This article is part of our Business and Enterprise Software resource section.
Steps for Integrating CPQ Software
If you frequently sell complex, customizable products as a part of your business, it may be worth looking into CPQ solutions to manage your configurable products. CPQ stands for configure, price, and quote, and CPQ software allows you to transform the way you do business with both consumers and other clients. This is because CPQ software makes it simpler than ever for a customer to visualize how the components they’re customizing and adding to their purchase ultimately impact the overall price and look of any given item.
For example, if you sell customizable computers or laptops, you probably have a range of different peripherals that you can include in any given package. You may have buyers configure different aspects of the purchase, such as RAM, screen size, or hard drive size.
All of these factors ultimately impact how much any given item is going to cost. Using CPQ software allows you to ensure that the customer or client knows what they’re getting and how much it will cost to configure their package that way. If you’re looking for a way to handle complex products in a much more straightforward way, it’s definitely worth looking into CPQ platforms. Read on for three steps to help you with CPQ integration.
1. Find the right CPQ solution.
The first step of any CPQ platform integration is deciding which CPQ platform to choose. Before making that choice, it is useful to understand the special features of CPQ software and determine which capabilities are most relevant to your products and sales process. There are many different CPQ platforms on the market, each with its own features, quirks, and conventions. That being said, the Configure One CPQ platform is far-and-beyond one of the leaders in the CPQ field.
Configure One offers powerful features like JavaScript integrations and the ability to integrate with a wide range of CRM and ERP solutions. These integrations are especially useful when CPQ is connected to broader Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that manage financial, operational, and business data across the organization. This makes Configure One definitely worth considering, specifically if you want a solution that will be powerful enough to meet all of your needs right out of the box, so to speak. Even if you’re considering other CPQ options, you should definitely use the Configure One CPQ solution as one benchmark for comparison. Because CPQ often works closely with customer-facing systems, businesses should also consider the benefits of using a good CRM design when evaluating how customer and sales information will flow between platforms.
2. Integrate your CPQ platform with other aspects of your business.
A benefit of using a package like Configure One CPQ is that it integrates with the other tools yourThis allows for a better way to leverage data in your sales pipeline. business already runs on. Successful CRM implementation also requires careful planning so that customer data, sales workflows, and CPQ processes can work together without creating unnecessary duplication or manual work.
For example, if you use NetSuite or Salesforce for other aspects of data collection and analysis, you can integrate your CPQ solution with these platforms as well. Salesforce users can also explore how the standard service console for Salesforce users supports service workflows that may need to connect with customer and sales information.
Businesses already using Salesforce can also review the key benefits of Salesforce-based solutions when deciding how CPQ should fit into their existing sales and customer-management environment.
Integrating customer relationship management software with CPQ can further connect customer information, sales activities, product configurations, and quotations within the same workflow.
This allows for a better way to leverage data in your sales pipeline. Connecting CPQ with sales processes can also support businesses that use CRM for lead management by giving sales teams more relevant product and pricing information as prospects move through the pipeline.
Choosing the right CRM system is therefore important when CPQ needs to share customer, product, and sales information across the business.
When sales teams handle frequent pricing requests, RFQ software can also complement CPQ by helping businesses organize and manage requests for quotations more efficiently.
For ecommerce businesses using Magento, choosing the right Magento CRM integration can similarly help connect customer and sales information with other business systems.
For example, you may see that more buyers are using the product configurator to select specific features or finishes, helping you save money and limit the overhead on less popular products. Analyzing these customer preferences becomes even more useful when businesses understand the segments that your CRM must have and use them to organize buyers according to their needs and behavior.
It can be hard to pinpoint this kind of data without deep integration, so b being able to leverage compare, price, and quote tools as you think about what items are popular can be a major boon. The customer insights generated through these connected systems can also contribute to customer retention by helping businesses better understand customer preferences and deliver more relevant offers.
2. Train your sales team to use your new product configurator.
If you have new salespeople, a CPQ solution can also make it easier to handle phone sales. Having a product configurator to work through while pricing large orders for major clients can ultimately ensure that no errors are made at any point in the sales process. Training new salespeople to use these tools can thus be an important final step of integration. This is because some customers are more likely to talk through the ins and outs of complex products over-the-phone, so your sales team must understand how to use your software to serve these clients better. When you do all of this, there’s no telling what your business can achieve.
