What is Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) Software?

Configure, price, quote (CPQ) software is a digital tool that supports sales teams by automating the process of configuring complex products, accurately pricing them and generating professional customer quotes. If your company offers a wide range of products, has variable product configurations and bundling options or uses discounts to close deals, this solution is transformative.

CPQ software adoption is accelerating quickly, mainly because it helps your sales reps produce tailored quotes that are consistent with your customers’ needs – and your company’s policies. And by integrating tightly with your customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, CPQ can help bridge sales and financial operations. Examples include Salesforce CPQ, which has been placed into end-of-sale status in favor of Salesforce Revenue Cloud, and NetSuite CPQ.

In this article, we’ll explore how CPQ systems work, best practices for implementing them and how Zone can help streamline the process.

Key highlights: 

• Configure, price, quote (CPQ) software automates complex product configuration, pricing and quote generation, helping sales teams deliver accurate quotes faster.
• By integrating with CRM, ERP and billing systems, CPQ solutions streamline the quote-to-cash process and improve alignment between sales and finance teams.
• Enterprise CPQ platforms support modern revenue models, including subscriptions, usage-based pricing and contract amendments, while enforcing pricing and governance controls.
• ZoneBilling extends CPQ into billing and revenue recognition by natively integrating with NetSuite to support complex contracts and automate downstream financial processes.

How does CPQ software work?

The easiest way to detail how CPQ software works is to take you through an example. Imagine you’re a sales rep at a B2B company that specializes in enterprise software. Your prospect is eager to make a purchase – but first, you need to provide them with a quote that includes a specific configuration and a tailored discount. Without a solution, you’d face a long process of searching through spreadsheets, consulting managers and awaiting approval.

These steps consume valuable time, jeopardizing the deal while opening the door to errors and inconsistencies.

CPQ systems streamline the entire process, automatically providing you with product configurations, pricing guidelines and discount options that conform to your company’s policies. The functionality makes it clear and easy to build an accurate quote and deliver it to the customer for approval. By providing a standard set of options and guiding the quoting process, configure price quote tools reduce your chances of errors and help you deliver accurate quotes to your customers quickly.

Let’s dive deeper into the specific ways software enhances the sales cycle:

Configuring products and solutions

CPQ solutions provide a guided approach to configuration that removes the guesswork involved in customizing your solutions. Whether you offer a mix of products, custom features or bundled offerings, enterprise CPQ gives your sales reps a set of pre-set configurations that meet your customers’ requirements. It also alerts your sales reps to targeted upsell and cross-sell opportunities that can enhance the value of a given configuration.

Determining accurate pricing

Pricing accuracy is critical in competitive sales environments. A CPQ tool applies built-in pricing guardrails and discount structures to your quotes so they adhere to your company’s standards. By automating pricing and discounts, software helps your sales reps create competitive quotes while meeting their margin targets.

Generating a quote

CPQ sales tools accelerate the quote generation process with collaborative tools, approval workflows and pre-designed templates. This helps your reps create and deliver quotes efficiently, demonstrating a sense of urgency and professionalism that can delight your customers and help you win their business.

Integrating into ERP systems

Software for CPQ provides significant value when it’s integrated into ERP systems like NetSuite, streamlining your sales cycle flow, reducing days sales outstanding (DSO) and improving your quote-to-cash efficiency. A tight integration brings the details of your sales agreements into your accounting and billing processes, such as:

• Pricing 
• Configurations 
• Payment schedules 

This single-system approach sets up your finance team to properly invoice clients and collect payment. It also provides a live sync that improves how your sales, operations and finance teams interact with one another and share information.

If your company relies on billing events such as renewals, upsells, downsells and contract amendments, it’s important to perform a live sync for them between your billing system (often within your ERP) and your CPQ system (often within your CRM). ZoneBilling, a built-for-NetSuite billing solution, automatically passes these subscription and billing events from your ERP through to your CPQ.

It also automates billing within NetSuite, so your teams can accurately invoice customers and automatically re-allocate revenue when a contract changes. This advanced approach to CPQ integration and billing saves customers significant time.

The role of AI and ML in the configure, price, quote process?

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are transforming CPQ by making it more predictive and intelligent. 

For example, modern CPQ systems leverage AI to analyze past sales data and customer preferences and suggest optimal configurations and pricing strategies. Intelligent CPQ systems can also use ML to analyze the market and establish competitive pricing without sacrificing your company’s margin targets, or use your customers’ purchasing patterns to create custom promotions.

