As a manufacturer, you know that selling complex, configurable products requires streamlined systems to ensure efficiency across the entire revenue cycle. From initial quote requests through order fulfillment, siloed information and manual processes can create roadblocks that result in inaccurate quotes, order errors, and disjointed data that provides limited visibility into the health of the pipeline. Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM (customer relationship management) provides a way to centralize data and connect systems to give sales teams and other departments visibility across quote requests, orders, and fulfillment.
Integrating Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software with your Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM transforms fragmented systems into one holistic platform, enabling sales teams to quote customers faster and more accurately while capturing invaluable data across departments. Below, we’ll explore the benefits of Dynamics 365 CRM and CPQ integration for optimizing quoting and enhancing visibility to drive profitability.
Related: What Is Configure Price Quote Software?
The Role of Microsoft Dynamics in Sales Optimization
Microsoft designed Dynamics 365 as an integrated suite of business applications that span ERP and CRM. It aims to enhance experiences for both customers and employees through intuitive interfaces, embedded analytics providing actionable insights, and process automation that eliminates repetitive, error-prone work.
The sales module delivers the tools needed to track opportunities, forecast trends, analyze performance metrics, and nurture relationships throughout the customer journey. However, for manufacturers that sell configurable products, additional software is required to handle the complexity of quoting quickly and accurately.
How Does Microsoft Dynamics Enhance Your Organization’s Capabilities?
For manufacturers, Dynamics 365 centralizes data and connects systems to give everyone visibility into sales and operations. Its comprehensive view of customer history and insights enable salespeople to personalize engagements, while service, production, and inventory can align planning with trends in the pipeline. Real-time analytics also help executives adjust strategies as market demands shift.
Can You Use Microsoft Dynamics to Optimize Your Sales Process?
While Dynamics CRM furnishes robust features for sales planning, execution, and measurement, transforming productivity requires automating the quoting process natively handled outside the platform. Generating quotes for configurable products often involves multiple legacy tools, spreadsheets, and tribal knowledge that result in a tedious, error-prone process that ultimately hinders sales productivity.
Dynamics alone cannot provide the guided selling, rapid configuration, and pricing protection needed for complex sales environments. Purpose-built CPQ software fills this gap to handle intricacies that span product combinations, discounting rules, regulatory compliance, and proposal creation.
Why Does Microsoft Dynamics Need CPQ Integration?
Configurable products require software that simplifies selling complexity. Microsoft designed Dynamics 365 as an open platform to allow easy integration with specialized solutions that enhance functionality in areas like CPQ. Partnering best-in-class technology optimizes Dynamics’ value and extends its capabilities to handle use cases like:
- Accurately configure products and services based on predefined rules and constraints.
- Define pricing models, discounts, and margins to protect profitability.
- Generate professional, branded proposals with one click.
- Provide self-guided product selection and quoting through customer portals.
By alleviating quoting complexity, CPQ integration helps sales teams configure prices and respond promptly so you don’t lose deals to slower competitors.
Integrated Software Solutions to Pair with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Cincom’s Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) Software
CPQ solution providers fill the critical gap in streamlining the quoting process for configurable products. Cincom CPQ™ software stands out as the leading choice among Dynamics 365 users that need robust CPQ capabilities. As a cloud-based, enterprise-grade platform that handles high volumes of intricate quotes, Cincom allows you to balance both simplicity for sales reps and extreme configuration capability.
With an intuitive interface that guides reps through product selection, a powerful rules-based engine allows modeling complex logic to ensure accurate pricing and configurations. Users benefit from Cincom’s flexibility, ease of use, and ability to handle thousands of quotes containing millions of configuration options.
Related: What Is CPQ Cloud?
What Are the Benefits of Integrating Cincom CPQ Software with Microsoft Dynamics?
The biggest competitive advantage manufacturers gain from integrating Cincom CPQ with Microsoft Dynamics lies in the ability to deliver quotes rapidly and error-free. However, several other operational enhancements also impact profitability:
- Protect margins with pricing guardrails.
- Increase average order value through guided upsells.
- Shorten new sales rep ramp time to full productivity.
- Reduce order rework stemming from entry mistakes.
- Forecast demand intelligently using pipeline trends.
- Gain end-to-end process visibility that spans from quote through delivery.
With Cincom CPQ enhancing Dynamics’ sales tools, your business transforms disjointed, manual tasks into efficient, automated processes that enhance productivity and profitability.
Related: Learn more about CPQ software for manufacturing
The Impact of Optimized CRM and Sales Processes on Your Business Operations
When CPQ integration completes your CRM ecosystem to include rapid quoting abilities, the effects on business performance multiply across teams:
- Streamlined Quoting and Proposal Generation: Error-free quotes produced in minutes rather than days or weeks accelerate deals while allowing reps to take on more opportunities. Document generation from centralized templates also ensures consistency in branding and messaging.
- Increased Profitability and Sustainability: With pricing guardrails built into Cincom CPQ software, risks of margin erosion or non-compliant discounting disappear. Optimized configurations also improve quality by reducing rework. Visibility from integrated data provides insights to guide strategies.
- Enhanced Customer Experiences: Accurate, rapidly produced quotes and the ability to compare options confidently increase buyer satisfaction. Self-service portals also empower customer-driven purchases, allowing reps to focus on more complex engagements.
Expand the Capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics with Cincom CPQ Software
If your manufacturing organization uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, integrating Cincom’s CPQ solution completes the platform to optimize sales productivity and efficiency. Purpose-built for complex configurable products, our CPQ software meets end-to-end quoting needs for industrial equipment, specialty vehicles, device manufacturers, and more.
User-friendly, guided workflows simplify selling intricacies so sales reps can rapidly deliver quotes tailored to customer needs and specifications. Embedded intelligence also facilitates upselling and provides real-time data to inform planning across teams. With the ability to handle high order volumes that contain endless permutations, Cincom CPQ enhances Dynamics 365 CRM to provide manufacturers with complete quote-to-cash automation.
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FAQs
What is CPQ software?
Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software streamlines and automates quoting processes for companies that sell configurable products and services. CPQ solutions provide guided workflows for product selection, pricing engines protecting profitability, and document generators to quickly produce quotes and proposals.
How does CPQ software integrate with CRM?
CPQ software integrates with CRM platforms like Microsoft Dynamics 365 to centralize all information required to quote accurately. This includes syncing product catalogs, pricing data, customer insights, and order history bi-directionally to create a single source of truth that spans from quote requests through to order fulfillment.
What are some key benefits of CPQ and CRM integration?
Integrating CPQ software with CRM provides numerous benefits, including faster and more accurate quotes, increased sales productivity and deal sizes, protection from erroneous discounting, and higher customer satisfaction from a streamlined buying process.
What industries use CPQ software integrated with Dynamics 365?
CPQ software enhances Dynamics 365 CRM across industries dealing with configurable products and services, especially manufacturing for industrial machinery, specialty vehicles, HVAC equipment, and medical devices. These industries require rapidly quoting high volumes of intricate orders.