Boost Channel Sales Efficiency and Win More Deals with CPQ

You might think your channel partners will always be loyal and do everything to promote your products. The reality is quite the opposite.

Your partners’ main priority is to sell as much as possible, as quickly as possible, as profitably as possible.

So, competition is fierce. If you can’t offer an excellent product and create a frictionless selling experience, your partners will look for someone else who can deliver those things.

Maybe you’ve got the “product” aspect of that figured out (otherwise, why would they continue to partner with you?).

But what about the sales process? How can you make it as easy and efficient as possible for your channel partners to sell your products?

The answer is simple: CPQ.

When it comes to quoting, your channel partners face several challenges…

It probably isn’t your first thought, but the quoting process plays a huge role in your channel partners’ selling experience. It’s easy to overlook, but there’s a lot that goes into it.

• Product selection
• Configuration options
• Pricing calculations
• Discounting rules
• Proposal generation
• Approval processes

If any of these are too complicated or time-consuming, it hinders your partners’ ability to quickly and easily quote your products. And if they’re unable to provide accurate, professional-looking quotes in a timely manner, they’ll lose most of their deals to competitors who can.

…and traditional quoting methods just don’t cut it anymore.

Using manual processes like spreadsheets, Google Docs, and email to create quotes isn’t just time-consuming. It’s error-prone and unprofessional.

If you do it this way, you’ll have a whole host of problems:

• Missing or outdated product information
• Inconsistent discounting and pricing rules across channel partners
• Human error in pricing calculations or proposal generation
• Drawn-out approval processes that slow down the sales cycle
• Delayed response times to customers

And these problems are only amplified if your product has lots of different versions, pricing options, or configuration possibilities. If your product catalog or pricing strategy are complex, there will be challenges in understanding and applying them.

Whether or not your partner sellers have their own quoting tools doesn’t matter. It’s your responsibility as the parent company to standardize the process and rules across every partner working with you.

And for that to work, they all need to be working from the same centralized system.

CPQ software boosts channel sales efficiency.

CPQ (configure, price, quote) is a quoting tool that streamlines the entire quote-to-cash process. It’s the central hub for all things quoting, making it easier for your partners to sell your products and for you to manage their selling processes.

What makes CPQ so critical to an efficienct sales workflow (channel sales or otherwise) is it operates on a rules-based engine. To translate, you (or the admin) set up and control all pricing, discounting, and configuration options. That’s how it guarantees pricing and configuration accuracy.

Essentially, the process works like this:

1. You add your product catalog to the system.
2. You define pricing rules, discounting rules, and configuration options.
3. You also set up contingencies for bundling and upselling options.
4. You decide which partners have access to which products and at what price point (depending on their tier, location, etc.).
5. Your channel partners log onto the system when they’re working with a customer.
6. The system uses guided selling to move them through the product selection and configuration process, applying the rules you’ve set up.
7. When they’re ready to quote, CPQ calculates the price automatically and generates a branded quote on the spot.

This process makes for a fast, accurate, and consistent quoting process. In fact, reps tend to spend 73% more time building a quote when they’re not using CPQ software.

5 reasons to integrate CPQ into your channel sales strategy

Managing one or multiple sales departments within the same company is a huge challenge because you have to keep all of them in sync.

Through channel partners, the challenge increases tenfold. All of a sudden, you’re worrying about what several other companies are doing, how they’re selling your products, and what their internal systems and workflows are like.

In the context of the sales process, CPQ software is the way to standardize that.

Here are five reasons to consider CPQ implementation if you haven’t already:

1. Better sales performance

Around 50% of sales go to the vendor who responds first. When a buyer requests a quote or proposal and you respond in hours instead of days, your chances of winning that deal skyrocket.

From a broader perspective, CPQ automation dramatically reduces sales cycle time. Think about all the manual processes you’d typically need to handle when quoting a customer…

• Gathering product info
• Calculating pricing based on customer needs
• Applying discounts
• Inputting everything into a branded document
• Sending it to the appropriate people for approval

CPQ handles this all automatically. And if something needs internal approval before getting sent out, the system will automatically route it to the appropriate person (who can approve or reject it in one click).

2. Higher customer satisfaction rates

Your ability to offer excellent service is just as important as selling a great product (if not more). And the sales process is every prospect’s first taste of what it’s like to work with you. If you can’t make a good first impression, you’ll lose that relationship.

Using CPQ for quoting means almost all the friction associated with a typical sale is completely eliminated. Customers always get accurate quotes that are easy for them to understand.

And when they do sign, there are no surprises or misinterpretations. When your actual product is aligned with the expectations your partner sold them on, they’re more likely to remain satisfied with the product long-term.

3. Stronger channel partner relationships

You have more control over your product and how it’s sold when you’re working directly with channel partners. But there’s always a little bit of give-and-take. If you start dictating things like pricing or sales processes, your partners will feel like they’re losing autonomy.

CPQ removes this aspect of the relationship entirely. With the system, your channel partners have complete transparency into how you price and sell your products.

Beyond that, it makes working with you easier for them. Some platforms (for instance, XaitCPQ) feature channel sales portal integration, meaning you can send communication or update product/pricing info once and immediately distribute it to everyone selling your product.

4. Data-driven decision-making

As the central tool for sales transactions, CPQ has a wealth of insights into how effective each partner’s sales process is at converting leads and what the value of those leads is. You’ll also know how much time it takes each partner to build quotes and close deals, as well as any areas where you might need to offer more sales enablement.

With these insights, you can fine-tune your channel strategy. For example, if one of your partners is consistently selling more of a certain product variation, you can make changes to feature that option more prominently or start having partners with lower sales figures start pushing it.

5. Enterprise-level scalability

Modern CPQ is cloud-based, meaning it’s inherently scalable. As your product catalog expands or you start adding new partners into the mix, it’s easy to add them and make sure everyone has access to the same info (and that the info’s always up-to-date).

There are other ways that CPQ software can help scale sales, too. You can integrate it with your CRM to automate the process of updating pipeline statuses and keep track of everyone’s orders.

You can also use it to manage workflows for different sales processes. For example, if you’re using a different sales process for SMB vs. enterprise deals, you can set up approval routing based on the size of the deal or other criteria.

Channel managers: The time is NOW for CPQ.

If you aren’t already using a modern CPQ system, we can guarantee you’re missing out on tons of potential revenue.

Start by looking at your current processes.

Do you have trouble collaborating, updating, or sharing information with your channel partners? Are policies and procedures inconsistent from one to the next? Is there constant confusion over product specs or pricing?

If the answer to any of these questions is “Yes,” it’s time to make a change.Now that you’re ready, take a look at my tips for selecting the right CPQ software. And check out our CPQ software reviews and product comparisons.