Author: Ethan Garonzik

For years, quoting was an afterthought — a manual step squeezed in between sales calls and contract negotiations. But in today’s B2B landscape, quoting is strategic. It's where deal control, accuracy, and momentum intersect. And it’s where many teams still get stuck.

The quoting experience is often broken — bloated legacy CPQ systems, overly rigid “modern” tools, or spreadsheets that haven’t changed in a decade. The result? Delays, errors, missed revenue, and sales teams forced to find workarounds.

In this article, we’ll explore how CPQ has evolved, what modern businesses should demand from their quoting tools, and how to know if your current system is holding you back.

From Spreadsheets to CPQ: The Early Days

Before CPQ solutions came on the scene, most companies built quotes manually — using spreadsheets, Word docs, and pricing calculators tucked away in email threads. While that worked when pricing was simple and the sales team was small, it didn’t scale.

Challenges of manual quoting:

• Sales reps using outdated pricing 

• Long back-and-forth email threads for discount approvals

• Errors from copy-pasting and version control

• No visibility into quote status or deal velocity

• Inconsistent formatting

It was time-consuming, inconsistent, and painful to manage — especially for high-growth teams.

The First Wave: Legacy CPQ Platforms

Enter: the first generation of CPQ software. Platforms like Salesforce CPQ, Oracle CPQ, and Conga aimed to centralize pricing, automate approvals, and streamline quote generation.

And they did help, to an extent — but at a cost.

Where traditional CPQs fell short:

• Months-long implementations and heavy reliance on consultants

• Constant engineering support to update logic or quote templates

• User interfaces that sales reps avoided entirely

• Poor fit for SaaS pricing models (e.g., recurring revenue, usage-based, dynamic terms)

What was meant to accelerate deals often ended up slowing them down. Many companies still stuck with these tools because the switching cost seemed too high.

The Second Wave: Modern, But Rigid

In response to clunky legacy platforms, a new wave of CPQ tools hit the market. DealHub, Cacheflow, Subskribe, and others aimed to make CPQ faster, sleeker, and more SaaS-friendly.

But while these platforms were more modern on the surface, they often traded complexity for constraints. Many still require technical resources to implement. Others come “out of the box” but still need layers of customization to make them work for real-world pricing models.

Have You Outgrown Your Current CPQ?

Whether you’re using a legacy system, a modern-but-rigid platform, or spreadsheets, here are signs it’s time for a change:

You’ve outgrown your CPQ if…

• You need consultants or developers to make updates

• Sales reps are quoting outside the system (or avoiding it altogether)

• Approval workflows are slowing down deal cycles

• Customizing invoice schedules or contract terms requires workarounds

• You’ve got multiple tools patched together for one quote (Word doc + pricing sheet + e-sign tool)

• Your CPQ doesn’t support usage-based, tiered, or milestone pricing out of the box

• You can’t easily customize quote templates for different buyers or sales motions

• Implementation took 6+ months — and you’re still not fully live

• You’re still emailing PDFs instead of generating shareable, branded quote experiences

• Leadership lacks visibility into deal velocity, quote accuracy, or discount trends

If any of these feel familiar, your CPQ isn’t enabling your growth — it’s holding it back.

The No-Code CPQ Advantage

Today’s leading companies are ditching the heavy, inflexible tools of the past in favor of no-code CPQ platforms that are fast to implement, easy to use, and designed to evolve with your business.

What makes no-code CPQ different:

• Admins can make changes to templates, logic, and workflows — no code required

• Sales reps can generate customized quotes in minutes (not hours or days)

• Approval workflows, discounts, and invoice terms are built into the flow — not bolted on

• Setup takes weeks, not months — and there’s no need for outside consultants

• Flexible enough to support your unique pricing model — now and as it evolves

Vendori is one of the few platforms built from the ground up with these principles in mind — designed for SaaS teams, and shaped by decades of experience in sales, finance, and revenue operations.

The Future of CPQ Is Purpose-Built, Not Pieced Together

The quoting process is no longer just a necessary step in closing a deal — it’s a moment to build confidence, align teams, and move quickly. That requires a CPQ platform that doesn’t slow things down.

Here’s where CPQ is headed next:

• Rep-owned quoting — with logic, compliance, and approvals built in

• Deeper CRM and billing integrations to remove data silos

• Dynamic invoice scheduling and payment terms handled natively inside the quote

• AI-assisted pricing and approval suggestions based on deal history and win rates

If your current solution can’t get there — or is already showing signs of friction — now is the time to explore what’s next.

Why Teams Are Choosing Vendori

Vendori helps teams quote faster, more accurately, and with full visibility — without requiring code, consultants, or workarounds. You can:

• Customize quote templates by product, customer, or team

• Support subscription-based, usage-based, and milestone pricing

• Automate approval workflows and discount logic

• Deploy in weeks — not quarters

• Give Sales, Finance, and RevOps full control

We’re not trying to be another all-in-one sales suite. Vendori is laser-focused on doing one thing incredibly well: helping SaaS companies quote better, faster, and with less friction.