Executive Guide: What to Expect in Your First 90 Days with SAP CPQ

The first 90 days with SAP CPQ often come with mixed expectations. Some leaders expect immediate acceleration, others brace for disruption. In reality, this period is neither about quick wins nor about technical completion. It is about setting the conditions under which SAP CPQ can later deliver consistent business value.

The biggest risk in the first 90 days is misaligned expectations. Executives may look for visible results too early, while teams focus on structure and groundwork that is less obvious but far more important. When these perspectives drift apart, even well-run SAP CPQ initiatives can feel slower or more complex than they actually are.

SAP CPQ touches pricing, products, approvals, and sales behavior. That makes early decisions disproportionately impactful. Scope definition, ownership, governance, and pacing established in the first weeks shape everything that follows. Mistakes made early rarely stay small, they compound over time.

This guide is written for executives who want clarity, not implementation detail. It explains what typically happens in each phase of the first 90 days, what progress really looks like, and where leadership attention makes the biggest difference. The goal is not to compress timelines, but to help you recognize whether your SAP CPQ initiative is building a solid foundation or quietly accumulating risk.

Days 1–30: Setting the foundation

The first 30 days with SAP CPQ are rarely about visible progress. They are about decisions that determine whether progress will later be smooth or painful. This phase sets the tone for scope, ownership, and pace, even if very little looks “finished” from the outside.

The most important outcome of the first 30 days is clarity. Clear scope, clear ownership, and clear expectations around what SAP CPQ is meant to solve now versus later. When this clarity is missing, teams often rush into configuration while fundamental questions remain unanswered. That is how complexity enters the project early, even with good intentions.

Executives play a critical role here. Not by driving features, but by reinforcing priorities and trade-offs. SAP CPQ touches pricing, products, and approvals, which means every department has opinions. Without executive alignment, early decisions tend to default to compromise instead of direction. Those compromises often resurface months later as rework.

This phase also defines how the project handles pressure. Early requests for “just one exception” or “temporary logic” are common. How these requests are handled in the first 30 days becomes a pattern. Many SAP CPQ projects slow down later not because of technology, but because early discipline was traded for short-term comfort.

By the end of the first month, success should be measured by alignment, not output. A well-run SAP CPQ initiative exits this phase with a shared understanding of goals, a controlled scope, and a team that knows how decisions will be made going forward.

Days 31–60: From structure to momentum

Days 31 to 60 are where SAP CPQ initiatives either gain momentum or start to feel heavier than expected. The basic structure is in place, teams are working inside the system, and early assumptions begin to show their strengths or weaknesses.

This phase is less about building and more about validating. Pricing logic, product structure, and approval flows start interacting with real use cases. What looked reasonable on paper now has to work under daily sales pressure. This is often the moment when hidden complexity surfaces, not because something was done wrong, but because reality is more nuanced than initial designs.

Adoption becomes a visible factor in this period. Sales teams begin forming opinions based on speed, clarity, and trust in the system. If SAP CPQ feels slow or unpredictable at this stage, confidence erodes quickly. That loss of confidence is difficult to recover later without structural changes.

Executives should pay attention to early warning signs that momentum is stalling, even if the project still appears “on track”. As we’ve seen when rescuing stalled SAP CPQ initiatives, these signals often appear weeks before issues are formally escalated.

By the end of this phase, success is measured by stability and trust. SAP CPQ does not need to be perfect, but it needs to be reliable enough that teams believe it will support them as complexity grows.

Days 61–90: From progress to value

Days 61 to 90 mark the transition from effort to evidence. The system is no longer new, teams are no longer experimenting, and SAP CPQ starts revealing whether the early foundations were solid enough to support real business outcomes.

This phase is where value becomes observable, not necessarily fully realized. Quote turnaround times stabilize, pricing behavior becomes more consistent, and approval flows begin to feel predictable. These are early indicators that SAP CPQ is starting to influence how the business sells, even if headline metrics have not yet shifted dramatically.

Executives should look for directional signals rather than final results. Reduced reliance on manual workarounds, fewer pricing escalations, and improved confidence during deal reviews all point to healthier execution. Expecting full ROI at this stage is unrealistic, but expecting clear movement toward it is not.

What matters most in this phase is reinforcement. Teams refine what was built, clean up what no longer fits, and start establishing habits around governance and continuous improvement. SAP CPQ becomes part of daily operations instead of a project artifact.

As we’ve seen when analyzing how SAP CPQ value materializes over time, early stability and adoption are strong predictors of long-term ROI, even before financial impact is fully visible.

By the end of the first 90 days, success should be measured by confidence and trajectory. SAP CPQ should feel reliable, explainable, and ready to scale, even if the journey is far from finished.

What executives often underestimate in the first 90 days

Executives often underestimate how much influence their behavior has during the first 90 days of SAP CPQ. Not through direct involvement in configuration, but through signals about priorities, trade-offs, and tolerance for short-term discomfort.

The most common blind spot is expecting visible results too early. When leadership pressure focuses on speed before structure is ready, teams tend to introduce shortcuts that feel harmless at the time. Those shortcuts often turn into permanent complexity that slows the initiative down later.

Another underestimated factor is decision fatigue. SAP CPQ initiatives surface many questions that do not have a single correct answer. Pricing logic, approval thresholds, and scope boundaries require judgment calls. Without clear executive guidance, teams default to compromise, which usually increases complexity instead of reducing it.

Executives also tend to underestimate how quickly trust forms or erodes. Sales teams decide early whether SAP CPQ helps or hinders them. If early experiences feel inconsistent or unpredictable, confidence drops fast. Recovering that confidence later requires significantly more effort than getting it right early.

As we’ve seen when examining why SAP CPQ projects slow down over time, early misalignment between expectations and execution is one of the strongest predictors of long-term friction.

The first 90 days are less about pushing for results and more about modeling discipline. When executives reinforce structure, clarity, and long-term thinking early, SAP CPQ initiatives are far more likely to deliver sustainable value.

Summary

The first 90 days with SAP CPQ are not about speed or technical completion. They are about setting the foundations that determine whether SAP CPQ will later become an enabler or a source of friction. Decisions made early around scope, ownership, and governance have a disproportionate impact on long-term outcomes.

In the first month, success is defined by clarity, not output. Alignment across leadership and teams matters more than visible progress. In the second phase, momentum depends on stability and trust, as real usage begins to validate early assumptions. By days 61 to 90, value becomes observable through consistency, confidence, and reduced reliance on workarounds, even if full ROI is still ahead.

What executives often underestimate is their own influence. Expectations, trade-offs, and tolerance for short-term discomfort shape how teams behave under pressure. When leadership reinforces discipline instead of shortcuts, SAP CPQ initiatives are far more likely to scale successfully.

Ultimately, the first 90 days should be judged by trajectory, not results. If SAP CPQ feels reliable, explainable, and ready to grow by the end of this period, the initiative is on the right path.