How Fast is Your CPQ Solution?

People hate waiting!

Patience is a virtue, but not when your client exercises it waiting on a sales quote from your sales team. Most CPQ implementations are focused on functionality and accuracy, but performance is equally critical to adoption and success.

The Three Key CPQ Speed Metrics

To properly assess your CPQ solution’s speed, you need to measure three key metrics:

1. Average time to configure a typical product or solution
2. Average time to price a typical product or solution
3. Average time to quote a typical product or solution

1. Configuration Time

Configuration time measures how long it takes a user to select and configure a product. This includes:

• Page load times for configuration screens
• Response time when selecting options
• Validation and constraint checking speed
• Time to load related products and recommendations

Target: Configuration pages should load in under 3 seconds, and option selections should feel instantaneous.

2. Pricing Time

Pricing time measures how quickly the system can calculate accurate prices for a configuration:

• Base price calculations
• Discount and promotion application
• Volume-based pricing tiers
• Partner and customer-specific pricing
• Multi-currency conversions

Target: Pricing calculations should complete in under 1 second for standard quotes.

3. Quote Generation Time

Quote generation time measures the complete quote-to-document process:

• Document template processing
• PDF or Word generation
• Terms and conditions inclusion
• Branding and customization

Target: Quote documents should generate in under 5 seconds.

Why Speed Matters

• User adoption — Slow systems frustrate users and reduce adoption
• Customer experience — Quick quotes impress customers
• Sales velocity — Faster quoting means more deals closed
• Competitive advantage — First quote often wins

How to Improve CPQ Speed

• Optimize BML scripts and pricing rules
• Reduce unnecessary API calls
• Implement caching strategies
• Simplify complex configuration rules
• Use lazy loading for large data sets
• Regular performance testing and monitoring

Don’t let a slow CPQ solution become the bottleneck in your sales process. Measure your performance regularly and invest in optimization to keep your sales team and customers happy.