Already have CPQ? Here’s what you’re still missing to achieve sales efficiency

In our conversations at Automate 2025, which can see a recap of here, with B2B manufacturers, we consistently hear two major objections when it comes to digitally transforming the sales process for better sales efficiency – CPQ is a common thread..

“Our products are too complex to sell or quote online.”

“We need a sales rep to facilitate the buying process.”

“We already have CPQ.”

While all are valid concerns, they point to a deeper issue: there may be a major gap between what your internal tools can do and what your buyer’s and/or your sales teams experience.

And that’s where you may need to rethink how you think about CPQ.

In B2B manufacturing sales, few deals are straightforward. Many involve highly configurable products, where pricing isn’t static, but shaped by a range of variables like specifications, materials, custom features, and production requirements. This complexity renders traditional D2C eCommerce platforms ineffective, because they don’t capture the true nature of how manufacturing customers actually buy. As a result, companies may lack confidence in the value of online buying experiences and continue instead to depend on in-person interactions to complete the sales process. 

Sales Configuration Helps Manufacturers Sell Complex Products Online To Achieve More Sales Efficiency

Let’s tackle the first myth: complex products can’t be sold or quoted online. That’s simply not true. Complex products just require a differentiated approach to selling. 

The B2B buying landscape has transformed. B2B buyers expect speed, accuracy, and self-service. But when quoting is trapped in spreadsheets or a series of sales emails, you’re introducing friction that slows down the buying process and causes you to lose deals to faster-moving competitors.

That’s why it’s more essential than ever to find a commerce platform that can stack with your existing business critical systems like ERP, CRM, WMS, 3PL to better handle this kind of complexity without creating additional friction.

Aleran’s unified digital commerce platform includes a powerful CPQ designed not only to handle B2B manufacturing product complexity, but also maximize your existing ERP CPQ solution.

How Does the Aleran CPQ Work?

It empowers sellers to manage and scale the sale of customized, highly technical products easily. The configurator can seamlessly stack on top of your existing CPQ system, enhancing it with a faster, more intuitive quoting experience. It does this by guiding sellers through the product configuration workflow so they can adjust custom product configurations, set flexible pricing structures, and send accurate quotes without lengthy delays. For sales teams, this also means eliminating spreadsheet or email-heavy workflows, reducing errors, and boosting the kind of sales efficiency that drives results.

To further streamline complex B2B sales, Aleran also offers an AI-powered Shopping Assistant, which can be deployed across any B2B market. The shopping assistant supports guided selling, situational pricing, and personalized promotions, so customers can purchase with greater confidence. For manufacturers still worried their products are too complex to sell online, the AI Shopping Assistant makes it easier to navigate through options, configurations and questions. 

Aleran Extends The Power of Your CPQ So You Can Sell More.

Many manufacturers have already invested in CPQ systems, and that’s a good start. But CPQ on its own often lives deep within sales or engineering, disconnected from the broader commerce journey. What’s missing is a bridge between your back-end logic and your front-end sales experience.

Both Aleran’s AI Shopping Assistant and the sales configurator enhance your existing tools by creating a more accessible, efficient front-end experience that drives faster, more accurate quoting, without adding to your team’s workload. Aleran brings everything together into a unified, efficient commerce experience. Whether you have reps taking sales orders in the field, distributors shopping via PDF catalog, or B2B buyers requesting quotes online, everyone gets the same up-to-date information, pricing, and product data. Flexible product and pricing data is a critical advantage in today’s volatile sales landscape where shifting tariffs, material costs, and supply chain pressures demand real-time flexibility.

Sell More. Sell Smarter.

In the end, it’s not about replacing your tools. It’s about making them work better together. Aleran is built to work with, not against, the systems you already have in place. Instead of requiring a full rip-and-replace of your existing tech stack, Aleran seamlessly extends the value of tools like CPQ and ERP while simplifying the complexity that slows sales down. 

The result: faster, more accurate quotes, fewer manual errors, and a dramatically more efficient sales process – all without disrupting the systems your teams rely on.

Would you like to talk about your needs and if we can help? Contact us at sales@aleran.com to schedule a time. We welcome hearing from you!

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