8 Ways CPQ Software Will Optimize Your Revenue Operations

“Show me the money.” That may be the most succinct means of stating the importance of revenue operations.

Show me (usually, the CRO) what’s driving revenue internally? Externally? Are the numbers being hit or missed? How are they being hit or missed? What deals are closing? Who’s doing the closing? What are the deal totals? Show. Me. The. Money.

But it’s never just about showing revenue — it’s about growing revenue.

That’s where automating business and selling processes plays a fundamental role. Because revenue operations is traditionally a high-touch undertaking: interfacing with customers, tracking opportunities, writing up quotes, reporting, and more.

Why Automation is Essential for Efficient Revenue Operations

Today, organizations that are successfully optimizing revenue operations are successful at automating a host of critical tasks.

A recent Salesforce report shows that high-performing sales organizations are automating most everywhere possible, with more than 60% of these groups having automated the following:

• Logging sales data and customer notes
• Managing administrative tasks
• Generating quotes/proposals
• Prioritizing leads/opportunities
• Determining what next steps to take with accounts

 

After CRM software, Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software is one of the most widely adopted front-office technologies. It streamlines various processes for sales teams including quote configuration, pricing & discounting controls, quote generation and quote approval. Other popular CPQ functionality includes Guided Selling – where the software guides sales reps through the quote creation process by asking questions about the types of products they want to sell – and product bundle configuration.

By automating and standardizing many of the manual, error-prone activities typically found in legacy sales processes, CPQ software is a major enabler of modern, efficient revenue operations. In addition to boosting efficiency and eliminating manual drudge work, CPQ software unlocks several business benefits, many of which transcend sales. These include:

• A self-service customer experience
  It’s no secret, B2B buyers now expect many of the same conveniences that define the B2C shopping experience thanks to Amazon. By exposing CPQ functionality through a digital portal, companies can empower their customers (and partners) to price out complex B2B solutions autonomously without the intervention of sales.
• Actionable Sales Intelligence
  Increase average deal size and win rates with data-driven sales motions.
• Optimize All Revenue Channels
  Drive optimal revenue generating behavior across all your sales channels – entice customers with timely promos, incent partners with rebates, align compensation plans with your enterprise goals.
• Perfect Pricing
  Use pre-defined pricing and discounting controls to ensure deals meet margin requirements and end rogue discounting.
• Solution Selling
  As previously mentioned, guided selling is a key CPQ functionality. It empowers your sellers to take a solution-centric approach where they holistically consider a client’s or prospect’s needs and quote a solution that delivers maximum value. By automatically bubbling up complementary or additive products/services, the guided selling feature within CPQ helps to increase customer satisfaction and increase average deal size simultaneously.
• Sell More, Faster
  Improve sales effectiveness, margins and revenue. Elevate new leads, cross-sells/up-sells and sales cycle times by 5X or more.
• Eliminate Sales Frustration
  The last thing you want – especially in today’s hiring climate – is to lose valuable sales staff because of inefficient approval processes, confusing pricing/discounting rules, or lost revenue opportunities. When configured properly and aligned with your revenue operations, CPQ software will keep your sellers happy and focused on winning new deals.
• Organizational Agility
  An often-overlooked benefit of CPQ software is its value as an innovation enabler. It provides a platform that has the inherent capability to support various, customer-centric pricing models – including subscription- and usage-based pricing. As B2B buyer expectations continue to mirror those of B2C consumers, having the organizational agility to roll out new services fast is a competitive advantage.

 

Revenue operations consulting & CPQ: a package deal

To realize all of these benefits for your business, your CPQ platform must be implemented correctly and configured to align with the current dynamics of your revenue operations. This is where a seasoned revenue operations consultant like Argano comes in. Whether you’ve already deployed CPQ and are in need of a health check or are looking to pursue a greenfield implementation, our certified business process experts and technology consultants can help. We combine decades of CPQ experience with a proven methodology to deliver exceptional results.

Don’t just take our word for it! Read our reviews on Salesforce AppExchange to hear what our clients have to say about our work.