Based on research conducted by PwC, an optimized quote-to-cash (Q2C) process can increase a company’s revenue by 10-15%.
To ensure that your Q2C operation is operating at full strength, your sales reps will need to use best-in-class apps each step-of-the-way.
Here are 3 such apps that your sales team can use—from setting up the quote to sending the agreement to processing the payment.
Related: How sales automation can help your reps thrive
1. Salesforce CPQ
As your organization scales its product offerings, it can become increasingly difficult to quote customers. After all, they might want a specific combination of products or services, and they might be working with a specific budget.
To help your sales reps quote customers quickly and accurately, and uncover discounts that allow your product/service to fall under a customer’s budget, they can turn to Salesforce CPQ. As an added bonus, it’s hosted in Salesforce’s CRM platform—making it all the easier for your reps to access and use.
2. Docusign
Once your prospect or customer accepts the quote, your team should look to send them a contract as soon as possible to ensure that the deal closes quickly.
Docusign, the electronic signature and agreement cloud platform, can help your reps do just that. Using Docusign, your reps can create contracts online in minutes, send them instantly via email, and allow prospects or customers to sign them in a matter of seconds.
3. NetSuite
Your ability to process the signed contract and send the customer their first invoice are as important as any other parts of a Q2C workflow.
You can use an ERP platform like NetSuite to make sure that these steps are executed swiftly and accurately. More specifically, the platform allows you to easily upsert inventory items, create sales orders, and send customers invoices.
Related: How quote to cash automation can improve your time-to-close
Optimize Your Q2C Process Even Further by Automating It End-to-End
Even after using these apps as part of your Q2C process, there’s room for improvement. For example, done manually, there can be a time delay between receiving a signed contract and upserting the inventory items in your ERP system.
To ensure that each and every part of your quote-to-cash process is streamlined, you can automate it end-to-end by using Workato, the leading enterprise automation platform.
Here’s one way Workato can help once you’ve connected a CRM platform like Salesforce with an ERP system like NetSuite and a payment processing software like Stripe:
- Once an account is marked as closed won in Salesforce, the workflow gets triggered.
- The sold products from the Salesforce opportunity are added to NetSuite as inventory items.
- NetSuite creates a sales order.
- Once the sales order is created, a platform like Stripe can create an invoice.
- Workbot, Workato’s enterprise platform bot, posts a message in a platform like Slack that alerts the appropriate employees of the invoice (along with any relevant details).
You can learn more about how Workato can transform your quote-to-cash workflow by speaking with one of our automation experts!
