Maximizing Revenue: Leveraging CPQ and Contract Management for Sales Efficiency
Is a CPQ system necessary for my business?
Typically, the sales process begins with sales development and ends with revenue generation — crucial to this is the contract process.
Sales representatives spend 36% of their time on tasks related to sales; over 60% of the remaining time is spent on administrative duties, wasting time that could be spent on sales. Furthermore, while 26% of sales representatives use CPQ software to meet their quota, 67% fall short.
What is CPQ?
CPQ is an acronym that stands for configure, price, and quote and is commonly used to describe a software system that sellers use to generate accurate quotes for complex and configurable products.
When used correctly, CPQ software increases sales process efficiency, decreases the likelihood of incorrect quotations, and enhances the overall buyer experience. CPQs automate the mundane and allow you to focus on the most important aspect of sales: selling
How does CPQ work?
Configure
Configuration in the context of CPQ software refers to configuring your products. Businesses are providing personalised solutions, experiences, and products to each and every customer. While this is a huge benefit for buyers, it complicates the lives of sellers.
Price
Price is represented by the letter “P” in CPQ. Complex solutions necessitate even more complex pricing structures. If you’re selling customizable products , you can’t have a set price before they’re configured.
Sales teams that create their own prices risk losing business because they offer subpar prices and generate slow turnaround times.
CPQ software uses artificial intelligence to detect customer purchasing patterns and market research to determine how much your customers are willing to pay. Essentially, it can ensure that you are charging your customers a reasonable and personalised price while still remaining profitable.
Quote
Prospective customers frequently request quotes from multiple vendors, so quick response times are a valuable asset. However, due to the complexity of accurate pricing and configuration, this can be difficult to achieve.
CPQ software can generate personalised quotes for customers. It also allows sellers to easily review the quote before sending it to the customer, allowing them to take note of or change any last-minute details.
Benefits of CPQ to a business
Automation eliminates time-consuming and tedious manual processes in the sales process, giving sales reps more time to focus on improving the customer experience and selling more. More advantages of implementing a CPQ system in your business are listed below.
Cost savings
CPQ solutions offer low costs and quick returns on investment. You will see a quick return on your CPQ investment because you will be able to quote more jobs, increase the conversion rate (which lowers the cost of a sale), and eliminate the cost of errors. As a result, many businesses now consider this to be one of the most important areas for both cost reduction and revenue enhancement — and one that is viewed positively by both customers and employees.
Increased precision
CPQ software improves process automation and allows you to precisely select and price combinations of interdependent product and service options. This means that your sales team can confidently build and price tailored solutions without the need for anyone to double-check them. This, in turn, lowers the cost of correcting errors later in the process.
Integration
Because accurate and efficient quote creation involves multiple departments, there is a risk of the necessary information regarding customers getting siloed. Luckily, a key functionality of CPQ software is that it offers the ability to integrate with other tools used by departments both within and outside of sales, like CRMs. Implementing a CPQ that can integrate with your existing business tools, primarily ERP systems, will make the workflows between sales and operations a lot smoother, enabling you to provide a positive customer experience.
CPQ Software solutions
There are various CPQ software options available including HubSpot’s own Sales Hub, This guide will cover what you can do in HubSpot, in terms of CPQ and when to consider a marketplace add-on to manage more complex CPQ use-cases.
How does HubSpot Sales help you to Configure Products?
“The Sales Hub’s “Product Library” allows you to keep track of the products or services you sell. You can set prices for “items” in several currencies, choose your desired billing frequency, and track unit expenses, among other CPQ-related operations.”
- To configure products in Hubspot, head over to the setting icon. Under the ‘Objects’ dropdown list select ‘Products’.
- Click on the ‘Create product’ button in the top right corner.
- Enter your product information such as product Name, SKU(if applicable), Description, Product and Product image type in the ‘Product information’ section.
How does HubSpot Sales help you price?
- Enter the product price information under the ‘Price’ section — Price in USD, Unit cost, Recurring billing frequency, and Your Margin.
- If your product or service is offered in different currencies then you can enter the corresponding amount in those currencies under the ‘Multiple currency prices’.
- Enter the billing term in months in ‘Billing’ and save.
How does HubSpot help you Quote?
Head over to ‘Sales’ and select Quotes, and in the right hand corner, click on ‘Create quote’ to complete the simple 7-step process.
- Choose the deal to associate with your quote under the drop down list ‘Associate with a deal’ in this example ‘Lauren.’ Click ‘Next’ in the bottom right hand corner.
- Select the quote template that best suits your needs. ‘Quote name’ will be automatically populated based on the contact information associated with the associated deal.
- Choose an expiration date between 30 days, 60 days, 90 days or custom duration.
- Enter comments for the buyer if applicable under ‘Comments to buyer’ and terms under ‘Purchase terms’ if also applicable. Click ‘Next.’
