Solutions for Outdated Pricing Platform Issues

“𝐵𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑞𝑢𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟’𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛.” That line stuck with me. I was sitting with the Sales Director of a mid-sized manufacturer, walking through their quote-to-order process. He was frustrated. Not with his team, but with how hard it had become just to get a price out the door. They had a great product. A strong team. But every quote felt like pulling teeth. Not because of one issue, but a perfect storm: → Products needed custom BOMs → Delivery times varied across sites and suppliers → Discounts differed by customer, region and deal type → Price lists were outdated and scattered → ERP and CRM systems weren’t integrated → Approvals took too long and often added no value Every quote became a mini internal project. It wasn't just slow, it was risky and often wrong. They were losing business to faster competitors. And the quotes that did go out were often conservative or unprofitable. Reps were pricing more than they were selling and still unsure if the deal was viable. Meanwhile, faster competitors were winning deals they should have closed. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧? It wasn’t just CPQ. We rebuilt their commercial engine and then used CPQ to accelerate it. ▪️Pricing logic based on customer value, not internal complexity ▪️Margin thresholds, deal guardrails and exception logic so approvals weren’t a bottleneck ▪️Clean, centralised price lists, structured by product tier, region and segment ▪️ERP integration for real-time availability, lead times and configuration feasibility ▪️Sales prompts to support high-impact, value-led conversations, not just “how low can we go?” We didn’t just add a quoting tool. We built confidence into every quote whilst giving sales teams time back to sell. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬? ✅ Quotes in hours, not weeks ✅ Fewer discount requests, fewer errors ✅ Better deal quality and restored margin control ✅ Sales teams empowered to sell with clarity and conviction ✅ Customers treated to a faster, more professional experience The impact isn’t just anecdotal: → McKinsey: Quote time ↓ 50%, win rates ↑ 5–15% → PROS: Quote errors ↓ 70%, quoting speed ↑ 80% → Salesforce: Delays over 48 hours = customer walks If your quoting process is: ⚠️ Stuck in spreadsheets ⚠️ Dependent on disconnected systems ⚠️ Losing deals you should win This is not just a tech problem. It’s a commercial clarity problem. And that can be fixed without turning it into a two-year IT project. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧 If quoting feels like a bottleneck, don’t just look at tools. Look at logic. Look at how value is defined and priced. CPQ isn’t about speeding up the same process. It’s about redesigning the process to reflect how your business should sell. 📩 If you are ready to take quoting seriously, let’s talk.

The Salesforce CPQ end-of-sale is a pivotal moment for many businesses to reevaluate their CPQ systems. Liferaft replaced Salesforce CPQ with DealHub CPQ. Liferaft chose agility, accuracy, and autonomy—and it paid off with an 80% increase in average selling price. Here are 5 critical issues they could no longer ignore—and how DealHub.io solved them: 1️⃣ Rigid and outdated quoting process ↳ Caused significant disruptions to revenue reporting. ✅ DealHub streamlined and automated quoting, enhancing accuracy and improving revenue reporting. 2️⃣ Lack of admin autonomy ↳ Heavy dependency on code changes made it impossible to stay agile. ✅ DealHub provided a no-code, agile platform empowering admins to make rapid changes independently. 3️⃣ Price quotes riddled with errors ↳ SKU proliferation overwhelmed sales teams due to inadequate guided selling. ✅ DealHub implemented guided selling, significantly reducing errors and simplifying the quoting process. 4️⃣ Broken revenue reporting and recognition ↳ Data inaccuracies and inconsistencies created significant disconnects with finance. ✅ DealHub improved data consistency and accuracy, aligning sales and finance. 5️⃣ Manual and inaccurate renewal process ↳ Blind-spots led to underbilling and lost revenue. ✅ DealHub automated the renewal process, eliminating blind spots and boosting revenue accuracy. Dive into their full CPQ transformation journey: https://lnkd.in/dU5Bq57y #CPQSuccessStories #SalesforceCPQ #Sales #RevenueOperations #CPQ #DealHub

How a simple missed update cost $8,000 Imagine coming back from vacation, piled on hundreds of emails, seeing an important supplier email, and then forgetting about it. That’s exactly what happened at Zen Retail (name changed). On November 1, 2024, Prima Supplies reduced the price of HP8450 cartridges from $20 to $16. Adam, responsible for updates, saw the email but forgot to adjust the pricing in Zen's ERP (SAP). Ten days later, his colleague, Shawn, ordered 2,000 cartridges at the outdated price. The result? - Ordered Price: $20 × 2,000 = $40,000 ✅ - Correct Price: $16 × 2,000 = $32,000 ❌ - Total Overpayment: $8,000 Why did this happen? Zen lacked a secondary check to catch outdated pricing. How can you prevent this? - Clearly assign responsibility for updating supplier prices in your ERP. - Automate price updates between suppliers and your product database. - Use AI-powered controls to flag high-value orders placed with outdated pricing. Mistakes like this happen frequently in procurement—especially in large enterprises managing thousands of SKUs and distributed teams. Have you faced similar challenges? Share your experience below!