Here are the key advantages of AI in the CPQ process:

• Faster configuration with fewer errors. AI guides sales reps through product configurations by analyzing which combinations typically get approved and which lead to fulfillment issues. This cuts down on back-and-forth with operations teams and reduces the number of quote revisions. 
• Pricing recommendations based on win probability. ML algorithms analyze historical deal data to suggest pricing that balances competitiveness with margin targets. If a discount request falls outside normal ranges for similar deals, the system flags it for review before it reaches the customer.
• Automated upsell and cross-sell identification. AI surfaces relevant add-ons and upgrades based on what similar customers have purchased. Instead of forcing sales reps to memorize product catalogs, the system highlights opportunities that are statistically likely to close.
• Reduced quote turnaround time. By automating pricing approvals for standard deals while flagging exceptions, AI-powered CPQ systems cut quote generation time dramatically. Finance teams spend less time reviewing routine quotes and more time on strategic pricing decisions.
• Discount optimization without margin erosion. ML models track which discount levels drive conversions across customer segments, deal sizes and contract lengths. This prevents sales reps from over-discounting while still giving them flexibility to close competitive deals.

The benefits of CPQ systems

If your sales reps are spending hours building quotes instead of talking to customers, your finance team is constantly correcting pricing errors and your deals are stalling in approval workflows, you're losing revenue to process friction. 

Manual quoting doesn't just slow down sales cycles – it creates margin leakage through unauthorized discounts, burns out your operations team with administrative work and hands competitors an advantage while your team waits for approvals.

The right tools can eliminate these bottlenecks by automating the mechanics of quote generation so your team can focus on closing deals. 

Here are the core benefits of CPQ software:

Collaboration for accurate quote creation

With a strong CPQ strategy in place, your sales teams can collaborate on quotes with their finance or operations colleagues. This access to a shared platform reduces the risk of errors or miscommunication, ensuring the final quote is fully approved and accurate before it reaches your customer.

Increased sales efficiency

By reducing your sales reps’ manual effort for configurations, pricing and approvals, a CPQ quoting tool​ helps them provide faster turnaround times for customer quotes. This efficient approach to quoting also frees up their time to focus on selling and relationship building rather than administrative tasks.

Higher revenue streams and cost savings

With CPQ tools, you’ll enjoy faster sales cycles, improved quote accuracy and new levels of visibility into upsell and bundling opportunities. This is a winning combination for higher revenue upside, profit margin and operational savings.

How enterprise CPQ improves the order-to-cash (O2C) process

Your order-to-cash (O2C) process includes every step of a deal – from the moment your customer places an order to the moment your company receives payment. CPQ helps you streamline the initial stages of the O2C process, primarily the steps involved in configuring the order, setting the price and delivering the quote. With the right software in place, your sales reps can send accurate quotes significantly faster than they can with manual methods.

This can set your billing and revenue recognition processes in motion quickly and accelerate your path to payment–but only if the right software and integrations are in place.

ZoneBilling supports any type of pricing methodology, including multi-line contracts that may be a mix of one-time upfront billing, subscription billing, usage billing and professional services. Not only does ZoneBilling’s CPQ integration automate the billing process, but it also automates the revenue recognition process, even for complex contracts. With ZoneBilling, the number of performance obligations and the number of contract lines can be independent of each other.

Related reading:

Unleashing the power of ZoneBilling's prospective merge in ASC606 compliance: Upsells, swaps and other complex billing scenarios can make it difficult to meet your ASC606 compliance requirements. This article explores how a new billing feature called prospective merge can help you reduce revenue recognition errors, save time and make your compliance efforts easy. 

Does my business need a CPQ system?

If you’re wondering whether you need a CPQ system, consider these common challenges that signal it might be time to consider one:

• You’re missing deals due to slow quote generation. If your team is losing business because your quoting process takes too long, CPQ  can accelerate the process and get quotes into your customers’ hands quickly.
• You’re sending inaccurate quotes to prospects. Configuration errors and pricing mistakes can damage your credibility. A comprehensive CPQ stage in your funnel prevents miscommunications and errors from ending up in your quotes.
• You rely on manual reviews for sales quotes. If you depend on a sales manager to thoroughly review every customer quote, CPQ’s automation can save your business valuable time.
• You’re struggling with growing demand. When growth strains your sales and operations teams, a quoting solution helps you increase your quote volume without sacrificing accuracy.
• Your sales reps are spending too much time on admin tasks. Software speeds up your quoting and approval processes, which gets your sales reps away from their keyboards and back into the field.
• You’re having trouble generating quotes for complex revenue models. If you’re finding it difficult to build quotes for recurring and subscription pricing models, the right tool can simplify the process for your team.

