It’s just a fact: Generally speaking, sales reps don’t like CPQs. And they don’t trust CPQs.
So how can you convince your sales team that a CPQ will actually help not just the business, but also their day to day?
Read on to review some of the most common complaints you’re likely to hear from sellers about CPQs — and some suggestions for countering these objections and getting buy-in for your CPQ.
“CPQ slows down the sales process”
Perhaps nowhere is the disconnect between sales operations and sales teams made more evident than when it comes to CPQs. Sales operations teams want to customize a CPQ and put a lot of guardrails in place. But sales teams get frustrated that they have to navigate all these guardrails and add unnecessary delays in getting quotes out the door.
Solution: Yes, guardrails are important, but make sure you’re not over-engineering the system. A seller’s experience is directly related to how many customizations you put in. Don’t overload your CPQ with too many automation customizations because it will slow down the system and make for a poor user experience.
“CPQs aren’t accurate”
Sales teams often complain about CPQs saying they aren’t accurate or just don’t work. But the truth is that it’s not the tool; it’s the data and processes. It’s rare to find a company without any underlying data issues. These issues can be caused by a previous lack of a CPQ, a messy migration from one system to another, or from someone using a component in a way it’s not intended to be used. Whatever the cause, the result is data that is inaccurate and that creates problems for salespeople in the trenches, like data inconsistencies when amending or renewing an order.
Solution: Solving for data issues is easier said than done, but there are a few best practices to help improve data accuracy. When planning an implementation, ensure that data migration is your first and last focus, and do whatever you can to manage the complexity. For example, if you have a relatively small number of contracts to review, take the extra time to verify and clean up contracts upfront so that future amendments and rules are cleaner. This is an example of when an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
“There are too many hoops to jump through to close a deal”
When processes are too complicated, the blame falls to the CPQ because it’s on the front lines of sales. In terms of processes, this is another area where sales operations and sales literally don’t see eye to eye. The way that operations visualizes processes isn’t how sales sees it, which is why sales can feel like closing a deal is just an endless obstacle course.
Solution: Dumb down your processes. This isn’t an insult to sales, it’s just the truth: few people outside of operations have the same love for process. Test your processes and see where you can scale back. And work with your sales team to identify processes that will be more sales friendly. Sometimes this can be as simple as just representing something in graph form so that sales can more easily visualize and process.
“CRMs suck. CPQs suck too.”
Many sales teams are conditioned to view their CRM as a necessary evil. They need to be in the CRM to close a deal, otherwise they can’t report on pipeline and they can’t get commission. But they hate CRMs – and everything that is “wrapped” in that CRM wrapper, including CPQs.
This is because as CRMs evolve over time, a lot is built into and on top of them — but not a lot is maintained. So you wind up with a lot of technical debt. If you’re a sales person dealing with a buggy CRM system when all you want to do is move data along and close a deal, it’s understandable that you’d get frustrated.
Because CRMs are typically so brittle and error prone, sales teams have the perspective that everything that exists within a CRM has the same baggage.
Solution: This is an issue where having the right tool can help. Don’t just default to a CPQ embedded in your buggy CRM. Instead, implementing a CPQ with the functionality that your org needs — one that is purpose-built and easy to use — can go a long way towards softening negative perceptions
Speed round for CPQ objections from sales
Here are a few other arguments you can pull out of your pocket when facing a CPQ protest (and check out our comprehensive CPQ resource center for more succinct summaries of CPQ capabilities and how to find and implement the best tool for your business):
- Would you prefer to build quotes from scratch in an Excel table and copy paste into our CRM? Or spend more time on activities that can’t be automated like meeting prospects face to face?
- Do you like chasing down approvals?
- Do you want to reinvent the wheel for every new deal, upsell, cross-sell or renewal — or just clone orders to duplicate?
- Do you like rushing back from the field to enter sales details into your computer — or would you prefer to just close deals right from your phone?
- Do you like waiting on deal desk? Or do you want to be able to create complex quotes including ramp deals and amendments without deal desk approval on a deal by deal basis?
Can sales learn to love CPQ?
I'm sorry to break it to you, but it’s unlikely that you will ever get sales to stop complaining about a CPQ. But what you can do is try to meet them halfway, to get them sort of onboard. To do this, you need to constantly be evaluating processes, you need to stay agile, and you need to keep optimizing — and simplifying — your processes even as the company grows.
Spelling out the obvious for sellers can also be helpful: with a CPQ, you can more easily quote the right products at the right price with the right discounts to the right buyers. And that is how you accelerate a deal.
See how your sales reps — and everyone else in your org — can benefit from Subskribe CPQ. And check out our digital Sales Room where reps work hand-in-hand with prospects to modify and customize deals.
