Configure Price Quote Software: Features and Benefits
Table of Content
Selling complex products is not easy for sales reps as they have to deal with multiple options, bundles, and pricing rules. This often leads to quote mistakes, long approval cycles, and slow sales processes. A single error in a quote can cost you time, money, and even customers.
Key Takeaways:
- CPQ solutions automate complex configurations toeliminatemanual errors in product and service combinations.
- Pricing engines enforce rules that protect margins andmaintainconsistency across sales teams.
- Guided selling accelerates rep performance by steering them towardoptimalproduct bundles and pricing paths.
- CPQ improves forecasting accuracy by linking quotes directly to pipeline management.
- Integration with ERP and CRM systems ensures seamless quote-to-cash execution.
Enter configure price quote software.
It simplifies product configuration, automates pricing, and speeds up quote creation. In just minutes, you can prepare accurate quotes, no more spending hours to complete that work. This makes your sales process faster, smarter, and scalable.
According to the Technavio Report, the total CPQ market increase between 2025–2029 is estimated at USD 3.5 billion, growing at a 16.9% CAGR
In this blog, you will discover the key features and benefits of using advanced CPQ software.
What is Configure Price Quote Software?
Configure price quote (CPQ) software enables B2B businesses to create accurate and professional sales quotations quickly and efficiently. With CPQ, sales reps can respond to requests for quotes (RFQ) from prospects promptly.
Here is a breakdown of its components-
Configure
This step helps sales teams—or even customers using self-service tools—choose the right product features, options, and quantities based on their specific needs. The system ensures that only compatible combinations are selected, reducing the risk of errors in product setup or service delivery.
Price
After configuration, the CPQ software automatically calculates the total price. It applies base rates, relevant discounts (such as volume or contract-based), taxes, and pricing rules. This ensures that every quote is accurate, consistent, and aligned with your company’s pricing strategy.
Quote
Once the product or service is priced, the CPQ software creates a professional and branded quote document. This includes a clear breakdown of the selected items, pricing details, terms and conditions, and any other information the customer needs to make an informed decision.
Advanced CPQ tools, like VARStreet CPQ, integrate with distributor product feeds in real-time for accurate price and inventory information while generating quotes and have a guided selling feature to help sales reps accelerate quote creation and offer the best solutions possible.
Read the blog: Step-by-Step Guide to Introduce CPQ Software for your Sales Team
Key Features of a CPQ Software
Though each business and sales team has its own unique requirements, here’s a look at the typical key features of top CPQ software to help you make an informed decision.
Robust configuration engine
In CPQ software, a robust configuration engine refers to the powerful backend system that allows users to configure complex products or services accurately and efficiently according to predefined rules, constraints, and logic. This engine ensures that only valid combinations of features, options, and components are selected during the configuration process.
Automated pricing management
Automated pricing management in CPQ software refers to the use of built-in rules and logic to automatically calculate accurate prices for products or services during the sales process.
Best CPQ application handles complex needs like pricing by customer, contracts, SKUs, stock at distribution, and a lot more. Automated pricing management also syncs any pricing updates from distributors, applying them system-wide to ensure accuracy and efficiency.
Automated quote creation
Sales representatives spend only 33% of their time actively selling, with the remaining time often consumed by administrative tasks and searching for leads.
An automated quote creation software speeds up quote generation by automating critical parts of the process and reducing manual work. Its key capabilities include:
- Customizable quote templates for quick, branded document creation
- Powerful search functionality to easily find products, bundles, or historical quotes
- Automated data updates across platforms as sales reps or customers configure quotes
Guided selling
Guided selling is a feature in CPQ software that helps sales reps or customers choose the right products or services through a step-by-step, question-based process.
It acts like a virtual assistant that asks questions and then suggests the best options based on the answers.
How it works:
- Asks users questions about their needs (e.g., budget, product use, preferences).
- Filters and recommends products or configurations that match those needs.
- Hides irrelevant or incompatible options to simplify the process.
Integration with ERP or CRM systems
An average business has a minimum of 6 different applications that are interdependent. A configure price quote solution that integrates with business management applications, like ERP, CRM, PSA and accounting software, eProcurement software, etc., centralizes important information, removes data silos, and helps all your teams serve customers better and efficiently.
VARStreet CPQ software integrates with the following widely used business management software:
- Netsuite,
- SAP,
- Salesforce,
- HubSpot,
- PeopleSoft,
- Connectwise,
- MS Dynamics, Nav and Great Plains,
- Workday,
- AutoTask,
- Quickbooks,
- Zoho,
- Mavenlink and more.
