Embarking on a CPQ Transformation Journey
Many of us are familiar with buzzwords like “disruption,” “digital transformation,” and “Agile,” but one term that’s gaining traction is “CPQ.” In this blog post, we’ll dive into the complex world of CPQ and what it means for B2B and B2C functions.
CPQ stands for Configure, Price, and Quote, and is a crucial functionality for any business. Whether you’re a first-timer or a CPQ pro, this blog will provide valuable insights based on my extensive experience in this domain.
The most critical aspect of any successful CPQ transformation is the “Discovery” phase. Regardless of the scale of your enterprise, understanding what you sell, how you sell it, who you sell it to, and who can sell it is the most challenging part of implementing your CPQ solution.
To truly understand CPQ and successfully transform your organization, it’s essential to go beyond just reading product and service specifications. You need to dive into the details, such as your core services and offerings, product lines, business requirements, and product bundling capabilities. You also need to consider selling rules, partner restrictions, product life cycles, and user groups responsible for selling and approving requests.
CPQ transformation is a crucial step that impacts your entire organization, including internal users, customers, and partners. To approach this transformation, you need SMEs who know your products inside out and representatives from each user group to identify pain areas and the desired to-be state.
A deep understanding of the end-to-end ecosystem is necessary for any digital transformation, especially when it comes to customer data, CRM, CPQ, billing, and invoicing. You need to know the source of your customer data and the expected quotes from your CPQ system for different types of customers.
Once you have a fair idea of landing into the CPQ system from your CRM, you can start diving deeper into your CPQ requirements. Understanding the complete canvas around CPQ is key to implementing it successfully.
This blog provides valuable insights for facilitating a successful “Discovery” session with your stakeholders and decision-makers. In future blogs, we’ll deep dive into each of the “C,” “P,” and “Q” aspects, including common requirements, approaches, best practices, and challenges.
