Why Perfect Pricing Is a Myth — and How CPQ + BI Make It Irrelevant

If you're waiting for your pricing to be perfect before starting a CPQ project, you're going to be waiting forever. Here's the truth no one wants to admit: perfect pricing doesn't exist.

Markets move. Customers change. Costs fluctuate. No matter how much time you spend tweaking your list prices, special agreements, or discount matrices, there will always be gaps, contradictions, and exceptions.

Instead of chasing an illusion, smart companies accept the imperfection — and build systems that help them manage and improve pricing over time. That’s where CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) and Business Intelligence (BI) come together to change the game.

At cpq.se, we’ve helped manufacturers across industries recognize this hard truth and take action. Start now. Launch your CPQ project with the pricing you have today. And use BI to get smarter every month thereafter.

The Myth of Perfect Pricing

Pricing is messy by nature.

• Different regions demand different price levels.

• Legacy customers have unique discounts nobody remembers setting up.

• Product changes over time make old price models obsolete.

• New competitors pressure certain segments unpredictably.

No spreadsheet or annual price review can keep up with the dynamic reality of a competitive market.

The idea that you can solve all of this before implementing CPQ is seductive — but dangerous. It leads to endless internal debates, missed opportunities, and, ironically, even more pricing chaos.

Perfect pricing is a mirage.
Continuous improvement is the real strategy.

CPQ: Bringing Structure to an Imperfect World

Implementing a CPQ system like Tacton CPQ doesn’t require perfect pricing. It simply requires structured pricing.

CPQ gives you a platform where:

• Pricing logic is consistent and repeatable.

• Discounts and surcharges are visible and controlled.

• Quoting rules are enforced systematically, not based on gut feelings.

• Configuration options are tied to clear, transparent pricing consequences.

Even if your initial price structures are messy, getting them into CPQ imposes discipline. And that discipline is what allows for ongoing, data-driven improvement.

At cpq.se, we work closely with customers to launch CPQ projects based on realistic models — not on idealized versions of how pricing "should" work. The faster you get structured, the faster you can start learning and refining.

BI: Making Pricing Smarter, Quarter by Quarter

The real magic begins once your CPQ system starts collecting live data:

• What price levels actually close deals?

• Which customers negotiate harder than others?

• Where does discounting drift from your intended strategy?

Without BI (Business Intelligence), you can only guess.
With BI, you can measure, analyze, and improve.

By integrating BI tools with CPQ, we help our customers answer critical questions:

• Where are margins leaking?

• Which salespeople or regions are deviating most from guidelines?

• Are price increases sticking — or are they being silently discounted away?

• Which products deliver the highest realized margins — not just highest volumes?

With this insight, pricing optimization stops being a theoretical exercise. It becomes a practical, ongoing business process.

Case Study: From Chaos to Control

One cpq.se customer — Swift Lifts — faced exactly this challenge.
Their product combinations were complex. Their pricing history was messy. Discounting varied wildly between different sales teams.

If they had waited to "fix" everything before starting CPQ, they would still be waiting today.

Instead, they moved forward. They implemented CPQ with a clear, structured starting point. Then, they used BI to discover which product combinations were being systematically underpriced. Within months, they were making smart, data-driven adjustments — increasing margins without hurting sales volumes.

The lesson?

Starting imperfectly beats not starting at all.

Building a System for Continuous Pricing Evolution

At cpq.se, we coach our customers to think of pricing improvement as a journey, not a one-time event.

Here’s our model:

• Phase 1: Launch CPQ with the best structured pricing you have available today.

• Phase 2: Start collecting transaction-level data immediately.

• Phase 3: Use BI to identify pricing inconsistencies, margin leaks, and customer segment behaviors.

• Phase 4: Implement targeted pricing adjustments quarterly, not annually.

• Phase 5: Strengthen customer segmentation and value-based pricing based on real evidence, not opinions.

This approach balances speed and learning. You get immediate operational benefits from CPQ — faster quotes, fewer errors — while simultaneously building pricing sophistication month after month.

Stop Waiting. Start Learning.

If you’re worried that your pricing isn’t ready for CPQ, you’re not alone — and you’re not wrong. Pricing is always a work in progress.

The key is to accept the reality, launch anyway, and commit to getting smarter every quarter.

• Launch structured CPQ now.

• Build BI insights from real quoting behavior.

• Optimize based on facts, not guesses.

That’s how manufacturers win — not by chasing perfect pricing, but by building perfected pricing capabilities over time.

At cpq.se, we’re ready to help you every step of the way.

👉 Further Reading: Learn How cpq.se Helps Customers Improve Pricing with CPQ and BI

☕ Want to discuss how CPQ + BI can make perfect pricing irrelevant — and smarter pricing your new normal?

Book a virtual coffee with Magnus Fasth or Patrik Skjelfoss: https://www.cpq.se/meetcpqse