Check all our integrations here.
Detailed and intelligent reporting
CPQ software offers real-time, accurate reporting that helps your sales team with deeper insights and better decision-making. Key reporting capabilities include:
- Margin analysis to ensure profitable quoting
- Quote and item history tracking for performance benchmarking
- CRM integration to link quotes with specific customers or opportunities for full visibility
- Sales funnel insights, such as stages where customers typically drop off and products or bundles with the highest conversion rates, average time taken to close deals, and identification of bottlenecks or delays in the quoting process
- Real-time visibility into quote status within your internal approval process, so reps always know where a deal stands without chasing updates.
Cloud-based, mobile-friendly CPQ software
Sales reps are always on the go, and their applications should be too!
A cloud-hosted online CPQ mobile application empowers your sales reps to create accurate sales quotations from anywhere, anytime, helping them respond to customers promptly, even when out in the field, reducing their dependence on inside sales reps or access to their computers.
Your sales reps can access the CPQ application during client meetings and create or update quotations on the go.
Cloud storage and mobile interfaces are the technology of the day.
According to MGI Research, cloud-based CPQ adoption among public companies is projected to hit USD 5.8 billion by 2026.
Cloud based CPQ software is affordable and has minimal overheads, giving you a better ROI than on-site software systems.
Document & Version Management
This feature in CPQ platforms keeps all quote-related documents organized, up-to-date, and easy to find, even if there are multiple changes or versions.
The key functions of this feature are:
- Auto-generation of documents: Creates professional quotes, proposals, or contracts from selected configurations.
- Version tracking: Keeps a record of every change made to a document.
- Audit trail: Shows who made changes and when.
- Central storage: Saves all documents in one place for easy access.
- Collaboration: Allows team members to review or update documents with proper control.
This feature lets you compare versions, track changes, and quickly send the updated quote to your customer. You can revise quickly without starting anew when customers ask for changes.
eSignatures & Approvals
CPQ software can be integrated with eSignature tools like DocuSign. This means you can send quotes to your customers for quick online approval. This saves a lot of time as you don’t have to wait for physical signatures.
With a built-in approval workflow, when you create a quote that needs internal approval, the system automatically routes it to the right person. This helps you maintain compliance with company policies and pricing rules.
Integrated distributor catalogs
Integrated distributor catalogs are a feature that can help you maximize the benefits of the best quote software, transforming your sales quotation process and giving you a massive edge over your competitors.
VARStreet’s CPQ solution offers you this unique feature with an advantage of real-time price and inventory information from over 50 IT and office supply distributors in the United States and Canada with a combined product catalog of over 7 million products. You can sync product feeds from all the distributors you partner with to VARStreet’s CPQ solution.
11 Top Benefits of Configure Price Quote Software
A CPQ software provides the following benefits:
1. Shorter sales cycles
Studies suggest that companies using CPQ software report a 28% reduction in sales cycle length.
CPQ solutions come with a product configurator that helps users quickly and easily customize products. They also include a pricing engine that calculates accurate prices based on the features selected.
Sales reps also have the flexibility to set discounts for bundles, deals, or line items.
With a CPQ tool, your sales team can quickly create accurate quotes using streamlined configurations, advanced pricing, and fast quoting features. This helps speed up the sales process and reduce the overall sales cycle.
2. Higher average order values
Studies like the one from Nucleus Research point out that CPQ software increases the average deal size by as much as 29%.
Our CPQ software’s configuration wizard displays customizations, add-ons, and accessories that sales reps and customers can view and choose easily, with the price then automatically calculated based on the rules set by you.
The guided selling feature (covered above in features) drives this by surfacing relevant upsells and cross-sells automatically during configuration
3. Eliminate order and quoting errors
Creating quotes and putting together orders for complex, configurable products is challenging and can lead to costly errors for your business, lengthening the sales cycle and hampering your brand image.
Configure price and quote software that is equipped with advanced rules, pricing, and validation engines that not only help your sales reps create accurate quotes and orders but also restrict orders or quotes that fall outside of your company’s capabilities.
Integrations with other software used by your business sync data across all the integrated applications, eliminating data duplication and manual data entry errors.
Pro Tips:
• Start CPQ deployment with high-volume product lines to quickly demonstrate operational ROI.
4. Maximize quoting productivity
Manually reviewing product catalogs and Excel sheets is time-consuming and prone to errors. Automation accelerates the quote generation process and eliminates repetitive administrative tasks, eradicating the ensuing mistakes, corrections, and the resulting time and energy loss.
