Configure, price, quote (CPQ) software has become an invaluable tool for companies selling complex, customizable products. Manual quoting processes with spreadsheets and documents are inefficient, prone to errors, and make it difficult for sales reps to provide accurate quotes quickly. This is where Salesforce CPQ comes in.
As a leader in CPQ software, Salesforce CPQ helps companies streamline the entire quoting process to accelerate the sales cycles. In this article, we’ll dive into what exactly this tool entails, its key capabilities, and how sales organizations can use it to improve sales results.
What is CPQ?
CPQ software allows sales reps to automatically configure complex products, apply pricing rules, and generate quotes for customers based on predefined business logic. The “C” stands for configure and enables reps to dynamically build out a product or service bundle based on the customer’s needs.
The “P” stands for pricing. CPQ applies pre-established pricing rules and discount tiers to generate an accurate quote. Finally, the “Q” stands for quote. The configured products and pricing are merged into a professional quote document that can be sent directly to the customer.
CPQ platforms pull data from CRM and ERP systems so that quotes are always up-to-date and aligned with the latest products, pricing, discounts, and business rules. This eliminates the need for sales reps to manually compile quotes using outdated documents and spreadsheets.
What is Salesforce CPQ?
Salesforce CPQ is natively embedded within Salesforce CRM to provide tight integration between the quoting process and customer data. Originally developed by SteelBrick and acquired by Salesforce in 2015, Salesforce CPQ helps companies streamline complex sales quoting and accelerate their sales cycle.
With Salesforce CPQ, reps can quickly configure products from customization options and pre-defined rules, select pricing from discount schedules and pre-approved terms, and generate polished, accurate quotes with a few clicks. Quotes can be dynamically updated in response to customer feedback and sent out faster.
Salesforce CPQ pulls all the necessary data directly from Salesforce, eliminating the need to reference multiple sources. It also enables greater collaboration across teams involved in delivering quotes, such as sales, services, finance, and manufacturing. You can learn more about this tool by contacting Admin Within, one of the most trusted Salesforce CPQ consulting companies around.
Key Features and Benefits of Salesforce CPQ
Salesforce CPQ comes with a robust set of features that enable sales teams to optimize the quoting process. Here are some of the key capabilities and benefits:
Guided Selling
Salesforce CPQ’s guided selling feature provides a wizard-like interface to walk reps through the quoting journey. They are presented with relevant products and options as they fill out key quote details, ensuring accuracy and consistency.
Product Configuration
Dynamic product configuration allows reps to quickly develop quotes for customizable products. All valid options, components, and rules are presented to guide the rep. Real-time pricing adjustments are made as they select configurations. This simplifies the process of generating quotes especially for variable products.
Quote Automation
By pulling data from Salesforce and following predefined pricing logic, Salesforce CPQ automates much of the quote creation process. Reps don’t have to manually research prices or create quote documents from scratch, thereby significantly reducing time spent on crafting quotes.
Approval Workflows
Salesforce CPQ pushes quotes through automated approval workflows before finalization. Sales managers can review quote accuracy, discount levels, and profitability before quotes reach the customer.
Quote Templates
Professionally designed, customizable quote templates allow reps to quickly generate polished, branded quotes to send to prospects. This helps to eliminate the need to create proposals from scratch while also ensuring quotes follow company standards.
Reporting and Analytics
Robust reporting functionality provides real-time visibility into quote performance. Management can track metrics like cycle times, win rates, discounts utilized, and sales velocities to optimize the quoting process.
Tips for Implementing Salesforce CPQ
There’s no denying, Salesforce CPQ can be incredibly valuable if implemented properly. However, it requires careful planning and change management if your company is to take full advantage of it. Here are some best practices to roll out this sales technology to your teams:
Get executive buy-in
Initiating any major technology implementation requires executive sponsorship. As such, be sure to present the CPQ business case to leadership to get their stamp of approval.
Build a cross-functional team
Before rolling the tech, involve key stakeholders from sales, finance, IT, services, and operations. Aligning these groups will smooth the process and make it a success.
Clean your Salesforce data
CPQ relies on accurate data within Salesforce for pricing rules and customer info. For this reason, take time to clean up records before launching CPQ.
Develop guides and training
Create user guides, online training courses, and job aids tailored to the various sales roles that will use CPQ.
Roll out incrementally
Start with a pilot group, get feedback, iterate, and expand the launch in phases. Don’t enable every feature at once, lest you might end up failing to maximize its capacity.
Conclusion
For companies selling customizable, solution-based offerings, Salesforce CPQ can be a total game changer. Automated CPQ eliminates the bottlenecks and frustrations of manual quoting while enabling sales teams to close more deals faster. If implemented properly, Salesforce CPQ can become a true revenue growth engine for your company.
Have any questions on how to roll out this sales tech tool? Let us know in the comments.