If there’s one theme that keeps coming up again and again in conversations lately, it’s how much 2020 and 2021 have highlighted the need for businesses to be agile if they’re going to remain competitive in their markets.
Business agility was always important but is now critical for managing through things like supply chain disruptions, price inflation, sales channel disruption, and now employee offboarding and onboarding. 2022 will provide even more proof of that.
And as much as businesses like to make plans (marketing plans, sales plans, purchasing plans, and so on), no plan alone will be enough to ensure success.
No plan survives first contact with the enemy.”
Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Mike Tyson
Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Particularly today, the ability to quickly react to changing market conditions is crucial to business success. For today, let’s focus on what I’ll call “commercial agility” – the ability to quickly adjust your sales tactics, your commercial terms, your pricing, your deal-desk or deal approval process, and more.
Outdated Tools Put You at Risk
If your organization is still managing your commercial processes using outdated tools and methods that are rigid or difficult to change, or even worse? Then you don’t really have commercial processes at all: You’re in an organization that’s at risk. As some have also said, “adapt or die”.
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One way to enable the kind of commercial agility that’s required is by leveraging a CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) system.
The name CPQ has really evolved into a misnomer in many cases. Because while they were historically used for (and can still be used for) configurable products and services, they’re most often used to enable a flexible and guided selling process. One that not only makes it easier for your sales teams to win and grow revenue but also enables a better customer experience along the way.
Intelligent CPQ Accelerates Commercial Agility
With Vendavo’s Intelligent CPQ, for example? Changes to what you’re selling, how you’re selling, how you’re pricing, and more can all be updated by one of your own employees making clicks-not-code changes through your CPQ admin console. No IT and no professional services necessary.
What’s more, Vendavo’s Intelligent CPQ can be fed the latest insights on your customers’ behaviors, recommendations on the optimal products to discuss with a customer, and what the optimal discount would be for every situation. These additional insights come from dynamic AI and machine learning solutions (also clicks-not-code configurable) like Vendavo Sales Optimizer and Vendavo Deal Price Optimizer.
While you’ll never be able to plan for every contingency, with some modern solutions for your commercial teams, you can adapt and implement the changes you need as fast as the market changes. With commercial agility, you’re not caught slow-footed again.