According to Aberdeen Group, sales reps who have switched to CPQ software report an increase in productivity by 33%!
5. Boost sales team performance
Advanced CPQ software builds efficiencies in the entire sales process, enhances productivity, and empowers sales teams to focus on selling. CPQ software also helps them identify cross-sell.
6. Increase lead conversion rate
The chances of a lead conversion are much higher when you respond to a prospect within 24 hours with a quote that is accurate, professional and has competitive pricing.
CPQ software lets you do just that!
Your regular customers, too, can easily log in to their accounts on your eCommerce store, configure their products or solutions quickly, and go to the checkout page where they can place their orders within minutes, even outside your business hours.
A CPQ solution is one of the best investments you can make to increase your lead conversion rate now!
7. Increase company-wide efficiency
Sales reps should spend the majority of their time prospecting, building relationships with customers, and selling. In most conventional businesses, though, this doesn’t apply.
Quote generation, tracking product prices, staying updated on new product offerings, and manual administrative responsibilities divert sales reps from higher-value, revenue-generating tasks.
Configure price quote solutions to automate most tasks and increase the efficiency of your sales teams.
When the CPQ software integrates seamlessly with all applications that your business uses, disparate and siloed systems become a thing of the past, leading to increased accuracy across all departments, positively impacting the business as a whole.
8. Reduced learning period for new sales reps
Without CPQ software to automate complex quoting of configurable products, sales rep training can take weeks or even months. With CPQ software, your sales reps can effectively start selling once they are familiar with the CPQ tool, which usually takes just a few hours.
The intuitive product configuration process that CPQ provides leaves no room for error and expensive configuration or pricing mistakes, enabling even new sales reps to confidently sell from day one.
9. Better customer satisfaction
We started this blog by emphasizing the need for enhanced customer experience in today’s digitally enabled world. We’ll end this by reiterating the importance of enhanced customer experiences in a B2B setting. Every technological innovation today boils down to customer-centric solutions and improving the customer journey.
Configure price quote software to bring speed and accuracy to every customer interaction. It allows you to serve customers holistically and provide a consistent experience in all customer interactions with your brand, regardless of the department or channel they engage with, tremendously increasing customer satisfaction and retention.
10. Faster Payments & Reduced Billing Errors
With CPQ software, you can create accurate quotes quickly. All pricing elements, including discounts and taxes, are automatically computed. This means you send correct invoices to your customers every time. As a result, you get paid faster because there are fewer mistakes to fix. You spend less time correcting billing errors and more time closing new deals.
11. Security & Compliance
Your customer data, pricing, and quotes are stored in an enterprise-grade secure system with strict compliance standards. Focus on selling, not worrying about data breaches.
Read the blog: What Value Can a CPQ Software Add to Your VAR Business?
Read the blog: How to Choose the Right Configure Price Quote Software for your Business?
Pro Tips:
• Regularly refine configuration rules based on customer feedback and real-world quoting scenarios.
Maximize your ROI with VARStreet’s CPQ Solution
VARStreet’s CPQ solution has all the built-in features and capabilities that modern businesses need to optimize their sales processes.
We have helped businesses shorten their sales cycles, reduce errors, boost lead conversion rates, eliminate redundant processes, align operations, and increase the average deal size.
VARStreet’s CPQ is an efficient cloud-based solution with a high level of ROI that can transform your business and take it to the next level. Empower your sales reps to confidently start selling the day they walk through your door, without any fear of making a mistake that could sabotage your company’s relationship with a potential customer.
Get a FREE demo of VARStreet’s CPQ solution today!
FAQs
What is CPQ?
Configure, price, quote software. It automates product configuration, pricing calculations, and quote generation so sales reps can build accurate, professional quotes in minutes instead of hours.
Who needs CPQ software?
Any B2B business that quotes complex, configurable, or multi-vendor products. VARs, MSPs, IT resellers, and distributors benefit the most because they deal with large catalogs, fluctuating distributor pricing, and customer-specific terms.
How does CPQ differ from a regular quoting tool?
Regular quoting tools help you format and send a document. CPQ goes deeper: it enforces configuration rules so incompatible products cannot be quoted together, applies dynamic pricing logic automatically, and routes quotes through approval workflows before they reach the buyer.
What integrations should CPQ software support?
CRM for customer data, ERP for inventory and financials, distributor feeds for real-time pricing, and e-signature tools for faster deal closure.
Will CPQ actually shorten my sales cycle?
Yes, if quoting is a bottleneck. CPQ eliminates the manual steps that slow deals down: hunting for pricing, formatting documents, chasing internal approvals.
