How many sales reps do you have? How hard is it to find out exactly what’s going on with each rep’s pipeline?
If you’re like most sales managers, there's often a little bit of sleuthing involved, tracking various steps a rep took along the way: “Tell me again, Gary: after your webinar with Colonel Mustard, how the sales quote ended up not in our library of documentation but in the conservatory?”
If you’re using your CRM system effectively (granted, “effectively” is a relative term: most B2B sales organizations tap maybe 10% of the potential of Dynamics, Salesforce, or Zoho — more on that in a later post), you’re usually tracking the critical first steps in this sales story: let’s call it, “The Mystery of the Converted Prospect.”
With CRM, you’re able to identify the first clue — where (what channel) the prospect came from: email, trade show, web form, etc. You’re then usually able to follow the next set of clues relatively easily as well: the web form contact led to an email conversation, which led to an opportunity, which led to a quote being sent.
And then… the trail usually runs cold. Yes, there’s an outcome: either a sale, or a fail. But as far as most CRM solutions are concerned, what may or may not have happened in the most critical part of the process — quote tracking, the signing or not signing of the proposal — is a mystery. That’s where CPQ comes in.
CPQ takes away the mystery, and adds simplicity
Imagine a Sherlock Holmes story in which Holmes captures and tracks every detail of the case, closes in on the suspect, and then... there are 10 blank pages in the book, after which the suspect is in jail. The authorities say, “How on earth did you catch him, Sherlock?” And Holmes says, “I dunno. I just did, I guess.”
That’s what people have come to expect from business systems like CRM during the closing process, as they usually offer nothing more in the way of quote tracking than letting you know a quote was sent and, then, if a deal was signed or not. Just like the imagined Sherlock Holmes story, there’s a HUGE hole in the plot, and at the most important moment.
But when you add CPQ to CRM, you remove the mystery from the closing process and fill in the most important blanks in your sales story. What kind of sales proposal template was used? Were there updates? What kinds of communications (or non-communications) may have occurred between “sent” and “signed” that may crack the case in “The Mystery of the Converted Prospect?”
CPQ solutions offer a granular level of quote tracking that CRM simply doesn’t. And that, along with professionally designed sales proposal templates, dynamics product and pricing configuration, dashboarding, and contact management, is a big reason why it’s no mystery whatsoever why more and more organizations are adding CPQ to their story.
