Manufacturing companies operate in a unique environment with distinct software needs compared to other industries. From managing mass product customization to integrating with specialized equipment, manufacturers require purpose-built solutions. This is especially true when it comes to product quoting and configuration processes. Manual quoting methods or generic CPQ platforms lead to slow turnaround times, inaccurate configurations, and poor customer experiences.
Manufacturing-focused CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) software provides an automated quoting engine designed specifically for industrial use cases. Companies that leverage manufacturing-specialized CPQ tools are able to streamline quoting across channels, reduce errors, capture tribal knowledge, and drive higher revenue through faster response times and expanded customization abilities. Cincom’s CPQ platform is purpose-built to help complex manufacturers simplify quoting and empower sales teams.
Related: What Is Configure Price Quote Software?
How Does CPQ Software Function in Manufacturing Processes?
CPQ software centralizes the entire quoting process onto a single platform. This consolidates all relevant product, pricing, and customer data into one location, breaking down information silos. The software includes:
- Product Configurator: Central database of all product options, variants, pricing, rules, and constraints. Guides sales reps through allowed configurations.
- Pricing Engine: Manages complex pricing models, discounts, and quote versions. Applies guardrails to protect margins.
- Proposal Generator: Automatically generates proposals, drawings, spec sheets, and BoMs based on configured products.
Together, these tools arm sales teams with constantly up-to-date, accurate product knowledge that cuts quote times from days or weeks to minutes. Instead of relying on tribal knowledge, new reps can instantly produce quotes for customized SKUs thanks to guidance baked into CPQ platforms.
What Makes Manufacturing CPQ Unique?
While CPQ software delivers major benefits across sectors, manufacturing platforms are uniquely equipped to handle industrial use cases with:
- Constraint-Based Configuration: Allows for rules and restrictions during configuration based on combinations selected. Prevents unbuildable product designs.
- 3D Visualization: Interactive 3D model displays configurations as changes are made for better buyer experiences and understanding.
- CAD Integrations: CPQ connects with CAD and PLM systems to auto-generate design files and drawings.
- Material Forecasting: Provides production teams’ visibility into upcoming material demands based on configurations from open quotes and orders. Enables proactive planning.
- Extended Attributes Modeling: Accommodates a high volume of parameters beyond standard properties to capture unique needs.
These specialized capabilities empower manufacturers to scale mass customization and tackle their most complex quoting challenges through CPQ.
How Can CPQ Optimize Manufacturing Operations?
The impact of CPQ software spans beyond the sales process to optimize operations, including:
- Reduced Engineering Effort: Minimizes time spent validating configurations by embedding logic into the CPQ platform. Frees up resources to focus on value-added initiatives.
- Flexibility for Growth: Low-code configuration tools allow manufacturers to build and edit quoting logic without relying on developers. Enables agility as offerings expand.
- Supply Chain Efficiency: Analyze upcoming material requirements based on quotes in progress to optimize orders. Reduce shortages and excess.
- Manufacturing Floor Automation: Integrate configured BOMs directly into production systems and equipment to save time. Prevent manual rework due to inaccuracies.
With an integrated CPQ solution uniting customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) infrastructure, manufacturers gain end-to-end process visibility that makes it easier than ever to deliver on custom orders profitably.
Why CPQ Is a Must-Have for Modern Manufacturing Companies
Outdated quoting practices waste time, introduce errors, create obstacles to customization, and deliver poor experiences. Manual methods cannot meet buyer expectations for fast response times and flexibility in the digital age. By adopting CPQ, manufacturers future-proof their businesses with the ability to:
- Onboard new sales reps faster so they reach full productivity quicker.
- Shorten average quote completion times by at least 50% to beat competitors.
- Expand product combinations without additional overhead.
- Increase order accuracy to avoid costly manufacturing rework.
- Provide up-to-date pricing and product details to the sales department, channel partners, and customers.
For manufacturers that struggle with high-complexity products, unscalable customization demands, and rising market competition, implementing tailored CPQ software is a must. It delivers the tools needed to simplify sales and remove quoting bottlenecks that hold back revenue.
