CPQ software (Configure, Price, Quote) has been a staple in the sales and manufacturing industry for quite some time. It enables companies to quickly and accurately generate quotes for complex products by configuring various components and pricing them accordingly.
But what about sales in the services space? That’s where Services CPQ can help. In keeping with its name, this solution focuses on helping organizations sell services, rather than products. It takes services firms beyond simple quoting tools (often just glorified spreadsheets) and offers dynamic rules that reflect how services are actually delivered.
Modern Services CPQ platforms include capabilities like:
- Back-end catalogs with business-driven configuration logic
- Built-in calculators for T&M, fixed-fee, and bid-margin pricing
- Tagging and automation tools that streamline configuration and proposal generation
Services are inherently more complex than products, so Services CPQ allows for customized calculations that account for delivery models, resource rates, margins, and other variables. Capabilities like these enable leaders to account for variations in their service offering, while still maintaining an intuitive and integrated client experience.
8 Ways Services CPQ Helps Your Business Scale
Now that we’ve covered what Services CPQ is, let’s look at eight ways it can accelerate growth for services-based and SaaS-with-PS organizations.
1. Improved Efficiency
Services CPQ replaces manual, error-prone work associated with service quoting. By automating configuration, pricing, and proposal creation, it significantly reduces the time and effort required to create accurate service quotes. This efficiency allows sales and service teams to respond faster to customer requests, improving overall responsiveness.
2. Advanced Customization
Every client has unique needs, and Services CPQ makes it easy to customize service offerings. It helps businesses tailor their services to meet specific customer requirements while ensuring that they remain financially viable. This level of personalization can lead to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Reliable Standardization
Services CPQ creates a single source of truth, ensuring the entire firm is using the latest approved language, consistent branding, up-to-date pricing, and only current offerings. Updates can be made by non-technical users and are instantly available to all users. This reduces errors and creates additional efficiencies.
4. Accurate Pricing
Pricing services can be complex, requiring you to juggle multiple variables such as labor costs, materials, and travel expenses. Services CPQ uses predefined rules and algorithms to calculate prices, ensuring consistency and accuracy in pricing. This reduces the likelihood of over or underpricing services, which can hurt profitability.
5. Easier Cross-Selling and Upselling
Services CPQ can suggest complementary services or add-ons during the configuration process, increasing the potential for cross-selling and upselling. This can significantly boost revenue and profitability for service providers.
6. Clear Analytics and Insights
Modern Services CPQ solutions often come with robust analytics and reporting features, or otherwise provide data and insights for existing BI platforms. This data-driven approach allows businesses to gain insights into their service operations, enabling them to make informed decisions, identify trends, and continuously optimize their service offerings.
7. Improved Collaboration
A centralized platform brings sales, service delivery, and finance teams together around the same data. Everyone works from the same version of truth, improving accuracy, transparency, and alignment. Services CPQ provides a one home base where all relevant teams can access and update service configurations, ensuring that everyone is on the same page.
8. Competitive Advantage
Businesses that implement Services CPQ gain a competitive edge. They can respond to customer inquiries faster, offer more tailored services, and maintain pricing consistency. This enhanced customer experience can set them apart from competitors, helping build stronger client relationships and a measurable advantage over competitors.
Connect your complex sales processes with BigTime Services CPQ
As services continue to play a larger role in SaaS and hybrid business models, investing in Services CPQ is no longer optional. It’s a proven way to drive efficiency and sustainable growth.
Services CPQ is an invaluable tool for services-based businesses. It elevates organizations out of the antiquated world of disconnected spreadsheets and docs that lead to broken and static processes. It empowers sellers to deliver better customer experiences and gain a competitive advantage that, quite frankly, the majority of customer-facing teams still haven’t tapped into. As the business landscape continues to evolve and hyper-optimize, Services CPQ will continue to be an essential investment for unlocking and facilitating future-proofed business growth.
BigTime Services CPQ helps services organizations move beyond disconnected spreadsheets and manual quoting processes. It empowers teams to deliver faster, more accurate, and more profitable proposals—while creating a seamless experience for clients.
See how BigTime Services CPQ, the leading solution for complex services sales, can help your firm quote faster, sell smarter, and grow profitably. Book your free demo today.
