Configure Price Quote Solutions Why Thriving Manufacturers Implement CPQ

1. Configure Price Quote Solutions: Why Thriving Manufacturers Implement CPQ? ======================================================================== It’s an exciting time for the manufacturing sector. Configure, price, quote solutions have transformed the industry, allowing manufacturers to improve internal efficiency, boost customer satisfaction, and provide a superior experience all-around. This article explains why CPQ solutions have become a mainstay of profitable modern manufacturing operations. And it breaks down how your business will benefit from CPQ if you haven’t implemented it already. Let’s dive in. What are Configure Price Quote Solutions? How CPQ Solutions Benefit Customers •CPQ Systems Provide Self-Service Capabilities •CPQ Solutions Power Advanced Product Visualizations How CPQ Systems Increase Manufacturing Performance •CPQ Solutions Let Sales Reps Focus on What They’re Good At •CPQ Systems Automate Mission-Critical Manufacturing Processes •CPQ solutions unite manufacturers’ tech stacks The Best CPQ Vendors On the Market What are Configure Price Quote Solutions? As the name suggests, configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions allow manufacturers to precisely dictate how their products are configured, priced, and quoted. But how exactly does this work? The best CPQs boast no-code rules engines, allowing manufacturers to decide their products’ specific rules. They can modify the tool’s visual product configurator logic to dictate which customizations are available for which products (and at which price points), before building a configurator on top of these rules. The term configurator refers to an interactive visual interface that both reps and customers can use to customize products on-screen. These configurators have replaced manual pen-and-paper processes— increasing internal efficiency and speeding up the buying process. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. In the following sections, we’ll take a deep dive into how exactly CPQ solutions benefit both manufacturing organizations and their customers alike. How CPQ Solutions Benefit Customers

2. CPQ solutions are nothing if not customer-centric. By implementing a CPQ solution, manufacturers provide an easy, efficient, reliable, and visually appealing buying experience that keeps customers coming back for more. CPQ Systems Provide Self-Service Capabilities Once manufacturers have dictated their products' specific rules, customers can self-serve without requiring a rep’s help. All possible permutations are locked into the CPQ system automatically. Customers can sift through thousands (or even millions) of customization options, and the price automatically updates to reflect their desired customizations. In other words, they can convert on the spot without having to get in touch with a sales rep for a quote, which in some cases can take weeks. CPQ Solutions Power Advanced Product Visualizations CPQ software does more than simply enable customers to customize products at will. It goes one step further, allowing them to interact with 2D, 3D, or AR visualizations of their products via visual product configurators. This is a game-changer. Customers don't have to hope their product will turn out as intended—they can see exactly what it will look like before converting. Hence, advanced product visualizations boost conversion rates by 40% and deal size by 105%. How CPQ Systems Increase Manufacturing Performance Happy customers are just one part of the equation. CPQ solutions also provide a range of internal benefits, increasing manufacturing efficiency, boosting sales, and enhancing the employee experience. Let’s dig into these areas in more detail. CPQ Solutions Let Sales Reps Focus on What They’re Good At Historically, sales teams have acted as the go-betweens for customers and back-office teams, relaying which customizations are/aren’t available and outlining the costs involved. This task is overly-complex and time-consuming. Under this outdated scenario, sales reps must grapple with ever-expanding spreadsheets containing hundreds of thousands of SKUs, each with its own set of dependencies and compatibility rules. Customers have to wait for a rep’s response before they go ahead and convert. While waiting, they might scope out another company’s offerings instead—and may decide to jump ship. As the saying goes, “time kills all deals.” Unfortunately, in a bid to respond as quickly as possible, human error often creeps in—reps might misread a figure on their dense spreadsheets and accidentally misquote a customer. Inaccuracy dents the customer experience, further hampering manufacturers’ bottom lines. Sales reps spend less time selling than they do figuring out whether certain customizations are possible. Over time, their employee satisfaction takes a hit, with sales teams turning into a revolving door. It takes

3. a while for new reps to get up to speed while existing employees must spend time onboarding them instead of focusing on their customers. This further damages productivity. CPQ solutions provide an easy fix. No-code rules engines handle all customization and pricing queries automatically, in real-time. Reps can focus on what they’re good at: selling. No longer will they waste precious time digging through complex spreadsheets, and errors disappear entirely. CPQ Systems Automate Mission-Critical Manufacturing Processes As soon as a customer converts, the CPQ’s in-product configurators send critical manufacturing data straight over to the shop floor. This instantly begins the process of generating key documentation, including CAD files, BOMs, cut sheets, inventory status, and shipping and assembly documentation. There are no delays, confusion, or bottlenecks between conversion and production. CPQ solutions allow manufacturers to automatically translate the customer’s wishes into tangible products. Customers benefit from a smooth, visually appealing, and entirely accurate customer experience. As Moriah Hillbrand, Business Analyst at Tuff Shed, comments, “From a production standpoint, KBMax [Epicor CPQ] allows us to be completely aligned as a company and confident in our product output. It has truly been a game-changer for us.” CPQ Solutions Unite Manufacturers’ Tech Stacks But CPQ software does more than just connect the front-end buying experience with back-office manufacturing systems (like CAD tools). They unite the entire manufacturing organization, integrating with ERP, CRM, e-commerce tools, and others. Critical data passes seamlessly from one system to another. •CPQ ERP integrations create a single source of truth for all critical customer data: items, bills of material, customer data, routings, etc. •CPQ CRM integrations ensure manufacturers can see whether customers have interacted with their product configurators in the past—and, if so, what products they’ve shown interest in or purchased. •E-commerce integrations allow prospects to handle the configure, price, and quote processes themselves online without needing anyone else’s help. The Best CPQ Vendors on the Market Not all CPQ solutions are equally beneficial. So, which CPQ vendor can your organization trust to do the job? You might be tempted to implement the CPQ for Salesforce users—mainly if you use Salesforce CRM. But while it makes sense to house everything in one place, it’s not user-friendly, lacks advanced product configurators, and is an overly sluggish system. Integrating a superior third-party CPQ into Salesforce makes more sense.

4. Or, you could pick SAP’s CPQ solution. Again, despite offering limited benefits, it comes up short in several areas. For example, it can’t provide 2D, 3D, AR, or VR product configurations, which is a significant drawback, mainly if your products are aesthetically led. For manufacturers, Epicor CPQ is head and shoulders above the rest. First, its no-code rules engine allows anyone to configure complex product configurations, leveraging advanced product logic. Second, it provides 3D visual product configurations that enable prospects to interact with their proposed product customizations in real-time. Third, it boasts an unparalleled range of integrations, connecting disparate systems across complex manufacturing organizations. As Jeff Smith, Engineering & Design CAD Specialist at Timberlane, Inc., says, “Learn and use this platform (Epicor CPQ). It will turn your company around.”