How to implement CPQ for my enterprise: 6 steps

Successful CPQ rollouts follow a methodical approach that aligns stakeholders before configuration begins, standardizes processes before automating them and trains users before flipping the switch. Here's how to avoid the mistakes that derail most implementations:

1. Align stakeholders and define implementation goals

​​Before you configure a single product or pricing rule, get your sales, finance, operations and IT leaders in the same room to define what success looks like. If sales wants faster quotes, finance wants margin protection and operations wants fewer fulfillment errors, those goals need to coexist in your CPQ design – not compete. Misaligned objectives are why CPQ implementations get bogged down in scope creep or produce a system that optimizes for one team while creating problems for another.

Document specific, measurable goals that everyone agrees matter. "Improve quote accuracy" is too vague. "Reduce pricing errors that require finance correction by 80%" is actionable. "Speed up quoting" doesn't mean much. "Cut average quote generation time from 4 hours to 30 minutes for standard configurations" gives you a target you can actually measure.

Tasks to complete: 

• Schedule a kickoff meeting with sales leadership, finance, operations and IT to define success criteria before vendor selection begins
• Document current-state metrics – average quote turnaround time, pricing error rates, approval bottlenecks, manual rework hours
• Define three to five measurable goals tied to business impact, such as faster close rates, reduced margin leakage or lower operational costs
• Identify deal-breaker requirements versus nice-to-haves so you don't overengineer the solution
• Assign executive ownership to each goal so accountability is clear when tradeoffs need to be made

2. Standardize product configurations and pricing rules

CPQ can't fix broken processes – it only automates them faster. If your current pricing logic exists in scattered spreadsheets, tribal knowledge and one-off email approvals, implementing CPQ will expose every inconsistency. You'll discover that your West Coast team prices bundles differently than your East Coast team, that three different discount structures exist for the same product and that nobody can explain why certain configurations require CEO approval while others don't.

Use CPQ implementation as a forcing function to standardize how you configure products and apply pricing. Audit every product combination your team currently quotes and decide which configurations are valid, which should be blocked and which require special approval. Consolidate your pricing rules into a single source of truth that defines how discounts, volume tiers and contract length affect price. This work is painful, but skipping it means your CPQ system will replicate the chaos you're trying to eliminate.

Tasks to complete: 

• Audit the last 100 quotes to identify which product configurations appear most frequently and which cause the most errors or delays
• Map every pricing rule currently in use, including volume discounts, contract length multipliers, regional adjustments and partner pricing
• Identify pricing inconsistencies across teams or regions and decide which approach becomes the standard
• Document which product combinations are invalid and should be blocked, such as incompatible features or fulfillment constraints
• Define approval thresholds for non-standard pricing

3. Integrate CPQ with CRM, ERP and billing systems

A CPQ tool that lives in isolation from your CRM and ERP creates more work than it eliminates. Sales reps build quotes in CPQ, then re-enter details into your CRM to track the opportunity. Finance receives signed contracts and manually translates them into your ERP because billing schedules and revenue recognition rules didn't flow through automatically. Every handoff is an opportunity for errors, delays and data inconsistencies that undermine the entire point of automation.

Plan your integrations before you configure your first product in CPQ. Define exactly which data needs to flow between systems – customer records, product catalogs, pricing rules, quote details, contract terms, billing schedules. Test those integrations with real scenarios, not sanitized demo data. If your CPQ vendor claims their Salesforce or NetSuite integration is "seamless," validate that with reference customers who run the same version and customizations you do.

