Slow down to speed up!

I regularly see firms looking for Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) or Quote-to-Cash (QTC) solutions and want to share some best practices here that can make this selection process easier and better for everyone involved. Without saying too much too early the key here is to slow down in the beginning of the selection process to come up with a quality decision.

First let’s clarify who is looking for CPQ solutions. These are companies that have not worked with any CPQ solutions at all, companies that use CPQ solutions for a long time or companies that want to replace an existing CPQ solution. In all these cases the first step is to determine a short-list of CPQ solutions that can potentially offer a good solution for their business. Here are two of the most common situations I encounter

  1. New Business Leaders have recently joined the company and are now responsible for leading a CPQ-related business transformation. These leaders often have had a good experience with one specific CPQ Vendor from a previous position and want to repeat that experience with the same CPQ Vendor in the new company. Many times there is no real selection process-taking place. If some form of selection process is done it is highly likely that the results confirm the new business leaders preference. This scenario is not further discussed here.
  2. A leader in the business or IT organization is asked to find possible new CPQ solutions. This can be a team or an individual who has worked with CPQ solutions for years or a junior resource who has never worked with CPQ. If it is someone with experience they will mostly trust their own experience plus maybe some Software Review sites (e.g. G2 Crowd, capterra) and Analyst Reports (e.g. Gartner Magic Quadrant, Forrester Wave). If it is someone new to the CPQ topic their list is often based on Google searches and maybe some Software Review sites. Depending on the size of the company they may even have looked at an Analyst Report.

A common request for scenario 2 is that the team/individual that is responsible for selecting a CPQ solution wants to see a CPQ Demo quickly. I’d say 95% or more of companies want to see a CPQ solution demo as soon as possible. While I understand the urge to see a demo I think this leads down the wrong path when it is done too early because

  • Any demo will be generic because the company doesn’t know themselves yet what exactly they need. This means it is up to the Sales Rep where this goes. I think about it like this: If a Car Salesman shows a customer a brand-new red Ferrari that may be interesting and impressive for the customer but it won’t necessarily help the customer if they need to transport construction materials from A to B. A truck would be more appropriate but it’s obviously not as cool as a Ferrari.
  • The demo will invariably set some kind of benchmark on the customer side. It depends on how good the Sales Rep is, on how well he/she can connect with the customer and generally on the first impressions he/she leaves with the customer.

That is why I suggest companies should slow down at this point. In order to have the highest likelihood of success for selecting the right CPQ solution a couple of things should be addressed before a CPQ vendor is invited to demo their product in a meaningful way.

  1. A customer should review, document and prioritize their current business processes & requirements
  2. A customer should know what issues (i.e. excessive discounting, incorrect products on quote) they need to address at what point in time
  3. A customer should review steps 1+2 with an objective and unbiased CPQ expert. This ensures that all CPQ relevant topics have been properly captured
  4. A customer should consider using the Novus CPQ Short List Builder @ https://novuscpq.com/cpq-circle-community/short-list-builder/ to determine which CPQ vendors offer a potential solution for their company
  5. A customer builds a list of business scenarios that the Short List Vendors should demo. They may or may not use any external help for this step
  6. CPQ Vendors demo their solution based on step 5.

While this probably delays the CPQ Demo and selection project slightly it increases the quality of the decision and it will help to speed up the implementation project!

And remember that a CPQ solution is not for eternity but should be re-evaluated on a regular basis to ensure it still meets your business requirements. You can find more free CPQ information from many different sources in our new CPQ Circle Community. This helps you to stay up-to-date with CPQ trends and developments.