Transforming quotes: how Salesforce CPQ can help you sales pipeline

Salesforce’s Sales Cloud can help companies increase their sales pipelines using various tools. Everyone loves Flows for their ability to design powerful automations without the need of code. The Salesforce platform is very robust and supports any needs that may arise. The UI is great and helps users accomplish what they need efficiently.

Among its many great points, there is one thing that can be routinely overlooked: CPQ tools. Even though having your sales pipeline in Sales Cloud provides numerous benefits, you won't have a streamlined solution if you need to switch platforms just to create a quote. When we consider that many companies still use Excel to create quotes, it quickly becomes apparent that there is a significant gap in the process. Not only is the flow of activities slowed down, but many problems can arise: Will there be sensitive information in this spreadsheet? How many people have access to it? How can we control different versions? What happens if the responsible person leaves the company? Are the created quotes always accurate, considering existing business rules?

This is exactly where Salesforce CPQ comes to the rescue. Built natively within the platform, CPQ enables you to build quotes with powerful features that significantly expand on what already exists. If you think that the standard quote creation process isn’t sufficient for your company’s needs, CPQ has you covered.

The quote line editor is the main hub for creating quotes. It’s an interface that updates in real time according to all the rules you set in the background. It can also be customized with actions that control the tool’s behavior based on parameters you define.

Let’s start with bundles. Companies can sell highly customizable products where customers have a wide array of options to choose from. Think about a dealer offering you a car: you can choose different lights, media centers, and add compartments, for example. Bundles enable you to sell in this manner. A product set as a bundle can include many selectable products, known as product options. All options can be organized into features, allowing users to work with an intuitive interface instead of a huge list of products. In our car example, features could organize options into groups like Interior, Engine, and Media.

Product and price rules are the stars of the show. They provide huge customization capabilities to the quote creation process. With product rules, you can do things like adding, removing, or disabling products depending on defined criteria. For example, one product option may require another to be added automatically. With a single click, the second product is added automatically. Price rules work in a similar manner. Let’s say that clients receive a 15% discount when two products are sold together. The rule can adjust the quote’s price automatically once both products are added. Another rule can apply a range of discounts for bulk sales. It’s also worth noting that the existence of price rules doesn’t eliminate the possibility of providing manual discounts when needed.

We can use custom actions to create different workflows inside the quote line editor. Imagine a scenario where users should be presented with different product catalogs based on their profiles or roles. You can define a custom action that considers the current user’s profile and applies a search filter, altering the list of displayed products. Simpler custom actions can hide buttons based on specific criteria.

The quote line editor adheres to existing field-level security settings. There’s no need to worry if a sales representative will see something that’s not allowed; the field is hidden, and the experience remains seamless.

And the benefits don’t stop at quote creation. CPQ provides an enhanced PDF creation tool that allows you to create well-organized quotes without needing a single line of code. Does your approval process involve parallel approvals? No problem. You can define a complex approval process that, besides having multiple levels, may require approvals from users in different areas. Approvals can also be accelerated by the ability to skip previous approvers if only minor changes were made. Imagine a quote that was approved by the VP but rejected by the CEO due to margin concerns. After the quote is revised to improve the margin, the sales representative resubmits it for approval. The quote goes directly to the CEO because the VP already approved the original margin. This sure speeds up the process!

A good CPQ implementation can surely help your company get the best out of a sales process entirely integrated into Salesforce. Consider it a great tool to help you achieve the best possible results.