Salesforce CPQ Certified Specialists - All You Need To Know

Salesforce CPQ Specialists

Salesforce CPQ specialists are in high demand, experienced CPQ specialists are in short supply and one of the most difficult certifications to obtain is the Salesforce CPQ Professional certification. I am a Salesforce CPQ training Professional accredited by Salesforce and I'll share exactly how I passed the test in this article. This isn't a post describing the exam material. To do so, check out Salesforce's exam guide.

Quick Description of Main Features of Salesforce CPQ

Apps for Drug Configuration:

CPQ helps to build packages of features and options for the product. Options are defined as package categories, and the choices are defined as components.

• Products are rendered as an integral part of the kit, and upsell and cross-sell possibilities are often assisted by accessories or related goods.
• Supports guidelines on exclusion and inclusion which are restrictions on choices.
• CPQ also allows device hiding or dynamic addition of components for the configured package.

SalesForce Checkout Pricing Characteristics

CPQ offers several demand conditions, of which a few are:

Contract Pricing

Margin estimate for the end consumer is often seen during the discounting/pricing phase.

Price + Markup pricing-Moreover for volume, it covers commodity costs.

Block Pricing

For example, if the price of 1-25 goods is 50USD and the price of 25-50 goods may be 100USD, tier-based discounting would be possible. (1–25 products with a 5% discount and 25–50 products with a 10% discount)

Real-time market analysis to assign a market to the bundles of solutions.

Don't forget to check out: Superbadge ‘Business Administration Specialist’ Solution

The Settings for Quoting

• Generation of text with an integrated quote
• The integration process for the E-Signature software
• Customization of quote templates for various parts to be designed i.e. even header, quote line, footer quote words.

CPQ-Functions

The Principles of Productivity.

• It allows customization of items in the search process.
• The ability to script questions direct the sales consumer and customer for the best product match possible.

Specific Research History

Next, I did some of the trailhead modules of Introduction to Salesforce CPQ to ensure my general knowledge was up to date. Such modules were those which had no connection with Trailhead Playground/Dev orgs. They were merely reading questions and quiz questions. The modules are the fundamentals of Salesforce CPQ and the functionality of Salesforce CPQ.

Took the CPQ 211 Test at Salesforce

Subsequently, I took as a virtual student the Salesforce CPQ online training Admin Essentials for Experienced Administrators (CPQ 211). It was a four-day course, intense, focused on covering a wide range and depth of CPQ topics. If you have any holes in your knowledge regarding what's required for the examination, this will fill them up for you. The other advantage of taking this course is that you are effectively condensed to 32 hours of study in a four-day span.

Trailheads Interactive

It reinforced my core ideas and gave me a new approach to CPQ exam subjects, other than the course. The modules/projects are all in the CPQ Admin Essentials trail for Learn Salesforce. None of this beats hands-on!

Know CPQ Admin Essentials CPQ on Salesforce

Note: Take care

The day after my course with CPQ 211 ended, I went back and took about 15 pages of notes on all the content of the course. I had my CPQ org open while I was taking the notes, so I could drill into each topic area and see the fields and objects involved for each topic. When I had finished taking my notes, I checked it against Salesforce's breakdown of the certification exam to make sure I missed nothing.

The Exam Day for Becoming CPQ Specialist

If something like a certification exam is far away, people don't think about it until it's really real, anyway. I researched main Salesforce CPQ Support pages the examination morning, as I imagined how it all worked in my head. Pages such as, Twin Fields, Salesforce CPQ Special Fields, Product Pricing Analysis, CPQ Stages in Quote Calculation, Price Law Considerations, and Merge Fields.

Takes The Test

Your plan to take the exam was to make an initial run through all the easy questions and get back to the more challenging ones. This wasn't always obvious which were the hard ones, because I first read every question and spent some time on the easier ones before labeling them for follow-up. Questions that are later answered often provide insight into things you were unaware of, so if you have any uncertainty, the technique of marking for analysis has the added advantage. I quickly did the math on the remaining time every 10 questions or so to make sure I was still on track to be finished with enough time left to review (~15 minutes).

What If You Didn't Clear The Exam?

I had learned how challenging the examination was and how no one passed their initial attempt, and how to handle the test as if it were a $300 test ($200 first try, $100 retake). I had a contingency plan if the first attempt failed which I, fortunately, did not.

To be honest, I felt pretty good going to the exam because I spent so much time studying and felt I understood the material very well, and the CPQ product. Had I not passed my plan was to prepare and take the exam again for the next two weeks. Because Salesforce asks you how you're doing on any big area of the test, my research should have concentrated on the areas I didn't perform well in on the test.

Also, check out another Salesforce Certification Guide here: Salesforce Trailhead Superbadge: Apex Specialist Solution

What If It Was Not An Option For CPQ 211?

Finally, I was talking about what you would have done had I not been able to take CPQ 211. Without preparation, I took many other Certification exams. Others did not require much studying (if any) and others needed a decent amount of studying. The CPQ analysis falls into this latter group. In those tests, I used the same general technique as I described here, except that I practiced strength in ~3 weeks instead of preparation, including lots of work hands. It should have gone through the user guide, making other notes, and setting up an instance of CPQ from scratch, as applied to CPQ. I should have done this after trail heading each of the CPQs tracks.

Last Thought

When you are considering taking the CPQ Specialist Exam, I strongly recommend that you come up with a plan of study. The one I outlined in this post worked very well for me, but there may be other strategies that work better. You can learn more through Salesforce CPQ online training in India.