What Is CPQ?

understanding configure, price, quote.

Awhile back, you may have heard Steelbrick being folded into the giant wave of acquisitions Salesforce made within the last year or so. Now why does that concern us? Because if you, like me, are constantly trying to keep up with new tool added to the Salesforce ecosystem you would be excited to know that Salesforce now has their own CPQ product.

Well wait a minute? What is CPQ? Why is it important to us? CPQ stands for Configure, Price, & Quote. You may have  heard this term thrown around before, in fact, there were already other companies using this type of product such as Apptus, and previously Steelbrick. But now that Salesforce has acquired Salesforce, it’s time to take a deeper dive and understand what exactly CPQ is for and what it does.

Imagine you are listening to Spotify. Wouldn’t you rather listen to a playlist that is tailored to you rather than something pre made? Luckily Spotify monitors your listening habits and suggests certain playlists to you every week, pretty cool right? Now while this isn’t anything close to what CPQ is, the idea is the same. CPQ is a tool that helps tailor product offers and quotes to your clients, thus helping you deliver exactly what your customers need…Configure

Now imagine you are part of the sales team. Are you going to offer the same products and price to a mom & pop shop as you would to a retail giant like Walmart? Of course not. What if prices were different by region? By product market? It can be hard to manage and be consistent with your quoting accuracy when offering to companies when the market can be so fluid and with so many guidelines to follow to make your sales team successful. Luckily with Salesforce CPQ you are given the tools to help automate a lot of these processes. Use product rules to govern and limit your sales, or use discount schedules to monitor and help you manage discounting…Price

Now your company doesn’t get paid until they seal the deal. In order to do that a quote must be produced, and it needs to be done in a quick & qualitative fashion. Salesforce CPQ allows you to produce a quote, send it via email, and even require an e-signature all within a few clicks. Flipping this pre-made documents, products, and pricebooks, help you accurately send a quote both sides can be happy with…Quote

The Sales cycle is still one of the trickiest parts of the biz, but Salesforce CPQ is helping solve a lot of the mysteries involved and making it more of a routine process than in the past. With the rapid progress of AI and machine learning, definitely be prepared for CPQ products to take huge steps in automating the sales cycle even more. If you are one to take the plunge and dive into the world of CPQ check out the new Salesforce CPQ Specialist credential.

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