253 sales and marketing pros voted across a category fragmenting along enterprise integration, AI pricing optimization, and seller experience. Here is what the results reveal.
The May 2026 IT Brand Pulse AI Brand Leader survey asked 253 sales and marketing professionals to vote for Market, Intelligence & Innovation, Creativity & Expression, Accuracy & Trust, and Human Empowerment leaders in CPQ (Configure Price Quote), one of 18 products in the AI Sales and Marketing stack. Salesforce CPQ was voted Market Leader with 34.14% of votes, with SAP CPQ finishing second at 25.30%. PROS was voted Intelligence & Innovation Leader (31.22%). DealHub was voted Creativity & Expression Leader (37.72%). SAP CPQ was voted Accuracy & Trust Leader (35.18%). DealHub was voted Human Empowerment Leader (35.54%).
The five-pillar split across three vendors highlights a category fragmenting along buyer needs: Salesforce CPQ owns enterprise CRM integration, SAP CPQ anchors ERP-driven trust, PROS leads on AI-driven price optimization, and DealHub dominates Creativity & Expression and Human Empowerment by simplifying the seller experience. The IT Brand Pulse analyst team expects CPQ to absorb adjacent contract lifecycle and revenue management capabilities, with future Brand Leader voting rewarding agent-assisted configuration, real-time deal scoring, and tighter coupling with billing and revenue operations.
What Is CPQ (Configure Price Quote)?
IT Brand Pulse defines CPQ (Configure Price Quote) platforms as systems that automate the configuration, pricing, and quoting of complex products and services. AI-era CPQs apply machine learning to recommend optimal product bundles, dynamic pricing, and discount guardrails, reducing quote turnaround time and protecting margin in deal cycles that increasingly span multi-product, multi-currency, and channel sales. CPQ (Configure Price Quote) sits within the AI Sales Products sublayer of the Horizontal Business Apps layer in the IT Brand Pulse AI Product Taxonomy, alongside Buyer Intent Data, Call Transcription & Analytics, Sales Assistant, Sales Compensation Management, Sales Enablement Platforms, Sales Engagement Platforms, Sales Forecasting Platforms, Sales Intelligence, Prospecting,, and Website Visitor Identification.
Download the Brand Leader Report for CPQ.
