Optimize your sales channel with CPQ and QTC
Confusion between CPQ and QTC is not uncommon. The aim of this article is to clarify the characteristics of CPQ and how it differs from QTC. CPQ is a set of standardization solutions used to produce a company's quotations.
QTC, on the other hand, is part of the customer experience, from the generation of quotations through to their collection. Let's take a look at their respective definitions and distinctions.
Let's take a look at the similarities and functionalities of these two solutions: CPQ, which links quotations to cash flow, and QTC, which handles part of thecustomer experience.
CPQ is seen as a relative component of QTC. These two concepts are both different and complementary. They support the relationship between the customer, the sales team and the finance department.
CPQ vs QTC
What is the CPQ?
This is the industry standard for solutions that simplify and rationalize revenue streams right from the quotation stage. This involves precise configuration and exact pricing , including multi-commercial options. Then we generate a quote that is uniform throughout the company and reassuring for the customer.
Does your company have multi-channel revenue streams ?
CPQ is the best solution to the challenge of acquiring new business channels. Whether direct or indirect. Your teams use the same tools.
The advantage of integrated CRM and ERP systems
How to ensure commercial success with CPQ?
The first is to take advantage of automated pricing, product, quotation and customer approval requirements.
Then it's about adapting the right product or service to the customer's needs, quickly and efficiently.
Everything is centralized in a single interface, enabling your company's various departments to work seamlessly together. Indeed, its practicality in relation to the global end-to-end sales process - QTC - implies extreme precision in the sales cycle. Since this process responds to the complexities of customizable products or services, or those with multiple options.
How to ensure commercial success with CPQ?
Here are the keys to a fluid, rational sales dynamic, thanks to precision right from the quotation stage:
- Configuration: the optimal combination of product selection and dedicated services.
- Price: this is the application of price discounts, promotions and various commercial offers to configured products and services, through precise price calculation.
- Quote: generate an accurate, error-free quote .
The transfer of information is therefore totally transparent. As a result, your sales and finance teams share the same information, and the customer is satisfied and reassured.
What is QTC?
Streamlining from Front Office to Back Office
QTC, also known as Q2C, is a set of processes that make up part of the Customer Experience (CX) process.
Let's take a look at the eight steps in the process, from opportunity to sales revenue recognition, right through to renewal. In other words, the renewal of a purchase, thus ensuring a successful customer experience through the very meaning of loyalty.
To clarify, the aim is to facilitate the entire sales cycle automation process .
QTC, integrated into your customer acquisition and revenue system, enables you to increase customer satisfaction and thus boost your company's margins . And all this while reducing and optimizing your sales force's workload, through a clearer end-to-end offer.
QTC is therefore more comprehensive and complete than CPQ. As a result, this solution for acquiring and controlling your revenue sources takes longer to implement. Here are the main steps, which govern the agility of Quote To Cash:
- Configure: the optimal combination of product selection and dedicated services.
- Price: this is the application of price discounts, promotions and various commercial offers to configured products and services, through precise price calculation.
- Quote: it's the preparation of accurate and error-free quotations .
- Contracts: the sales department draws up and concludes contracts from the outset, then handles the execution of contractual terms using CLM (contract lifecycle management) tools.
- Order fulfillment : the order is processed and delivered to the customer, thanks to order management tools.
- Invoicing: generated and sent by the customer using billing applications.
- Sales revenue recognition: the finance department provides sales recognition once payment has been received.
- Renewal: promoting customer loyalty and recurring revenues through optimal management of contracts and renewals.
The CPQ solution is a building block in the QTC process
The CPQ solution covers the quoting part of the QTC process.
The Configure Price Quote is considered a subset of the Quote To Cash. It's not uncommon to hear it referred to semantically as a "brick in the sales cycle". From lead to opportunity, the capture of customer expectations is governed by the fluidity of a system that is complex at first glance. On the other hand, this brick of the sales channel responds in an agile and modern way to the customer's expectations, as well as those of your teams, right from the quotation stage.
How do you set up your CPQ process?
How about increasing decision-making accuracy and customer satisfaction? Automating multi-dimensional quotations enables sales teams to ensure the right combination of products and offers. It's a set of solutions that are simpler to implement than QTC.
The CPQ's big winner? The customer.
The purchasing experience is automated right from the order management stage. Then to invoicing, also through the automation of information linked to financial services.
In the case of subscription offers, for example, or other recurring sales models, CPQ integration enables excellent communication between different departments within the company.
It's also about giving salespeople the ability to configure bundled offers. In this way, they can ensure that they sell the right products together, while allowing some variation in the way they sell them. This solution also enables them to visualize the product hierarchy . This generates more successful, error-free transactions. The result is a better customer experience.
CPQ deployment
In order to respond to ever-changing business transitions, and thus ensure your company's long-term competitiveness, this solution conquers the mastery of information in particular.
It enables better management of taxation, payments and billing. More accurate data is transferred to the accounting books by a more agile solution, for example, tax management, package product codes and payment processing.
Here are the main steps, based on our expertise at Ben Consulting Services:
- Audit and Consulting
- Design and modeling
- CRM and ERP integration
- Framing requirements
- Setup and configuration
The CPQ system administrator or expert then facilitates the creation of quotations by your sales staff. In just a few clicks, product configurations are ready for use. He or she ensures that the integration process is respected.
Then set your prices, product rules, quotation templates and pricing methods.
Optimize your sales, from Lead to Cash
Our services cover all aspects of your sales cycle.
In today's dynamic business environment, you need to strike a balance between speed, precision and innovation.
By automating these complex tasks and business processes, you can streamline and simplify the entire billing cycle, reduce manual errors and minimize lost revenue. As a result, your teams are more efficient and more informed. By controlling the efficiency of your teams, you give yourself the freedom to innovate and gain a competitive edge ; as well as an excellent customer experience, which remains the primary objective of our vision.
Boost your sales and optimize your time
In conclusion, your business success depends on the right choices for your company. The advanced functionalities of a CPQ solution guarantee an organized, automated and enhanced customer experience.
As a result, you generate more orders, thanks to simplified, flexible management. And, what's more, your team relations will be smoother and more cohesive.
The advantage of is that it adapts to the size and needs of your business, quickly and efficiently.
Ben Consulting Services offers solutions, in an agile way, thanks to a team dedicated to CPQ optimization.
We generate greater precision in the acquisition of your revenue sources. So you can quickly consolidate your sales cycles. You get more transactions, so you stand out from the competition.
To take things a step further, new technologies now automatically fill in quotation fields, making order generation even smoother.
Let's work together to define your project and the right solution for your business. Our experts are at your service, for more information.
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