What's a Channel Friendly CPQ? Why is it Important?

In this article:

• What is a channel friendly CPQ and why is it important?
• How can a CPQ help address channel sales complexities?
• Why is iasset considered the only channel friendly CPQ?
  

Navigating sales opportunities within the I.T industry can be incredibly challenging. Technology vendors, distributors, resellers, and MSPs often encounter numerous issues inherent to selling technology within a channel ecosystem.

The complex, customizable nature of IT quotes, including the vast array of products, price lists, margins, approvals and intricate pricing logic can easily overwhelm traditional Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solutions, making them fall short of being useful and adding real value. That is why we recommend implementing a CPQ that is “channel friendly”.

What is "channel-friendliness"?

We define channel friendliness as a solution specifically designed to address the unique challenges associated with selling within a channel ecosystem. Unlike generic standard offerings intended for all industries, these specialized solutions are tailored to meet the distinct needs of tech providers.

A channel friendly CPQ system is designed to overcome all of the above listed obstacles, offering a more robust solution tailored for the unique demands of channel sales. 

Here’s how it addresses some of the top challenges we see today.

Complex quotes

Tech quotes are often large and intricate, which is why sales teams can waste days building them, especially when using inadequate tools. For example, many standard CPQs have limitations on the number of quote lines they can handle, making an already challenging task even more difficult. A channel friendly CPQ can automatically create quotes with unlimited quote lines in minutes, saving precious time and reducing the cost of sale. 

Multi-vendor quote creation

Tech proposals typically consist of solutions from multiple vendors, not just one, making the quote-building process challenging for resellers and MSPs who must integrate multiple vendors into a single quote. 

A channel friendly CPQ provides the functionality to seamlessly combine products from different vendors, including a mix of solutions such as cloud, subscriptions and hardware into one quote. It also streamlines co-terming across multiple vendors. This helps channel partners save valuable time and present comprehensive solutions to customers with ease.

Streamlined pricing logic

One of the primary challenges in channel sales is managing countless price lists and varying margins. Not to mention having to handle complex quotes that feature multiple currencies, vendors and territories.

A channel friendly CPQ incorporates sophisticated pricing logic that can handle these variations effortlessly. This ensures that quotes are not only accurate but also competitive, reflecting the best possible prices without manual adjustments.

Bulk configurations and pricing updates

Keeping up with frequent changes in product configurations and pricing can be daunting. Channel friendly CPQs allow for bulk updates, ensuring that all quotes reflect the latest configurations and prices. This functionality not only improves accuracy but also ensures that sales teams are always working with the most current information.

Quote version control

Creating and managing multiple versions of a quote is essential in channel sales. A channel friendly CPQ provides the capability to generate different quote versions easily, allowing sales teams to offer various options to customers without starting from scratch each time. 

CPQ for revenue retention and growth 

Retaining customers and extending their lifetime value is crucial for sustainable, profitable growth. Which is why it’s so essential for tech providers to be able to proactively manage every potential opportunity – such as upsell, cross sell, upgrades, refresh, asset retirement or end of life scenarios. Achieving this is near impossible without an intelligent platform that can automatically identify and quote these opportunities, a functionality almost all standard CPQs lack. We recommend leveraging a platform that can analyze vast installed base data and automatically generate quotes ready to send to customers.

Automated approvals

Manual approval processes can become a bottleneck in the quoting process. For channel sales, approval workflows are frequently slow and manual, requiring countless emails, calls and versions before a quote is finally ready to be sent. Your CPQ must automate these workflows, speeding up the approval process and reducing delays. This automation ensures that quotes are approved swiftly and efficiently, enabling customers to then receive them in a timely manner. 

One size does not fit all

The adoption of a channel friendly CPQ is crucial for tech companies engaged in channel sales. It addresses the unique challenges of the channel ecosystem, streamlining the quoting process and enabling sales teams to work more effectively. By improving quoting accuracy and efficiency, it ultimately contributes to higher sales and a more profitable business. 

Additionally, it is crucial for your CPQ to not just be a quoting tool for net-new opportunities, but also have the functionality to support your revenue retention and expansion efforts by proactively managing renewals, upsells, cross-sells, refreshes, and end-of-life opportunities using accurate installed base data.

Investing in a channel friendly CPQ is not just a technological upgrade; it’s a strategic move towards better channel management, sales excellence and less customer churn. There is only one platform that is truly channel friendly and purpose built for tech providers - iasset.com. iasset provides an advanced CPQ and Quote-to-Cash functionality, automating the entire configure-quote-order-fulfill-payment process end-to-end. It also specializes in renewal management and data-driven revenue expansion, making it the preferred platform for leading tech brands.
 

Let us show you how iasset works! Book a demo today.