Tasks to complete: 

• Map your entire quote-to-cash data flow – what information moves from CRM to CPQ, CPQ to ERP, ERP to billing and back
• List every custom field, picklist value and data element that needs to sync between systems
• Confirm whether the CPQ vendor offers native integrations or relies on third-party middleware (and remember that native is more reliable)
• Test integration scenarios during vendor proof-of-concept – create a quote, modify it, have it approved and track how data flows downstream
• Build error handling and validation rules so bad data doesn't silently propagate across systems

4. Configure workflows, approvals and governance controls

CPQ systems enforce the pricing discipline your sales team needs but often resists. Without proper workflow configuration, your reps will find creative ways to bypass discount limits, skip required approvals or push non-standard terms through the system. 

Design approval workflows that balance speed with control. Standard deals within pre-approved parameters should auto-approve instantly, but deals with aggressive discounts or non-standard terms should route to the right approvers based on dollar thresholds, discount percentages or contract duration. Build escalation paths so quotes don't sit in approval queues when managers are out of office, and configure audit trails that track who created the quote, who modified it and who approved it so finance can trace every pricing decision.

Tasks to complete: 

• Define approval tiers based on deal size, discount level and contract term to auto-approve standard deals but route exceptions 
• Build escalation rules so quotes don't stall when approvers are unavailable
• Configure role-based permissions – who can create quotes, who can apply discounts, who can modify pricing rules
• Set up audit logging to track every quote modification and approval action for compliance and margin analysis
• Test approval workflows with real deal scenarios to confirm routing logic works correctly before go-live

5. Train users and phase rollout

Even the most well-configured CPQ system fails if your sales reps don't trust it or don't know how to use it. If training consists of a single 90-minute webinar followed by "figure it out," expect adoption to crater within weeks. Reps will revert to spreadsheets the moment they hit a scenario the training didn't cover, and you'll have spent six months implementing a system nobody uses.

Slow, phased rollouts are essential to properly assess the system’s configurations and ensure your team is trained on how to use it. 

Tasks to complete: 

• Create role-specific training – sales reps need different content than sales managers, finance or operations
• Build scenario-based training modules that walk through actual deal types reps encounter, including new customer, upsell, renewal and custom terms
• Run a 30-60 day pilot with a small group before full rollout to identify gaps in training or configuration
• Develop quick-reference guides for common scenarios and edge cases
• Set up a Slack channel, Teams group or internal wiki where users can ask questions and share solutions
• Schedule weekly office hours during the first month post-rollout so users can get real-time help

6. Monitor performance and continuously optimize

Implementation doesn't end on go-live day. The first 90 days after rollout will expose workflow gaps, configuration mistakes and training deficiencies you didn't catch in testing. If you're not actively monitoring how the system is being used and where reps are getting stuck, you'll miss the opportunity to fix issues before they become permanent workarounds.

Track the metrics you defined in Step 1 – quote turnaround times, pricing error rates, approval bottlenecks, manual overrides. But also watch for behavioral signals that indicate problems. Are reps building quotes in CPQ but then manually adjusting them before sending to customers? That suggests your pricing rules don't match reality. Are certain product configurations getting rejected at high rates during approval? That indicates a disconnect between what sales is quoting and what operations can fulfill. 

Tasks to complete: 

• Set up dashboards to track quote volume, approval times, discount rates and error rates by team and rep
• Monitor system usage patterns to identify where reps are struggling or abandoning the tool
• Schedule weekly check-ins for the first month, then monthly reviews to discuss what's working and what needs adjustment
• Create a feedback loop so sales reps can report bugs, request enhancements and suggest workflow improvements
• Prioritize quick wins that improve adoption (fixing annoying UI quirks, adding commonly requested product bundles)
• Audit pricing and discount patterns quarterly to catch margin leakage or policy violations

Common pitfalls when implementing a CPQ process

CPQ provides significant benefits, but that doesn’t mean you won’t encounter a few implementation hurdles along the way. By learning about the most common CPQ pitfalls, you can better avoid them.

Let’s explore the top issues and how to solve them:

Insufficient integration with your CRM and ERP systems

A CPQ solution that operates in isolation from your existing CRM and ERP systems can lead to data silos, inaccurate customer records and manual workarounds. A lack of proper integration can also limit your ability to streamline your quote-to-cash process.

