CPQ Integration

The next step in proposal management

Is Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) the Next Prize for Your Sales Tech Stack?

In complex markets, proposals are one of the largest drags on sales performance. For enterprises and mid-market businesses, sales teams repeat the same rituals, sending reminders, training newbies, describing products and services, defending actions. Some of these actions are quick, but many require coordination and the kind of attention of a driver on a long highway, tedious but also high-stress, any error potentially leading to poor deals, lost customers, or angry phone calls.  

Sales people will frequently stop in the middle of what they are doing to say, “Ugh, I have been here before. I have done this; I am going to do this again and again…”  

CPQ Should Be Prioritized on
Your Sales Tech Stack Wishlist If:

  • Sales reps spend over one hour on large quotes
  • Order errors
  • Pricing errors
  • Missed cross-selling and up-selling opportunities
  • Reduced brand image and customer satisfaction
  • Lost orders
  • Long time-to-fulfillment
  • High sales rep turnover and need to retain talent
  • Long ramp-up times for new reps

What Is Configure Price Quote (CPQ)?

Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) technology is a cloud-based way for mid-market businesses to avoid the continual, mundane actions of proposal management and focus energy on selling. CPQ is like a proposal manager but with a greater capacity to automate tasks at each stage from configuration to cash-in-hand, also integrating with business systems like ERP and CRM, so that workers do not need to jump between windows and systems to manage proposals, and work is driven tirelessly forward to the next phase. 

What Are Some High-Level Benefits of CPQ?

CPQ integrates deal making with technology, providing:

  • Transparency into the sales pipeline and more accurate budget forecasting
  • Sophisticated controls over pricing and configuration 
  • Decreased ramp-up time for new reps and new products 
  • Reduced order errors
  • More...

There is something in CPQ for every major business function. For complex markets, where quotes can require over an hour between configuration and pricing, CPQ is a low-hanging fruit for the entire business and should be a priority on your sales tech stack.

CPQ Is Still a Differentiator but Quickly Becoming a Benchmark

Until the last few years, CPQ has been an offer that only enterprises could afford. In the 1980s, multinational businesses in manufacturing, telecom, and financial services verticals developed initial models. It is interesting and important to note that these models supported Operations personnel, not Sales, as they configured high-dollar products and services on the fly.   

Ten years later, Selectica et al built out the sales side, and momentum shifted toward sales enablement. We started to see guided selling features designed to help sales people navigate highly technical information to make quick, profitable decisions that were aligned with the business strategy. Product bundles, cross-selling and up-selling opportunities would appear at the appropriate stage in configuration, and sales managers could tweak these automations to improve results systematically. 

Development would occur in large enterprise and then trickle down over the years, the features and code innovations spurring on-premise proposal management software and best practices.  

Only since smaller enterprise and middle-market businesses have pushed to the cloud has the CPQ market exploded. CPQ has experienced 15-25% growth annually since 2009 with cloud-based CPQ driving in recent years. 

Market growth has consequently spurred acquisitions and mergers activity as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems have rushed into the space. CallidusCloud, IBM, Infor, Oracle, PROS, and Salesforce have acquired CPQ companies. Other mergers focus on bundling together a full, end-to-end suite to manage dealmaking from quote-to-cash. It is a race for a single, integrated deal making system at a per-user cost, and competition has never been fiercer. 

CPQ Case Study: Model N CPQ

Watch how a middle market manufacturer serving electric utilities shortened proposal generation from weeks to minutes.

Model N CPQ for bpm'online CRM

Quote easily and accurately from any device with Model N CPQ integration for bpm'online.

ALTAVI's proprietary cloud connector delivers Model N's enterprise-grade CPQ solution to the bpm'online interface. Model N CPQ automates, tracks, and manages proposals, enabling configuration and pricing of complex products and services.

  • Streamline quoting, contracting, and renewals
  • Guided Selling, solutions, recommendations
  • Simplify complex rules and configuration
  • Interoperable with SAP ERP, out-of-the-box
  • Industry-leading response times
  • Most competitively priced CPQ on the market

Why the ALTAVI Team?

Experienced Executives

who drove real, sustainable change in mid-market multinationals and now deliver ROI to sales and across the enterprise.

Sales Operations Consultants

who connect and consolidate client activities to drive success and a more satisfying customer experience.

Technology Experts

who design, implement, and integrate solutions and systems that improve sales with tried and true practices.

Alone We Are Smart; Together We Are Brilliant

Whether you are looking for CPQ, CLM, or CRM, let us help you decide if a Quick-Start, Deep Dive, or Turnaround would be best for your organization.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Our Clients

When all stakeholders have the right incentives to engage, success comes naturally.
“I've done a lot of CRM implementations and never one that went this well.”

Jeff Howe 
Business Line VP