Frequently Asked Questions About Salesforce CPQ

Whether you work in the tech industry, life sciences, or the healthcare and medical sector, you rely on your sales team to drive revenues and profits. Speed and accuracy are critical for your sales teams when generating quotes for potential customers.

Many sales teams face challenges when it comes to creating sufficiently detailed quotes quickly enough to sustain the interest of potential customers. Salesforce CPQ removes bottlenecks in the quoting process, making it easier for sales teams to create professional sales quotes fast.

Are you thinking of integrating Salesforce CPQ into your business operations? These frequently asked questions provide an overview of the essential information you should know.

What is Salesforce CPQ?

CPQ stands for Configure, Price and Quote. CPQ software allows sales teams to generate quotes for complex products quickly and accurately. The acronym refers to the three critical components of modern sales:

• Configure: Complex products like life sciences medical devices are usually sold in personalized packages tailored to each client’s unique needs. Configuration refers to the process of creating these custom product bundles, along with their product approvals and delivery details.
•  Price: Custom product packages require intelligent pricing. For example, high-volume orders may warrant bulk discounts. Many organizations have specific contracted pricing with their buyers based on volume and other terms. Misquoting a cost (e.g., forgetting to apply a discount) can create confusion and jeopardize customer loyalty. Sales teams must get these variables right.
• Quote: Sales team must generate quotes that are detail-oriented, precise, and clear. The quote must further be presented in a professional, user-friendly manner, and include all terms of the quote in a clear and easy to read format. Customers want to review the quote quickly and will get frustrated by discrepancies or lack of clarity.Check out this blog post on the key features of Salesforce CPQ to learn more. 

Salesforce CPQ simplifies all points of the modern sales process, automating business rules, guiding sales users and managing quotes.

How Does Salesforce CPQ Work?

Salesforce CPQ bridges customer-facing sales and back-office finance, automating the quote-to-cash process by preprogramming discounts, customizations, approvals, and more.

When a sales team member initiates a sale, Salesforce CPQ software ensures they carry out that sale within the set guidelines your company has in place for pricing, discounting, and approvals. You can thus maintain oversight while enabling sales team agility.

When Should You Use Salesforce CPQ?

Salesforce CPQ is ideal for sales teams dealing with complex products (e.g., technology, medical, healthcare, life sciences) sold in custom packages. CPQ can be a solution for any sales team that frequently updates quotes manually, for example, based on data from disparate systems.

What are the Advantages of Salesforce CPQ?

CPQ software offers many benefits. It can help your sales teams:

• Guide selling by prompting questions and suggesting products throughout the quote building process.
• Manage contracts, for example, by automating contract renewals.
• Establish price rules to change product values based on other package products dynamically.
• Define pricing methods, such as block pricing (charging a flat fee for a range of quantities instead of a per-unit fee).
• Set discount schedules within a bundle.
• Set product rules for product validation, selection, filter, and alert rules. For example, selection rules allow you to enable, disable, add, or remove bundle options.
• Set advanced approvals requirements. For example, “smart approvals” streamline the approvals process to reduce redundancy: If Department A approves the order, then Department B doesn’t have to.

How Beneficial is Salesforce CPQ?

Salesforce CPQ helps sales teams save time and effort by automating significant parts of the quote generation process. This efficiency saves companies money and human resources and can drive greater client satisfaction – ultimately boosting profitability.

Artificial intelligence technology will further enhance CPQ capabilities. Already 66% of companies consider AI technology as critical to their sales process. Companies that harness the power of AI-driven CPQ now will be prepared to benefit from future innovations.

What are the Guidelines for Setting Up CPQ?

The CPQ package must be tailored to your needs in terms of the approvals process, discount schedule, product and price list, and package settings. Setup will also require personalization in terms of presentation, including page layout, company logo, multilingual capabilities, and more.

Salesforce CPQ from SPAR Solutions

Trust SPAR solutions to guide your sales team’s digital transformation. SPAR’s CPQ and Salesforce platform specialists can quickly implement complex CPQ solutions to optimize your quote-to-cash process, working in conjunction with existing business processes like enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Call 1-855-772-7765 or get in touch online to get started.