Maybe you’ve heard of CPQs, tools designed to speed up quoting, save sales time, and help you acquire more clients, faster. This article is for sales directors, company owners, and decision-makers who’ve heard of CPQ but aren’t sure if it’s the right move.
A Quick Gut-Check
Before we dive in, ask yourself:
- Do we offer complex products with multiple prices, bundles, or discount rules?
- Do we have more than 10 sales reps quoting regularly?
- Does quote creation and approval take more than a couple of hours?
- Do we generate, or aim to generate 100+ quotes per month?
If you ticked all the boxes, you’re in CPQ territory.
What Is CPQ Really Solving?
CPQ isn’t about speeding up quotes. It’s about eliminating hidden sales cycle inefficiencies that quietly eat into your revenue, inflate your costs, and waste your team’s potential.
Let’s break it down with real business effects:
Problem 1: Sales teams rely on spreadsheets, emails, and guesswork.
Revenue Impact: If your average rep spends 6–8 hours a week generating quotes manually, you’re losing a full workday per rep, every week. Plus, manual quoting often leads to errors in quotes.
Cost Impact: One lost day a week per rep adds up fast. Multiply that by your team size and their average salary and now you’re staring at a serious productivity cost. And Quotes that contain pricing errors or unauthorized discounts, lead to a few percentage points lost on margin here which adds up to thousands, sometimes millions annually.
Problem 2: Approval chains are slow and inconsistent.
Revenue Impact: Buyers expect fast responses. If your quote takes three days jumping through you leaders’ mailboxes, and your competitor replies in three hours, you lose the deal before it even starts.
Cost Impact: Manual approvals require management time and focus and increase the risk of bypassing rules. A single overlooked approval could lock you into a loss-making deal.
Problem 3: Your product offering changes, but your quotes don’t keep up.
Revenue Impact: If reps are quoting outdated packages, or unable to respond to market changes fast enough, you miss out on upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
Cost Impact: Each manual update of price lists or product bundles increases the risk of inconsistencies. Fixing those post-sale burns both time and trust.
Problem 4: You have no clear view of what’s being quoted, to whom, and at what margin.
Revenue Impact: Without visibility into deal pipelines and quote performance, you’re managing blind. You can’t coach your team, forecast accurately, or spot what’s working.
Cost Impact: Lack of transparency leads to bloated processes, lost insights, delays and teams that look “busy” but that does not translate to results.
Bottom line
You don’t need a CPQ system to generate quotes!
You need a CPQ system to protect your margins, accelerate your revenue, and give your teams back their time.
Want to See What CPQ Means in Your Numbers?
We’ve built a simple ROI calculator that lets you model your own quoting scenario, based on your team size, quote volume, and deal value.
No email. No sales pitch. Just insight.
And when you’re ready to explore a CPQ platform designed to deliver ROI, we’re here when ready: Discover Ofca CPQ