B2B customers are demanding customization, which means high product variation for manufacturers. Combine expanding product catalogs with multiple complex pricing models, and you have a recipe for confusion and inefficiency among manufacturing and sales teams.
When manufacturers offer hundreds, thousands, even millions, of product options, things get complicated quickly. But with a sophisticated rules engine on your side, you can provide an endless variety of customization possibilities with ease.
Are you sick of hearing the same old conversations crop up between sales and manufacturing teams:
“How much would it cost if we…?”
“Is this available in…?”
“Does turnaround time impact the price of…?”
“Can we use this with…?”
“How long will it take to…?” If so, it’s time to streamline your sales to manufacturing processes with a solution that’s made for you!
CPQ Stands for Configure, Price, and Quote.
It reduces inefficiencies in the sales to manufacturing process and gets every employee–from the top floor to the shop floor–working on the same page.
Here’s how CPQ software works:
Configure
B2B customers want product customization and a frictionless path to purchase. With CPQ software, you can provide both.
The configuration process is guided by your product rules set up in the backend rules engine. These rules codify the knowledge and expertise of your manufacturing and operations teams, making them instantly available to your salespeople in real-time.
Sales can configure products based on things like:
Manufacturing and design capabilities
Margin maximization
Lead time
Engineering efficiency
CPQ software gives your salespeople confidence. They know that every configuration they sell is optimized and error-free. Invalid configurations are impossible. And with every team “playing by the rules,” there’s no place for miscommunications and delays.
Price
Once you’ve configured your product, CPQ software calculates prices based on advanced pricing rules.
All pricing considerations are automatically accounted for, including:
Bundle pricing
Volume pricing
Customer history
Discounts and promotions
Partner or contact-based pricing
Your sales team can provide accurate prices quickly without making customers wait.
Quote
Now that you’ve configured products in line with manufacturing capabilities and priced those products appropriately, you’re left with one more step: quoting the customer.
With CPQ software, customers receive an instantly generated quote that’s designed according to your brand guidelines: no more protracted approval workflows and back-and-forth.
Get a free Epicor demo today to see how it will benefit your sales and manufacturing teams. It's time to get ahead of the competition and place your company in the driver's seat.