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Apttus, a maker of configure-price-quote (CPQ) applications and revenue management software, has launched the Deal Maximizer solution, designed to automate and surface optimal products, services, and discounts to sales reps in order to drive revenues. To improve overall sales effectiveness and unify sales rep activity around common objectives, the product features streamlined deal approvals, built-in standards compliance, and tools to optimize product and pricing variations across regions, customer types, and other criteria. The solution, for instance, can give sales teams access to intelligence about "combinations of products and services that are very good for [a particular] company," comments Kirk Krappe, CEO of Apttus. A company, hypothetically, could want a salesperson to sell a third product line every time they're selecting or bundling two other product lines. Deal Maximizer helps the sales rep see that "if you offer this other product or deal, you won't need an approval [from management] and can turn advanced work flow or approval [processes] from being coercive to positive...prompting" reps to take a company's preferred manner of action for product strategy to drive revenue, Krappe notes. The Deal Maximizer solution is integrated with a number of sales compensation and incentive management solutions, such as Xactly, in order to connect quote-to-cash processes with sales rep incentives. Once a rep is prompted with parameters around quota attainment and compensation payout, Apttus can "in real time, dynamically show them the comp change" if they select a preapproved, "fast-track" product bundling or package. This could, in turn, combat extreme instances of discounting by tying compensation directly to desired sales outcomes. Deal Maximizer is available for use with the Apttus Quoting Suite and existing CPQ solutions. Apttus' latest quote-to-cash platform, CPQ 6.0, which is built on the Salesforce platform, now enables sales reps who are already using Microsoft Excel to create quotes in line with company pricing and quote boundaries when using Apttus' X-Author for CPQ application.
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