How Salesforce CPQ Can Optimize Your Organization

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Have you heard about Salesforce CPQ recently? Looking to learn more about it? You’re in the right place!

WHAT IS SALESFORCE CPQ?

Salesforce CPQ is a sales optimization tool that enables organizations to automate the creation of quotes and the capture of orders. It’s an extension of the Salesforce Sales Cloud, utilizing objects like accounts, contacts, opportunities, orders and products, but goes beyond with the use of custom objects and features to enable advanced quoting functionality.

WHAT CAN SALESFORCE CPQ DO?

CPQ empowers sales representatives to effectively close deals with complex product offerings and specific pricing requirements. By utilizing CPQ product bundles, Sales representatives can easily cross-sell and upsell different product lines to provide their customers a more valuable and comprehensive solution.

Additionally, Salesforce CPQ can help your Sales team better manage recurring revenue with contract amendments and renewals, as well as improving forecasting accuracy. The implementation of CPQ can positively impact your business by eliminating the time spent searching for the most up-to-date pricing, formatting proposal documents, getting manager approval, and sending the finalized quote to your customer. The standardization and automation CPQ creates in your selling process can help your sales representatives be successful by having all the necessary information right at their fingertips. Another great part of Salesforce CPQ is the prebuilt integrations with ERP solutions and other business technologies to fulfill orders and improve the visibility and communication between Sales, Operations, Finance, and Management.

WHO IS A GOOD FIT FOR SALESFORCE CPQ?

Now you may be asking yourself, is this right for my organization? Am I in the right industry or is my company the right size for CPQ? Do I have the right needs for this product? Here are a few qualifications that can be checked off to see if you are a good fit.

  1. You are a company in a highly technical industry, manufacturing, media or health/life sciences that provides a wide array of products and services.
  2. Your company is in a highly technical industry that provides a wide array of products and services, such as Manufacturing, Information Technology, Media or Health/Life Sciences.
  3. Subscription billing, management, and renewals are needs for your organization.
  4. Upselling and cross-selling are a central part of your regular selling process.
  5. The pricing of your products relies heavily on complicated Excel worksheet formulas.
  6. Your company sells to many different customer types, possibly involving wholesale distributors, partners, or other types, which require specific price books and discount schedules.
  7. Your company sells subscription-based products where pricing is determined by customer tiers or can change depending on the quantity of product ordered.

If you checked any of these boxes off, it may be time to look into a program that could help you improve your business processes and create more efficiency across your organization.

QUESTIONS TO DETERMINE IF SALESFORCE CPQ IS RIGHT FOR YOU

You can also ask yourself a few questions to see if Salesforce CPQ is a good fit for the way you do business on a regular basis.

  1. What is your quote to cash process?
  2. How much time is spent on quoting?
  3. Are you using an Excel template for pricing?
  4. What is your approval process for quotes and discounting?
  5. Do you manage subscription and renewal revenue?
  6. What is the handoff between sales and finance and how can it be improved?

REASONS COMPANIES SELECTED SALESFORCE FOR CPQ FUNCTIONALITY

Let’s take a glance at a couple of projects where Sikich is helping organizations gain a competitive advantage with Salesforce CPQ.

A software development company that specializes in content processing, conversion and automation solutions was looking for a new CRM solution that would provide visibility into their sales process. Their end goal was to reduce operating costs by automating their quoting process. This company is a current Microsoft partner, which means they have access to Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM licensing for free. But, with the end goal to reduce operating costs, they wanted to find the best solution for their organization. In the end, they decided to go with Salesforce for the CPQ functionality as well as the ability to easily integrate to G Suite.

A manufacturer of high-quality commercial ovens and furnaces decided they wanted to improve their visibility into the sales process and forecast. They also wanted to eliminate manual processes associated with quoting for their staff. Their focus was on reducing the time spent copying, pasting, and updating product descriptions and pricing info onto new quote templates to send out to their customers which is what led them to Salesforce CPQ.

Sikich is a certified Salesforce partner and has both the resources and the knowledge to help your organization implement the best tools to improve and transform your business. Interested in learning more about CPQ? Watch our Sikich Live episode, The 411 on Salesforce CPQ.

This publication contains general information only and Sikich is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should you use it as a basis for any decision, action or omission that may affect you or your business. Before making any decision, taking any action or omitting an action that may affect you or your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. In addition, this publication may contain certain content generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) language model. You acknowledge that Sikich shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by you or any person who relies on this publication.

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