Just as Amazon and other leading online retailers have trained consumers to expect reviews and recommendations when they are making purchases in their personal lives, buyers are now expecting the same intuitive intelligence and relevance in their business transactions.

This is where the Guided Selling features of CPQ solutions have become critical in complex selling environments.

These tools enable sales teams to present effective cross-sell and upsell recommendations based on purchase histories and product preferences. By presenting a sales representative with progressive Q&A paths, these intuitive tools not only improve the odds of winning a deal by presenting a complete solution, they also drive average revenue metrics.

For example, in the financial services sector, Guided Selling tools provide interactive upsell and cross-sell scripting to help sales teams manage the wide array of product/pricing variations available and still present a package that meets customer needs with additional services presented in a logical order. Given the increasing amount of purchases now taking place across multiple channels, the ability to present consistent cross-sell and upsell offers to buyers online, in person or via call centers is essential.

Source: Aberdeen Group, April 2010.

CASE IN POINT: According to Gartner 2011 MarketScope for Configuration, Price, Quote Application Suites, one of the three main related business objectives that are impacting demand for enterprise CPQ is to “increase average deal profitability and size, thereby elevating overall sales effectiveness, by successfully recommending products that resonate with specific clients (e.g., cross-sell, upsell, product substitutions within bundles, kits or solutions), for the optimal prices that a market will bear.”

In addition, in its 2012 Top Processes for CRM Sales, Gartner said “marketers may need to work with sales operations in building models for configurations to ensure that promotions, discounts, and recommendations on cross-selling and upselling are correctly represented in the CPQ toolsets.”

And you, are you driving revenue via improved upsell and cross-sell capabilities?

Coming Soon… Increase Quote-to-Close Ratios #6 - Improve Ability To Sell “On The Go”