- Under ‘Buyer Information’ select the buyer information that you would like to appear in the quote and click on ‘Next.’
- Next check your information, that's information about you and your company that will appear on the quote. And click on ‘Next’ again.
- Review all your products and add discounts, fees, or taxes if applicable under ‘Line Items.’ And click ‘Next’ for the next step.
- Under ‘Signature and Payment’ select the different options to either not include a signature or include space for a written signature or the option to use an e-signature.
- Choose between No payment, HubSpot Payments and Stripe under ‘Payment options’ and click ‘Next.’
- Review a preview of your quote, select the quote language and locale then click on ‘Publish quote’
- Finally, copy and share the link to your quote or write an email with your quote.
As you can see, there is a lot that HubSpot can do. The skill is in setting it up in a way that works for your business. RevOps specialist HubSpot partners like RevOps Automated can help you build out your products, line items, and customise quotes and reporting.
While HubSpot is constantly improving its CPQ customisation, you might be ready to invest in a tool that can give you advanced CPQ customisation today.
Signs that you need to power up your HubSpot CPQ with a marketplace app.
While many businesses can manage using HubSpot Sales Hub for CPQ — you may find yourself needing a little more advanced CPQ functionality. That’s where the HubSpot app marketplace comes in. Just like adding plugins on Jira, or Modules to Salesforce HubSpot offers a plethora of tools to advance your RevOps.
We’ll focus on a few other great CPQ products in the HubSpot App Marketplace below, taking into account implementation ease, cost, and overall capability.
Revops.io Deal Desk
RevOps.io is a Deal Desk Platform, allowing businesses of all sizes to close agreements quicker, with increased accuracy, and with complete transparency throughout the process.
This is made possible by its functionalities, such as RevOps Agreement Builder, a built-in, real-time pricing calculator that shows sales people how changes to the products and services supplied will affect the order form before it is generated.
“It can take up to 16–24 months to implement a traditional CPQ like Salesforce CPQ for medium to large sales teams.” Long implementation times can lead to increased costs and prove an added strain on human resources. RevOps.io Deal Desk stands out because it does not necessitate a lengthy implementation timetable or use third-party implementation partners. They set up your most popular and typical quotation routines first, so that your sales teams can be enabled quickly. Then, investigate your more complex deals so that you can consistently provide value to your team.
Another important consideration is cost; RevOps.io Deal Desk distinguishes itself by providing a plug-and-play CPQ solution — a cost-effective strategy.
What users like:
“From the accounting side of things, RevOps has it all. Customizable controls, customizable SKUs, flexible discounting, individualised approvals depending on the specific situation . . . . We had been using an excel spreadsheet, which did allow the level of customization we required, but it always needed adjustments for one-off situations. With RevOps, when a new situation occurs, I can change the configuration once to account for it, and then use that same configuration every other time going forward. Pricing changes happen once, and everyone has the correct pricing. Updates to SKUs happen once, and everyone has the new details. It’s so easy. And my auditors love it. And the support team is amazing.” — Roza A, Accounting Manager.
You can sign up for a 3 month cost FREE trial of RevOps.io Deal Desk
GleanQuote CPQ
GleanQuote helps teams with setup, pricing, and proposal development difficulties. Its CPQ and proposal automation software is straightforward to set up and use, and it seamlessly integrates with the most common CRMs, including HubSpot.
Its innovative pricing models use formulas to automate the pricing process, which removes the time-consuming manual approach. It also includes custom templates and template rules, which automate the selection of the best template for each transaction.GleanQuote allows you to manage your products and sync line items back to HubSpot. Sync the contract amount and stage from GleanQuote proposals into HubSpot. You decide which combination is ideal for your workflow.
What users like:
“We are so happy with the GleanQuote system. Getting lift quotations previously was time-consuming, messy, and inaccurate until we found the solution, which works with our current CRM.
The GleanQuote allows us to take quotes to the next level by adding photos, customised pricing, and direct email delivery, and may be sent straight to the client’s inbox for e-signing and reposting back to us!
A simple and effective platform allowed our sales team to spend more time focusing on other business areas. “ — Chris S, Managing Director.
Conclusion
You should be able to generate and send quotes with just a few simple clicks. But if your CPQ tools are a maze of mismatched systems, it slows down the sales process and frustrates sales reps and buyers alike. Start keeping better sales records and take your invoicing process to the next level with a CPQ solution that is flexible, scalable, and easy to use.
Choosing the right business CPQ solution is the difference between an increase in revenue growth, an increase in employee efficiency and performance, better customer acquisition and retention, and more streamlined decision-making.
HubSpot’s CPQ tools make the selling process easy by streamlining the quoting process from creation, to approval, to close. The user-friendly tools don’t require training, so your team can make accurate, professional-looking quotes in seconds, you’ll be setting your sales team up for success!