How to ensure sufficient integration:

• Map your data flow before you buy. Document exactly what information needs to move between CPQ, CRM and ERP – customer records, product catalogs, pricing rules, contract terms, billing schedules. If the vendor's integration can't handle your specific data requirements, find out during the evaluation phase, not after implementation starts.
• Prioritize native integrations over middleware. Third-party integration platforms add cost, latency and another point of failure. CPQ vendors with native Salesforce or NetSuite integrations sync data more reliably and require less ongoing maintenance.
• Test with real data, not demo scenarios. During proof-of-concept, create an actual quote from your product catalog, modify it and track how it flows downstream. Do custom fields sync correctly? Do pricing rules translate accurately? Does the integration break when you handle edge cases like mid-contract amendments?
• Build validation rules at integration points. Don't let bad data silently propagate across systems. Configure error handling so the integration flags missing fields, invalid pricing or incompatible product combinations before they corrupt your CRM or ERP records.
• Plan for ongoing maintenance. Integrations don't stay fixed. When your CRM or ERP updates, your CPQ integration needs testing. When you add new products or pricing models, integration mappings need updates. Budget time and resources for this, or your "seamless" integration will slowly degrade.

Overly complex product configurations

Software for CPQ is powerful enough to handle complex product offerings, but overwhelming users with too many configurations or customization options can slow down the quoting process and lead to errors. Overcomplicating configurations can also discourage sales reps from using the system consistently or properly.

How to streamline product configurations:

• Audit what you actually sell. Pull the last 200 closed deals and analyze which product configurations appear most frequently. If 80% of your quotes use 20% of your available options, build the configurator around those common scenarios and handle edge cases separately.
• Default to the most common selections. If 90% of customers choose a particular feature combination, make that the default configuration. Force reps to actively opt-out rather than building every quote from scratch.
• Hide advanced options behind progressive disclosure. Don't front-load the configurator with every possible choice. Show core selections first, then reveal advanced options only when relevant. If a customer selects "Enterprise tier," that's when you display add-on modules – not before.
• Block invalid combinations automatically. If Product A doesn't work with Product B due to technical constraints or fulfillment limitations, don't rely on reps to remember that. Configure business rules that make invalid combinations impossible to select rather than just warning about them.
• Create configuration templates for common use cases. Build pre-configured bundles for "Standard SaaS Package," "Enterprise Setup," "Usage-Based Tier 2" so reps can start with 80% of the configuration already done and just customize the final details.
• Test configurations with actual sales reps. Don't let product managers or IT design the configurator in a vacuum. Have real reps walk through quote scenarios and watch where they hesitate, make mistakes or ask for help.

Lack of user training and adoption

Your CPQ process can’t deliver its full value if your users aren’t properly trained. If your sales teams are unsure how to configure products or apply pricing rules within the CPQ software, they’re more likely to fall back on manual processes or submit inaccurate quotes.

How to maintain proper training:

• Train by role, not in bulk. Sales reps need different training than sales managers, finance teams or operations. Reps need to know how to build quotes quickly. Managers need to know how to review and approve. Finance needs to understand how quotes translate into billing. One generic training session doesn't serve any of them well.
• Build scenario-based training, not feature tours. Don't walk through every menu and button. Instead, demonstrate how to quote specific deal types reps actually encounter – new customer acquisition, mid-contract upsell, renewal with a discount, custom terms that need approval. Let them practice these scenarios before go-live.
• Run a pilot before full rollout. Choose 5-10 reps who are tech-savvy and willing to give feedback. Let them use CPQ in parallel with the old process for 30-60 days. They'll surface workflow issues, missing features and training gaps before you roll out to the entire sales organization.
• Create quick-reference guides for common tasks. Most reps won't remember everything from a training session. Build one-page guides that walk through frequent scenarios – "How to apply partner discounts," "How to get expedited approval," "How to handle mid-contract upgrades." Make these searchable in whatever tool your team already uses (Slack, Teams, internal wiki).
• Designate CPQ champions within each sales team. Identify reps who grasp the system quickly and empower them to answer questions from their peers. This reduces the support burden on IT and gives reps someone to ask when they're stuck on a deal.

Inadequate data governance

If the pricing, discount and configuration data you enter into the CPQ system is outdated or inaccurate, it will lead to incorrect quotes, skew your metrics and damage your customer relationships.