Related: Explore more benefits of enterprise CPQ
How Does Cincom’s CPQ Software Help Businesses Succeed?
Cincom designs technology solutions for companies with extensive product catalogs that sell configurable, customizable, and high-variability offerings. Our CPQ platform is purpose-built to handle infinite complexity, empower sales channels, and help complex manufacturers grow revenue.
Enhance Your Manufacturing Capabilities through CPQ
Cincom’s low-code configuration environment gives product specialists the control to build and maintain quoting logic without depending on IT resources. Manufacturers encode tribal knowledge into the smart rules engine to guide the selling process, and the constraints-based configurator only allows valid options to ensure accuracy. Users can leverage 2D/3D visualization during configuration for intuitive interactions.
Close the Deal Faster
The Cincom solution centralizes relevant data onto a single platform with turnkey integrations to existing CRM and ERP systems, eliminating disjointed workflows that introduce delays. Sales reps gain a complete view of product portfolios with the latest details always at their fingertips. Guided selling cuts order timelines by automatically recommending valid cross-sells and upsells. By condensing all moving parts of quoting onto one unified interface, manufacturers can achieve faster turnaround times that beat competitors to the punch.
Enable Mass Customization
Cincom’s patented attribute-based modeling represents products as sets of characteristics, allowing for virtually unlimited unique combinations constrained only by rules. Manufacturers can scale customization without additional overhead. The flexible pricing engine transparently applies discounts, margins, and version control logic to determine accurate pricing on every order. With embedded product intelligence covering endless permutations, sales reps stay steps ahead rather than submitting orders that hit roadblocks.
Provide Real-Time Pricing
Pricing visibility ensures that sales teams always present accurate, up-to-date costs to prospects across channels. Finance manages pricing strategies and constraints centrally through the Cincom CPQ™ platform, pushing changes out systemwide automatically in real time. Rule-based cost modeling protects margins by preventing non-compliant discounting. Syncing these complex pricing models across departments and systems is made seamless, enhancing agility to make strategic moves.
Generate Quotes Instantly
The Cincom solution comes complete with templates to create professional, branded proposals, drawings, and other sales documents tailored to manufacturing. Finalized quote packages can be generated with a single click to be sent to prospects. This automates a process that traditionally requires hours of manual work stitching together custom pieces. Sales reps redirect significant time savings directly into selling activities and providing quality service when documents write themselves.
Create a Guided Selling Experience
Cincom empowers sales reps of all skill levels to have thoughtful conversations that drive mutual value. Embedded logic prompts reps to explore compatible accessories or options targeted to each customer based on selections made, helping agents uncover hidden needs. Workflows further simplify complex processes to reduce cycle times. Reps guided through valid cross-sells and configurations master intricacies faster, allowing them to increase their value-building consultations.
Integrate with Other Software Seamlessly
Cincom CPQ software integrates seamlessly both ways with the platforms businesses rely on through APIs and web services. Tight connections unite CRM, ERP/MRP, PLM, CAD programs, and more to unite worlds. Manufacturers streamline vital systems under one umbrella through Cincom, propelling operations to new levels of efficiency, visibility, and capability by breaking down information barriers. Deep integrations prevent teams from forced context switching between platforms, allowing for quick and easy data sharing between departments and technologies.
Related: Learn about Microsoft Dynamics CRM CPQ integrations
What’s the Impact of CPQ on Customer Relationships in Manufacturing?
Positive customer relationships fuel business growth. CPQ solutions enhance the buying journey from product evaluation to post-purchase. Cincom CPQ software can help manufacturers strengthen bonds with their clients.
How Does Cincom’s CPQ Solution Improve Customer Communications Management?
Consistency and clarity in communications are key. Cincom CPQ feeds configured product details directly into customer-facing documents, ensuring prospects receive accurate information tailored to their needs on quotes and order forms. Literature stays up to date since content lives in one centralized location. By centralizing this content, teams save time searching across systems while customers receive a more professional, unified brand experience across touchpoints. This omnichannel nature ensures that optimized information flows to empower sales channels enterprise wide.
