQ pricing software comes with “dynamic pricing” to showcase your products with accurate data in real time. This software cuts down on hours wasted creating sales quotes that could ultimately mean your customer takes his business elsewhere.
These tools are built to incorporate live internal data, so when you want to run a promotion with a special discount, it’s reflected in pricing. Eliminate the paper trails, unnecessary approvals, and sign-offs, and instantly get customers the information they want.
4. End-to-End Digitization
CQP software is not just about closing the deal: it can also streamline engineering and manufacturing processes, driving the end-to-end engineer-to-order processes. The data captured by the configurator can be fed straight to your CRM, ERP, CAD system, and manufacturing center, removing the need for manual handoffs and making the process of creating products more efficient.
5. No-Code Rules Engine
CPQ tools leverage product and pricing rules, which are small pieces of code, to control how products are configured and quoted. Creating this code can be complicated and often requires third parties to carry out the work, which is slow and expensive.
But the most powerful CPQ solutions have a no-code rules engine. Regardless of technical abilities, every user can create rules using a drag-and-drop programming language. The freedom to manage these changes in-house is a huge competitive advantage, increasing agility and letting manufacturers launch new products and options more quickly.
6. Guided Selling
Configurator software allows your sales force to walk customers through the process digitally in a way that is accessible, clear, and uncomplicated. Your own questions, prompts, and answers built into the software ensure sales consistency, helping you increase win rates and deal sizes. This guide becomes your way to take the customer from start to finish and close the sale. New hires get up to speed faster and more reps achieve their quota.
7. Cloud Accessibility
Cloud-based (SaaS) CPQ software works for your business 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is always on and accessible, meaning you are not held up waiting for sales appointments and paperwork or sales quotes that have to be approved and reviewed in an office before a customer can see them.
The platforms are maintained by vendors so that you can lower maintenance costs and not be bogged down in the technical upkeep. CPQ software helps businesses collaborate and share data accessible to everyone, streamlining sales and manufacturing processes with greater efficiency.
Epicor CPQ: Taking Your Business to the Next Level
If you’re ready to elevate your website’s functionality, increase sales cycle speed and deal size, streamline the way data is shared in your organization, and boost profits overall, Epicor CPQ is the most trusted tool available.
We are the market leaders in configuration software, with a product that is robust, agile, and built to accommodate even the most complex product logic. We can give you the tools you need to showcase your products to customers with real-time and accurate pricing and be your CPQ implementation guide to ensure rapid adoption.
We are passionate about helping our customers increase their sales through configuration and automation, and we pride ourselves on providing outstanding customer service along the way. We want our products to work for you and would be thrilled to show you a live demo. Contact Epicor today to take your business to the next level.
English 
French 
Dutch 
Italian