How to ensure proper data governance: 

• Audit your product catalog before migration. Don't import every SKU that's ever existed into your CPQ system. Identify which products are actively sold, which are deprecated and which exist only for legacy customers. Clean up duplicates, outdated descriptions and incorrect pricing before any data moves into CPQ.
• Assign ownership for pricing and product data. Someone needs to be accountable for keeping CPQ data current – not IT, but the business teams who own pricing strategy and product offerings. Define who approves pricing changes, who updates product configurations and who maintains discount policies.
• Build approval workflows for data changes. Don't let anyone with system access modify pricing rules or product configurations on the fly. Require approval from finance or product management before changes go live. This prevents accidental errors and ensures pricing strategy stays aligned across the organization.
• Schedule quarterly data audits. Compare what's in your CPQ system against what sales is actually quoting and what finance is actually billing. Look for drift – prices that have changed but didn't get updated in CPQ, products that are configured incorrectly, discount policies that conflict with current guidelines.
• Version control pricing and discount rules. When you change a pricing structure or discount policy, maintain a history so you can see what was in effect on any given date. This matters for contract renewals, audits and analyzing why past deals were priced the way they were.

Misaligned objectives

If you implement software without a clear understanding of your goals – whether it’s faster quote times, higher accuracy or better revenue forecasting – you’ll find it difficult to get the organizational buy-in it takes to drive adoption and success.

How to avoid misaligned objectives:

• Define success metrics before vendor selection. Get sales, finance, operations and IT leaders in the same room to agree on what the CPQ system needs to accomplish. Write down specific, measurable goals – not "improve efficiency" but "reduce quote turnaround time from four hours to 30 minutes while maintaining 95% pricing accuracy."
• Identify deal-breakers versus nice-to-haves. Sales might want mobile quote generation, while finance might want ASC 606 revenue recognition support. Rank these requirements so you know which features are non-negotiable and which can be phased in later.
• Surface conflicting priorities early. If sales wants reps to have broad discount authority but finance wants tight margin controls, address that tension before you configure approval workflows. Forcing the conflict into the open during planning prevents passive-aggressive workarounds after go-live.
• Test workflows with real deal scenarios from each stakeholder group. Have a sales rep walk through a standard deal. Have finance review how pricing and approvals work. Have operations check whether quoted configurations can actually be fulfilled. If any stakeholder group says "this won't work for us," fix it before rollout.
• Assign executive ownership to each goal. When tradeoffs need to be made – faster quotes versus tighter approvals, configuration flexibility versus data standardization – someone with authority needs to make the call. 

Related reading:

Solving complex customer & account hierarchy billing challenges in NetSuite with ZoneBilling: Parent-child relationships, varied billing processes, multi-level approvals and other customer dynamics can complicate your billing process. This article explores how ZoneBilling can help you cut through these customer complexities in NetSuite.

CPQ best practices: Key strategies

Many CPQ implementations fail not because the software is flawed, but because teams rush deployment without establishing the foundation that makes adoption stick. You can install the best CPQ platform in the world, but if your sales reps don't trust the pricing logic or your product catalog is a mess, they'll revert to spreadsheets within weeks.

The difference between a CPQ system that transforms your quote-to-cash process and one that collects dust comes down to these practices:

1. Prioritize system integration early

To make CPQ a seamless part of your operations, plan for its integration with your CRM and ERP systems from the outset. This helps you take full advantage of the system’s capabilities and get information flowing smoothly – from sales through billing and reporting.

2. Keep product configurations simple and scalable

Set up configurations that are straightforward for your users but flexible enough to handle complex requirements when needed. Aim for a balance that minimizes decision fatigue for your sales reps, allowing them to work quickly while still meeting their customers’ needs.

3. Conduct comprehensive user training

By investing in thorough training for your sales reps and managers, you’ll drive adoption to its full potential. Make your training materials easily accessible to your users and consider periodic refreshers to update users on any enhancements or changes to the software.

4. Implement a data management strategy

Maintain accurate and up-to-date data within your CPQ system by establishing data governance protocols. By regularly updating pricing, product configurations and discount rules, you can avoid errors and keep your quote data current and accurate.

6. Define clear objectives and metrics for success

Establish specific goals for your CPQ implementation, whether improving quote turnaround times, boosting accuracy or enhancing revenue forecasting. Regularly track these metrics to identify any areas that need improvement and fine-tune the CPQ process.

7. Focus on continuous improvement and feedback

Your CPQ system isn’t a “set-it-and-forget-it” tool. Regularly solicit feedback from your users, particularly your sales and finance teams, to understand where the system adds value and where adjustments are necessary. This practice helps your CPQ system evolve with your company’s needs while driving continuous ROI.