How Can CPQ Software Deliver a Better Manufacturing Experience for Customers?
Self-service portals extend CPQ capabilities to customers directly, providing configuration access without sales team involvement. This gives buyers the freedom to evaluate options on their own time.
Users can finalize submissions to automatically generate orders. Embedded guidance directs users through valid configurations, preventing disappointments from unbuildable designs. Transparent pricing remains consistent across channels, enhancing the trust that brands build.
For guided selling scenarios, CPQ tools equip sales reps with the same centralized, up-to-date product details and valid configuration recommendations whether in person, on a call, or online. By embedding constraints and logic into the system, manufacturers using CPQ can deliver accurate quotes tailored to customer needs much faster.
Shortened sales cycles mean customers get the ideal product specifications documentation they expect promptly. CPQ-generated proposals, rendered models, spec sheets, and bills of materials that match what users outlined look professional and personalized. Customer confidence grows when they see how custom creations will appear before purchase. By managing interactions through CPQ systems, manufacturers provide superior, consistent experiences that build lasting satisfaction and trust.
Best Practices for Integrating CPQ for Manufacturing
To maximize ROI, manufacturers should:
- Map outdated manual quoting steps first to identify top pain points and process constraints.
- Build required product logic, rules, and data workflows into the CPQ platform first, before expanding to nice-to-have items.
- Integrate CPQ with top-priority enterprise systems first (such as CRM or ERP) before adding secondary tools.
- Provide self-guided training resources on updated quoting processes to get teams to adopt quickly.
- Design quotes and documents within CPQ to match existing sales materials/branding for easier adoption.
Following these steps will help focus initial launch efforts on solving critical issues and make onboarding smoother. Optimization can happen iteratively over time.
Simplify Complex Manufacturing Quotes with Cincom CPQ Software
Selling configurable products with infinite combinations demands flexible technology designed for complexity. Manufacturers that rely on outdated tools struggle with slow sales cycles, costly inaccuracies, and poor scalability. Cincom offers a tailored CPQ solution that helps industrial companies to:
- Consolidate quoting data onto a centralized platform for a unified view.
- Configure countless unique product designs through flexible modeling.
- Automatically generate pricing tailored to every order with controls in place.
- Instantly produce technical drawings, spec sheets, and proposal docs.
- Access beauty visualizations to vividly showcase custom creations.
- Tightly integrate to CRM, ERP, and other vital business systems.
- Expand sales channels seamlessly whether direct sales, channel partners, company e-commerce stores, or third-party marketplaces.
- Optimize production planning using sales pipeline demand signals.
- Go to market faster with products when launching offerings.
Trusted by leading complex manufacturers, Cincom provides must-have CPQ solutions that are essential for scaling customization profitably in the modern industry landscape. Contact us for more information.
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FAQs
What is CPQ software?
CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) software provides specialized tools to manufacturers to automate and optimize the entire quoting workflow. Core components include product configuration, pricing engines, and document generators. CPQ breaks down information silos to empower sales teams.
How does CPQ software benefit manufacturing?
CPQ solutions deliver key benefits for manufacturing companies, including reduced quoting times, reduced errors, expanded customization abilities, improved customer experiences, optimized supply chain planning through pipeline visibility, and faster time to revenue on new offerings.
What makes Cincom CPQ different for manufacturing?
Cincom’s CPQ platform is designed from the ground up to handle endless complexity in product configurations and pricing models. The flexible attribute-based configurator can represent unique combinations, while the intuitive interface focused on simplifying complexity sets Cincom’s solution apart.
How can CPQ software improve productivity in manufacturing?
By coding complex product logic and constraints into smart CPQ platforms, manufacturers minimize time spent validating configurations manually. Automated pricing controls also optimize margins. Together, this saves hours better spent on value-add sales and engineering initiatives to improve productivity.