Complexity isn't the number of products — it's the logic wrapped around them. Plenty of companies sell dozens of SKUs with a few flows and never need a CPQ. The moment approval rules, bundles, tiered discounting and amendments wrap the catalogue, manual configuration stops scaling.
CPQ runs in roughly 30% of high-growth GTM stacks, and it tends to switch on when a company starts selling up-market. Ask the question in that order: what does the pricing require, then which tool serves it — never the reverse.
Every claim above comes from work LeanScale published. These are the sources.