Choosing the best CPQ tools for your team

Most companies approach CPQ selection backward – they start with vendor demos before defining what they actually need the system to do. Then, you end up with software that handles 80% of your requirements while your team builds workarounds for the remaining 20%. Those workarounds become permanent fixtures, your sales reps complain about the tool and finance is still cleaning up pricing errors months after go-live.

Selecting the right CPQ platform starts with clarity about your specific requirements, then evaluating which vendors can deliver without forcing you to compromise. Here's how to approach it:

Step 1: Map your quoting and pricing requirements

Before you talk to a single vendor, document the complexity your CPQ system needs to handle. What product configurations do your sales reps actually quote? How many pricing models are you running (subscriptions, usage-based, one-time, professional services)? Which discount structures need approval workflows? If you can't answer these questions in detail, you're not ready to evaluate tools.

Start by interviewing your sales team about the quotes that take the longest to build and the configurations that cause the most back-and-forth with operations. Then map your pricing rules, approval hierarchies and any regulatory requirements that affect how you quote (like multi-currency, tax compliance or industry-specific regulations).

Here’s how to get started: 

• Catalog your top 20 product configurations by quote volume and identify which ones require the most manual effort
• Document every pricing model you support – fixed, tiered, volume-based, usage-based, hybrid structures
• List every approval threshold and routing rule (discount limits by rep level, deal size triggers, non-standard terms)
• Map out multi-currency and tax requirements if you quote across regions
• Identify edge cases that break your current process (complex bundles, custom pricing, partner pricing)

Step 2: Assess CRM, ERP and billing integration requirements

A CPQ tool that doesn't integrate cleanly with your CRM and ERP creates more work than it eliminates. You need real-time data sync between where your reps quote (usually Salesforce or another CRM) and where finance bills and recognizes revenue (usually NetSuite or another ERP). If those integrations require constant IT maintenance or manual reconciliation, your CPQ investment is undermined by operational drag.

Evaluate how deeply each CPQ vendor integrates with your existing tech stack. Can pricing updates in your ERP automatically flow into CPQ? When a sales rep configures a quote in your CRM, does it create the right billing schedules and revenue recognition rules in your ERP without manual handoffs? If the answer is "mostly" or "with some workarounds," keep looking.

Here’s how to identify your integration requirements: 

• Audit your current data flow between CRM and ERP – what breaks, what requires manual fixes, what gets lost in translation
• List every field that needs to sync between CPQ, CRM, ERP and billing (product details, pricing, discounts, payment terms, billing schedules)
• Confirm whether the CPQ vendor offers native integrations or relies on third-party middleware (native is faster and more reliable)
• Ask vendors for reference customers using the same CRM/ERP combination you run
• Test integration scenarios during vendor demos – create a quote, modify it and track how it flows downstream

Step 3: Evaluate enterprise scalability and governance

If you're planning to scale into new markets, through acquisitions or by launching additional product lines, your CPQ system needs to grow with you without requiring a rebuild. 

Governance controls matter just as much as scalability. Your CPQ system enforces pricing discipline across your sales team. If reps can bypass discount limits or finance can't audit who approved non-standard terms, you're creating compliance risk and margin erosion. Look for built-in audit trails, configurable approval hierarchies and role-based access that prevents unauthorized pricing changes.

Assess the following: 

• Define your growth plan for the next two to three years, including new entities, markets, product lines, M&A activity
• Confirm the CPQ platform supports multi-entity, multi-currency and localized compliance out of the box
• Test how the system handles organizational changes – adding approval layers, creating new discount structures, onboarding acquired entities
• Review audit and reporting capabilities – can you trace every quote back to who created it, who approved it and what pricing rules were applied
• Validate role-based permissions – can you restrict who sees certain pricing, who can approve discounts and who can modify product configurations

Step 4: Compare CPQ solutions based on total quote-to-cash impact

Don't evaluate CPQ tools in isolation. The value of a CPQ system extends far beyond quote generation. It impacts your billing accuracy, revenue recognition timelines and financial close process. A CPQ platform that generates clean quotes but forces your finance team into manual workarounds downstream isn't solving the problem; it's shifting it.

Ask vendors how their CPQ solution handles contract amendments, renewals and upsells once the initial quote is signed. Can it automatically update billing schedules in your ERP when a customer upgrades mid-contract? Does it support ASC 606 revenue recognition requirements without forcing finance to manually re-allocate performance obligations? If the CPQ vendor can't answer these questions, you'll end up paying for billing and revenue recognition fixes later.

