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Implementing Salesforce CPQ – All You Need to Know

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Phani Madhav Chegu,

March 24, 2023


Implementing Salesforce CPQ – All You Need to Know

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Read this interesting post to know what it takes to implement Salesforce Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ), a powerful Quote-to-Order (QTO) management solution offered as part of Salesforce Revenue Cloud, with high levels of efficacy.

One of the critical aspects of successful selling is development of an accurate quote. A company must ensure the quote contains all the details sought by the prospective customer and is generated within the prescribed timeframe.

However, this is easier said than done. It is necessary to comprehend the prospect’s needs, estimate the bandwidth available to your team and plan the availability of resources, and this can take a lot of time. This is especially true in the case of a large organization, where you need to coordinate with multiple teams to collect the necessary data and come up with a quote with the correct pricing elements.

Fortunately, the advent of powerful Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) tools has reduced the complexity of the quoting process. The tools help automate various activities in the quoting cycle and provide complete visibility to everyone involved in the generation of a quote.

One of the most widely used CPQ solutions is Salesforce CPQ. Today, we’ll look at what this novel solution is and examine its myriad of user-friendly features. We’ll also examine various aspects you must focus on to implement the CPQ solution efficaciously.

What Is Salesforce CPQ?

Salesforce CPQ is a powerful solution that empowers you to boost your QTO efficiencies in a big way. Available as a part of Salesforce Revenue Cloud, this innovative tool uses cutting-edge technology to provide the right solutions perfectly tailored to meet the unique requirements of your customers with minimal effort and expenditure.

What Are the Key Features of Salesforce CPQ?

Salesforce CPQ has several valuable features to enhance your quoting efficacy. The innovative product helps you:

  • Enable salespeople to create technically valid quotes rapidly using guided selling tools
  • Enjoy unrivaled support for all types of revenue-generation models, in a hassle-free manner
  • Implement a pre-defined quote structure seamlessly, thereby eliminating quoting errors
  • Get proper, timely insights that enable sales teams to up-sell and cross-sell effectively
  • Develop complex deal scenario models to identify and prevent leakage of revenues
  • Create a unified data model to simplify the maintenance of product catalogs and price books
  • Close deals quickly by streamlining approval workflows and providing complete visibility
  • Facilitate contract pricing to meet the needs of repeating buyers without any hassles
  • Share quoting information with partners in real-time and enable them to quote at their rates
  • Improve quote generation efficiencies by helping create precise quotes in MS Word or PDF
  • Automate all post-sales activities and generate orders from approved quotes
  • Generate dynamic quotes that allow insertion of specific terms using a library of clauses
Implementing Salesforce CPQ - All You Need to Know - 1

Would you like to implement Salesforce CPQ? How can you implement the robust QTO solution effectively, in a cost-efficient manner? You need to focus on the 7 aspects listed below.

Implementing Salesforce CPQ Efficaciously – 7 Best Practices

Best Practice 1 – Have Clarity of the Objectives of the Implementation

A clear idea of what you intend to accomplish by implementing Salesforce CPQ goes a long way in ensuring the success of the implementation; it’ll help you direct your efforts in the right direction, ensure good collaboration with all stakeholders and identify the actions to be taken during the implementation.

It is advisable to list the desired outcomes before you explore the features of the Salesforce Revenue cloud solution. We suggest you document the following items before implementing the robust QTO management tool.

  • Objectives and expected results
  • Potential applications of Salesforce CPQ
  • Estimated costs and a realistic timeframe
  • Risks and limitations
  • Key dependencies

Best Practice 2 – Comprehend the Challenges Faced by Sales Reps

Your sales team is the primary user of Salesforce’s CPQ tool; so, ensure you’ve a good idea of all its challenges. Schedule a meeting (or a series of meetings) to talk to each sales rep about the problems he encounters in creating quotes.

Zeroing in on the lacunae in the existing quoting process is very important. Once you identify the gaps to be fixed, it’ll be simpler to determine how various capabilities of Salesforce CPQ can be used to resolve the problems faced by your salespersons and enhance the efficiency of the process.

Best Practice 3 – Create a Solid Mechanism to Automate the Quote-generation Process

We’re all aware generating an accurate quote manually in a multi-tiered organizational setting can take several hours or even a few days, considerably slowing the lead conversion process. This problem can be resolved effectively by implementing Salesforce CPQ. The feature-rich tool allows you to automate various activities of the quote-generation process, facilitating the creation of error-free quotes fully tailored to a prospect’s needs rapidly, with minimal effort.

You must develop a robust framework to utilize the automation capabilities of the Salesforce Revenue Cloud tool. A properly-defined framework will help you identify areas of the quote-generating process that must (and can) be automated and channel your efforts in the right direction to complete the automation efficiently.

Best Practice 4 – Ensure Consistency and Dependability of Pricing Frameworks

Errors and inconsistencies in pricing can result in all your painstaking efforts to make the best use of Salesforce CPQ going down the drain – they can adversely affect your profitability, the performance of your sales team and your ability to satisfy customers.

You must define proper pricing rules and configure the CPQ platform to direct the customer instantly to various active offers and options to avail discounts (if applicable). This will go a long way in creating an impression on the customer that your pricing system is trustworthy.

Best Practice 5 – Develop a Robust Data Plan

A Salesforce CPQ implementation needs data from diverse sources. Determine the sources of data and import the required data before implementation. Ensure the CPQ platform integrates with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), accounting and other software systems.

Leverage Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to facilitate seamless integration between the CPQ powerhouse and critical data applications. Utilize API connectors to enable hassle-free import of data pertaining to product taxes, discounts, pricing tiers, packages and template details into the CPQ system.

Best Practice 6 – Optimize Configurations Thorough Exhaustive Testing

When a new software solution is implemented, the only way to ensure it works as intended is to test it thoroughly at all levels, and Salesforce CPQ is no exception. You must design tests covering all possible scenarios to ensure the novel product delivers the desired results.

You must focus on the following aspects when you test the Salesforce CPQ system.

  • Developing a well-defined test plan with clear timelines
  • Creating a test case to validate the functioning of each feature
  • Scheduling the development of sprints in an appropriate manner

Best Practice 7 – Deliver Effective Training to Users

Good training empowers your people to fully utilize the robust capabilities of the Salesforce CPQ platform, thereby ensuring high productivity. We advise you to go for Salesforce Trailhead, an innovative, user-friendly training platform to deliver the needed knowledge and skills on the CPQ solution.

Salesforce Trailhead enables end-users from diverse backgrounds and varying skill levels to use the CPQ system in an effective manner. This training platform delivers all information required to use the Salesforce product efficaciously to achieve desired goals.

By focusing on the 7 aspects mentioned above, you can effectively implement Salesforce CPQ and get the desired results. At Solunus, we help you harness the immense potential of the CPQ solution to streamline your QTO cycles and ensure high quoting efficiency. Our solid expertise of the Salesforce product and rich experience gained serving companies of all sizes across the industry spectrum enable us to deliver the perfect solution to your unique quote management needs.

We hope you liked this post. How do you use Salesforce CPQ? We’d love to know.

About Solunus

At Solunus, we help you make the best use of the latest developments in the world of CRM to help you reach your revenue goals. Our strong focus on understanding your specific requirements coupled with our unparalleled expertise of Salesforce, the most widely used CRM platform, allows us to deliver the ideal solution to help you delight your customers and grow your business.