Salesforce CPQ(Configure, Price and Quote) software is a sales tool for providing accurate pricing for a scenario on product configuration. It is more accurate to describe it as a tool that generates quotes for orders – quickly and accurately. It is about generating accurate quotes and billing when your organization is looking for higher sales.

Do you need to answer three questions if you want to understand CPQ?

• What are the products that customers want to buy?
• What is the price?
• How to give sales details to the customers?

Now, that the process becomes easier with the Salesforce CPQ, it enables your sales team to come up with a quality quote with a professional look.

What is the Work Done by CPQ?

Here are the work done by Salesforce CPQ:

Configure

You need to find out more about the customers, the kind of industry they are working in. CPQ uses smart rules to sell related products in the same quote, avoiding incompatible products. 

Price 

CPQ acts as the pricing source of truth for the sales reps as they need to know the price of the products sold. The sales reps are just needed to apply the discounts and the rest of the calculation is managed by Salesforce. 

Quote 

You can enhance the look of the quotes with a more professional and consistent look with customization through CPQ. Any special terms if required appear automatically and the reps can close deals faster with e-signature integration. 

Next, we will provide you with insights on the benefits of Salesforce CPQ.

What are the Benefits of Salesforce CPQ?

To start with, let us share some interesting stats on why CPQ is such a favourite among the consumers?

• Quote Generation – 10X faster.
• Reduce Approval Time – 95 %
• Quote to Cash Movement – 2X faster
• Ramps for New Reps – 30 % More

Here are some of the benefits of Salesforce CPQ:

• Generate Precise and Faster Quotes
• Reduce time wasted
• Integrate CPQ with Other Technologies
• Increase Savings and ROI
• Increase the deal size

1. Generate Precise and Faster Quotes

You can increase sales of your organization by providing precise, faster sales quotes with CPQ. What is the need to waste the precious time of your sales reps and the buying team by moving back and forth between the configuration and the quotes – for seeking information.?

Automate the sales process with CPQ, configuring the right prices for what the client needs. Streamline the quoting process to anticipate pricing under any scenario, An example to cite is that of Cloudera which uses CPQ for creating quotes faster and with higher precision.

2. Reduce Time Wasted

Streamlining processes can lead to ample time for your sales reps to make effective sales calls for customers, thereby reducing the time wasted. A CRM software such as Salesforce enables you to make your dream come true. This allows note-taking capabilities as well as in-depth research for the users. 

Moreover, access to Sales enablement documents and information helps the customer all through the sales journey, establishing your organization as a trusted partner in the same field. The CPQ acts as a great enabler in the transition from the sales journey into decision making. 

The system allows precise configuration of products,  apply pricing and discounts and have approvals. This only enhances the efficiency of the sales reps, while instilling much-needed confidence in the minds of your clients – about your processes. An example of a customer success story

3. Integrate CPQ with Other Technologies

CPQ is software that can remove siloed departments in your organization by placing communication and standards, firmly in place. CPQ reduces the errors in the quotes and ensures that the subsequent steps easily take place. Since an accurate quote  affects all departments, 

CPQ brings about an integration of business technology for an enhanced process. An appropriate example of such an integration of business technology with CPQ is that with an ERP software, that helps to streamline your business processes. 

This integration helps to reduce the operating costs and increases the on-time production with manufacturing, materials and operations departments are connected. This establishes a connection between sales and operations, which acts as a major advantage.

4. Increase Savings and ROI

CPQ helps in a significant increase in ROI and efficiency of your organization with streamlined sales processes. With CPQ implemented, your organization can replicate the best practices of sales and does not require continuous retraining of the staff.

Delivering professional quotes and faster closure of sales deals leads to the success of sales professionals, thereby increasing the bottom line of your business. As a customer success story, we can cite the example of Mitsubishi achieving a 50 % increase in ROI.

5. Increase the Deal Size

A majority of the salespeople of your organization have no insights into the complex products or the supply chain processes of your organization. CPQ acts like a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the sales professionals, on every sales call. Options and the product specifications are directly programmed into the CPQ software, which in turn allows the salespeople to ask the right sets of questions on complex configurations, add-ons and specializations and this results in the closure of bigger deals. 

If you want a robust solution for the challenges faced by Salesforce implement Salesforce CPQ. Please refer to the below link on the Salesforce CPQ Implementation Guide. 

Salesforce CPQ must take care of all the stakeholders, from the program management point of view. It is a daunting task for Salesforce admins as they implement Salesforce CPQ as they have to ensure the data functionality across products, assets, opportunities, and contracts and other objects and then appropriately carry out Salesforce CPQ data migration. 

It is imperative that the records, functionalities must not get impaired at any cost, once the implementation and data migration is over. You can migrate Salesforce native data by adopting the right methodologies and approaches. 

Here are some of the best practices of Salesforce CPQ data migration:

• Understand the Salesforce CPQ data migration by raising the data weapons such as building the migration process, sticking to the sandbox etc.
• Gain know-how on the order of operations. 
• Understand the complexity of automation.
• Test and run the test scripts even after data migration is over.
• Know about the more benign objects in the data model such as fieldsets and picklist values. 
• Turn off the triggers.

How to get Certification in Salesforce CPQ?

If you are a developer with experience in the implementation of Salesforce CPQ solutions, then you must try for the Certified Salesforce CPQ Specialist credential. The Salesforce certified CPQ Specialist must have the following skillsets:

• Salesforce CPQ Platform 
• CPQ terminology
• Troubleshooting of Basic Issues related to the platform. 

You can visit the following link for understanding the basic requirements 

of acquiring the certification on Salesforce CPQ Specialist. 

It is highly recommended to have a combination of hands-on experience, trailhead trails and expert-led courses for Salesforce CPQ training on the new administrator(CPQ-201) and the experienced administrators(CPQ-211).

Conclusion 

We conclude that with Salesforce CPQ, your sales team can build and deliver accurate quotes at a  faster speed. This increases the productivity of the sales reps with product configurations, price orders and quote generations – with precisions. 

It helps in automating the add-on orders for faster generation of branded proposals, contracts and renewals. Furthermore, it helps in a seamless integration of taxes, invoicing, collections and reporting. Automating the invoicing process enables your team to send invoices, while on the go, on any device.

At AnavClouds Software, we provide effective CPQ Development solutions to boost your business productivity. We are a team of highly experienced individuals who work dedicate to provide custom solutions for every business model.