Take these steps: 

• Map your entire quote-to-cash process – from initial quote through billing, payment collection and revenue recognition
• Identify where manual handoffs currently slow you down (common bottlenecks include quote to order, order to invoice and invoice to revenue recognition).
• Test how each CPQ vendor handles post-sale events such as mid-term upgrades, downgrades, renewals, contract amendments
• Confirm whether the CPQ solution can pass billing schedules and revenue recognition rules directly into your ERP
• Calculate the total cost of ownership beyond the CPQ licensing, including integration costs, ongoing maintenance and downstream billing/finance workarounds

Step 5: Validate vendor expertise in complex revenue models

If your business runs on subscriptions, usage-based pricing or hybrid models that combine multiple billing types, you need a CPQ vendor who has solved these problems before. Generic CPQ platforms built for traditional product sales struggle with recurring revenue complexity, and you'll discover those gaps after you've already invested in implementation.

Look for vendors who can demonstrate experience with your specific revenue model. Ask for customer references in your industry or with similar billing complexity. During demos, don't let vendors show you canned examples. Instead, give them one of your actual contracts and watch how they configure it. If they hesitate or suggest workarounds, that's a signal their platform isn't built for what you need.

Here’s how to ensure you’re choosing the right vendor: 

• Document your most complex contract structures, such as  multi-year subscriptions, usage tiers, hybrid billing, milestone-based services
• Request references from companies with similar revenue models and ask them specifically about edge cases and limitations
• Bring a real contract to vendor demos and ask them to configure it live – no generic examples
• Test how the platform handles contract modifications mid-term (proration, revenue re-allocation, billing schedule changes)
• Confirm the vendor has a track record with ASC 606 compliance for your specific revenue model

To help you validate these capabilities in a consistent, defensible way, use the Billing System Business Requirements template. This document is designed to uncover the exact limitations that often get missed in demos—especially around complex billing, contract amendments, usage models, and revenue recognition, helping you compare vendors based on real-world requirements, not marketing claims.

Elevate your sales process with CPQ solutions from Zone & Co

CPQ software isn’t just a tool. It’s a strategic advantage that transforms your complex sales processes into a streamlined, efficient workflow. By automating configuration, pricing and quoting, CPQ solutions empower your team to close deals faster, minimize errors and enhance the value you provide to customers.

ZoneBilling extends CPQ into billing and revenue recognition by working natively inside NetSuite. When your sales team configures a quote in your CRM, ZoneBilling automatically translates that into accurate billing schedules and ASC 606-compliant revenue recognition – without manual handoffs or data re-entry. Here's what that means for your quote-to-cash process:

• Native NetSuite integration. ZoneBilling lives inside your ERP, not bolted onto it. When your CPQ system generates a quote, ZoneBilling ingests the contract details and automatically creates billing schedules, invoice templates and revenue recognition rules. This eliminates data silos and the need for complex automations that are prone to breaking. 
• Support for any pricing model your sales team can quote. ZoneBilling can handle subscriptions, usage-based billing, hybrid contracts, milestone payments and multi-year deals with annual step-ups… and it can do it without custom development. If your CPQ tool can quote it, ZoneBilling can bill it and recognize revenue correctly under ASC 606.
• Automated contract amendments without revenue recognition chaos. When customers upgrade, downgrade or modify contracts mid-term, ZoneBilling automatically adjusts billing schedules and re-allocates revenue across performance obligations. Your finance team doesn't have to manually recalculate proration or worry about compliance gaps.
• Real-time visibility from quote to revenue. Finance teams get complete traceability from the original quote through billing and revenue recognition – all inside NetSuite. When the board asks about deferred revenue by product line or your auditors want to see contract modifications, the data is already there, reconciled and audit-ready.
• Scales with complexity without adding headcount. Multi-entity billing, multi-currency transactions, global tax compliance – ZoneBilling supports growth without forcing your finance team to build manual workarounds. Add new subsidiaries, pricing models or billing frequencies without starting over.

CPQ solves the front-end of your quote-to-cash process. ZoneBilling solves everything that happens after the quote is signed – so your sales team and finance team are finally working from the same playbook.

Ready to connect your CPQ investment all the way through to revenue recognition? Talk to one of our experts today.