Salesforce CPQ for Manufacturing Industry

COVID-19 has brought a dramatic transformation in the manufacturing industry. The disruption in the global supply chain has resulted in reduced margins and business volatility. Amidst this, manufacturers are striving to conquer the challenges of a dynamic business environment. 

Improving the efficiency of quote to order (Q20) cycle is a top priority for ?. A lot of manufacturers are investing in robust CPQ software to automate and streamline their Q2O processes. How does this software help manufacturers? But before that, let’s delve into some basics.

Who Uses Salesforce CPQ?

CPQ has become an integral aspect of many organizations in their quest for digital transformation. CPQ helps in optimizing many verticals of business. Let’s look at some of the key users of CPQ:

The Sales Team

CPQ makes it possible to connect various sales processes for a streamlined buying experience. With this, the sales team can always be certain of delivering the right quotes and products. The potential of guided selling allows even the newest sales reps to create accurate product offerings for customers. 

The IT Team

CPQ has powerful integration abilities, allowing it to work efficiently with ERP, CRM, PIM, CAD, and other e-commerce solutions. These seamless integrations simplify the processes of various aspects of the organization. 

The Marketing Team

The visualization capabilities of CPQ delivers custom product configurations to customers directly from manufacturers. Providing a visual of how their product will look is a smart way to peak customers’ interest. Thereafter, it becomes easier for marketers to capitalize on this opportunity. 

The Engineering Team

CPQ streamlines and digitizes engineering, commercial and factor processes, thereby providing a single point of data. Through CAD automation, sales and engineering teams can deliver product specs that are practical. Moreover, CPQ extends accurate product data which efficiently solves challenges in technical product variance. 

Challenges with Historical Approach

A lot of manufacturing companies deal with common challenges that can limit  sales numbers. And for most of these challenges, the root cause is the gap between the sales team and Enterprise Resource Planning system. 

When introduced to instant changes, these systems run slow and become complex. Traditionally, ERPs are not optimized to accommodate a wide range of processes. Subsequently, the sales team ends up using a handful of other software to come up with quotes and manage other details. This disconnect leads to many challenges for the manufacturing company including:

• Increased probability of errors due to double entries of quotes 
• Loss of money due to incorrect price lists by sales reps 
• Pricing errors in  calculations by sales reps 
• Inconsistencies due to sales reps using their own methods to generate quotes.

How Salesforce CPQ Helps Manufacturing Firms?

Accurate Pricing Every Time

Setting the right pricing is a critical task that’s  too risky to leave to guesswork. A CPQ software empowers sellers with set pricing models. It makes it easier and quicker to generate accurate prices, irrespective of the complexity of product configurations.

Boost the Sales Process

Sales staff should focus more on selling the product instead of creating proposals, configurations, and pricing orders. CPQ automates the time-consuming process of configuring and pricing. Therefore, the sellers can invest more time interacting with customers to generate more leads and selling opportunities. 

Get Set Quote

There has been a drop in demand for standardized products because of the popularity of made-to-order solutions. The latter has put a lot of pressure on the seller because of the time they take to make quotes for customized orders. But the long wait time means customers are walking away. A robust CPQ software enhances the process of generating quotes and offering them to customers. This alleviates the pressure from the seller and improves the customer turnout.

Automating the Configurations Process

Conventionally, configurations are made on a spreadsheet manually. The process is tedious and time-consuming and prone to errors. CPQ software is a powerful solution to all the above challenges. It automates various elements of the configuration process and guides the users through it . As a result, sellers get to choose personalized and relevant features with minimal or no chance of errors.

Data-Backed Forecasts

Having a clear understanding of what you have sold in the past forms a strong foundation for predicting what the future demand is going to look like. While many manufacturers have tried to leverage sales forecasting, it was hampered by outdated and inaccurate sales data. In CPQ software, data collected in every step flows to the customer base. So you can be confident in the data you have while making predictions.

The business world is ever-evolving and there is always going to be some transformational technology working its magic. And CPQ software is one such revolutionizing solution for the manufacturing industry. If you are not using it, it’s high time that you invest in CPQ software and bring the transformation that your business deserves.