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It’s no secret: Microsoft is keen on digital transformation, “reimagining how you bring together people, data, and processes.”
And while many companies are implementing best practices in Microsoft digital transformation (we’ll call it MDT for short, here), just as many customers of those companies are greeting MDT with a collective shrug, saying, “Well, that’s great for you: what’s in it for me?”
They’re right. Because while we focus on MDT for ourselves or for companies we’re equipping with D365 CE, Azure, and Office, the people on the other end — the customers of OUR customers — don’t typically realize the benefits of MDT (or, more often, don’t realize that they’re realizing the benefits of MDT).
But when you put a quote in their hands — a professionally designed, vertically-targeted sales proposal with optimized product and pricing configurations — you are, in effect, also delivering the benefits of MDT to them as well.
If you’re serious about digital transformation as a cornerstone to driving more revenue and optimizing your overall business, then the way you put a quote into their hands is by extending Dynamics with a configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution.
D365 + CPQ = connecting people, data, and processes
The point of MDT is to connect all three — people, data, and process — through your tech. But let’s talk about simply connecting people, first.
Connecting people
When you digitally transform your proposal process by adding CPQ to Dynamics (whether it’s CRM or ERP), you empower your own salespeople to create more effective, more professional sales proposals in about 50% less time.
Where does this part of MDT reach your customers? In both the process and content of the RFP response they receive from you.
Process-wise, you’ll be able to send a proposal more quickly and cleanly to each prospect, and also be able to more quickly and completely follow-up on each step of the process.
An MDT approach can help transform the content of your proposals as well via a dynamic product and pricing configuration engine that ensures only optimal pricing and product selections or bundles are presented to your prospect.
As CPQ is a centralized solution, the improvements it delivers are enterprise-wide. No matter what rep might be sending a quote, you’ll know that the look and feel are professional, that the pricing is optimal, and that it made it into the right hands at the right time.
Connecting data (and processes)
Adding CPQ to Dynamics helps you collect critical sales proposal data that you might not otherwise be able to capture. And that data can have an immediate impact on process improvements that drive more business.
First the data piece: while most CRM systems, for example, offer metrics around quotes sent and quotes closed, there are many other “moving parts” in the process that should be noted: replies, revisions, etc. When you apply MDT to your sales quoting process, you create the opportunity to uncover new data streams that can give you actionable insights to impact your bottom line.
Sticking with CRM as an example, when you connect this data to the rest of your sales funnel data, you get a clearer picture of what might be the most critical juncture in the process of turning a prospect into a customer: the timeframe when they move from receiving a quote to signing it.
MDT and ROI
When you digitally transform your sales quoting process by adding CPQ to Dynamics, you quickly empower your people and can uncover more data to fuel better processes. And as you’re applying MDT to the closing process, there may be no faster way to realize ROI on digital transformation.
Learn how one company digitally transformed its sales proposal process and saw quotes times reduce by 50%, errors reduced by 50%, and sales rep onboarding time reduced by more than 90%.
