Apttus Interview Questions And Answers

1. What does CPQ stand for? Explain what it is all about?

Well, CPQ stands for Configure Price Quote. It is a software tool which is widely used by
sales personnel. So basically with this tool, the sales executives within an organization will
have an overall view of different aspects of a project quote and help them to reach an
optimum level when it comes to the price quote.

All of this happens without any dependency on the other individuals.

2. What is more unique about this tool?

With the help of this tool, it gives the flexibility for the sales executives to work on the price
quotes based on the latest approved pricing structures and discounting rules and approvals
already predefined.

So basically all these factors are taken into consideration while generating a particular price
quote. All this can happen anywhere and right at their fingertips as on when there is a need.
Thus making it a flexible tool and independent tool for all the sales executives within the
organizations.

It not only makes your sales executives' or officials' life easier and efficient it also adds to
the overall execution of the organization's selling strategy.

3. How does CPQ is actually closing your CRM system gaps?

Well, when it comes to CRM systems most of them do not cater to the option or flexibility of
automating their price quote processes and thus making life hard. With the existing CRM
applications that are out in the market, it is difficult to automate the price quote process.

Thus forcing the employees to rely on standard Microsoft Word or Excel. By following this
process, the entire flow of quote generation is slowed down to a maximum extent. Further,
they might not be 100% accurate and prone to unidentified risks.

This being said about the slow price quote process, will further affect the next steps like
having low win rates and also more obstacles to make from potential lead to a customer.
Thus, ultimately affecting the revenue for the organization.

4. What are the primary factors that are usually encountered within an
organization where it calls for a need for CPQ software?

The primary factors that are encountered within an organization where they see a growing
need for CPQ software:

 Extensive delays in the quote creation process

  Too many errors during the quote creation process or a lot of loose ends
 It was out of date product-related information and the pricing structures
 Doesn’t take opportunity about upselling or cross-selling platforms
 Lack of sales process optimization or visibility to grow the sales channel

If you observe any of these challenges are actually bringing your sales team to
underperform it is your responsibility to invest in a good CPQ software that helps you to be
in a good position.

Related Article: What is Apttus

5. How does CPQ software usage will transform the organization's

sales?

The following ways are the key aspects of transforming the organization's sales, as follows:

 Increase Speed
 Eliminate Errors
 Maximize the Deal size
 Provide accurate and updated information

6. What are the major roadblocks that actually slow sales in an

organization?

The major roadblocks that actually slows down the sales in an organization are as follows:

 It is practically impossible to find out all the product-related offerings and detailed
information about the latest products.
 Not able to judge what products would suit the customer as per their requirement.
This is pure because the sales executive is confused about the product offerings
itself because there is no repository of all product offerings and the latest information
about them
 No proper discount rules defined for products
  Following up with the approvals from the managers will increase internal follows
even before sending the quote to the customer
 Manual quote creation, prone to a lot of human errors

All these obstacles will be well handled and managed by the team if they have automated
software that helps them to get their price quote up and running in few minutes. All this can
happen by using a CPQ tool

7. Can you list out few bullet points why a CPQ tool will have your sales
increase faster and make you more productive straight away?

The following are the bullet points that actually let the users why the CPQ tool is so
important and why it makes such a good impact.

 One location where all the products information is available

 All the latest product offerings are available
 The tool helps and suggests guided products based on the requirement
 Basically, the sales users will be able to customize the product offerings from the list
as per their requirements
 Because of its Automated workflow process
 All this combine generates a Price quote

8. How does the CPQ tool helps you make money apart from the sales?

As we all know, the only way to make money is to sell the products to the market, and
based on the margin an organization is evaluated in terms of profit.

If the price quotes for the requirements are done manually then usually they are provided
with deep discount deals where they have only one intention is to close the deal with the
customer at any given point of time. This way, the profit margin is reduced to a very low
value.

If this process is automated with a CPQ tool, we add value to the price quote by providing
the right product information and the right product price in an organized manner. During this
process, all the discounts are actually set and approved so thus there is no manual
intervention.

Based on the price quote, the profits are actually agreed upon by the team rather than a
single executive. Thus it helps in making more money and profit to an organization.

9. What is the important factor that has an immediate impact on the

revenue and margins of the organization?

Well, pricing the product at the appropriate level is one of the important factors which has
an immediate impact on the revenue and margins of the organization.
10. What are the different factors that are taken into consideration while
pricing a product?

The following are the different factors that are taken into consideration while pricing a
product are as follows:

 Mainly includes on market demand

 The competitive pressures
 The value offered to the customers
 Timings and the cost to provide the services
 Business and sales strategy for that product

All of these are the different factors that have a dynamic impact on product evaluation and
product pricing.

11. Why does the CPQ tool is considered a modern-day utility tool for an
organization?

It is considered to be a modern-day utility tool because it caters to:

 Offers a superior selling platform

 Single source of truthful and worthy information about products
 Targeted price quotes because of the customization
 Incentives provided based on the product selections

12. How does the CPQ tool actually helps you to turn all your quotes into
contracts?

Well, it is a known fact that the sales process doesn’t stop after just sending out the price
quote to the customer. The sales user should be able to follow up and make sure that the
customer is turned from potential lead to actual customer to the organization.

Thus, the modern-day CPQ tool actually helps you to simply transfer all the information from
the Quote to the contract management system, thus eliminating the effort of putting all the
price quote information into a contact management system manually. This helps to reduce a
lot of time and gives power to the users to close the deal much faster when compared to the
traditional way.

13. Why does the CPQ tool help your sales executives with Influencing
behavior?

Well, it is a known factor that the more they sell the organization does make more profit
from the sales so it is evident for the organization to actually invest in some sort of a tool
that actually makes or inculcates a motivation.
So one such tool is nothing but CPQ, it does provide the right information about the product
at the right time. Thus giving out a positive feeling for the sales executive and ultimately
motivates him to do this over time.

14. What is the future of the CPQ tools with machine learning?

There is a lot of future to CPQ tool when it is coming up with machine learning concept.
With the help of machine learning concepts, it helps the sales users to compare their
current price quotes with all the previous price quotes of their prominent sales executives,
thus providing a comparison environment.

This helps reduce the mistakes in the current price quote and modify it according to the
suggestion that was provided by the system itself. All together this will help the price quote
to be excellent and attract the customers because we are quoting exactly what they were
looking out and especially when they see a well-drafted quote they don’t mind spending a
premium amount because it creates trust in the services angle.

15. Why is Apttus stated as a “Quote to Cash” model?

Because the tool actually helps the businesses to be more competitive in terms of
competing with the target marketing and also become more agile and dynamic while
following up with the customers providing them with a customized environment. In general,
using the Apttus CPQ tool one can observe a straight jump in their sales revenue as it is the
right mixture for the current market need.

16. So what does ABO stands for in the Apttus CPQ tool?

ABO stands for Asset-based ordering platform. S

17. Does the Apttus CPQ tool has an API where they can connect to
third-party systems to do more?

Yes, absolutely. The tool has APIs available so that they can connect to any other third-
party systems where they can manage and do more. The integration process is very
smooth and easy to start off with.

18. Do we have any signature process in the Apttus CPQ tool?

Yes, the Apttus DocuSign package can be integrated and thus enables the users to avail
the signature facility within the Apttus interface.