Salesforce CPQ: Key Features Not to Miss

In a previous article, we showed you Salesforce CPQ and its main benefits. You already know that it is a tool specialized in the sales process of highly complex products or services and that it does so quickly, precisely, and in a personalized way. It achieves this through the transversal use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which concentrates the crucial phases of the sales cycle in an automated platform, taking it to a qualitatively higher level.

Salesforce customers who use this tool increase their sales productivity by 25%, reduce their errors by 38%, increase the speed of generating quotes by 33% and increase their upselling by 19%. The data is more than eloquent.

The automation of the quotes is based on a set of pre-programmed rules that include: price and discount rules, customizations, the particular characteristics of the products and their minimum and maximum quantities, as well as their incompatibilities.

Key Features of Salesforce CPQ

The very name of this Salesforce solution explains three of its main features: Configure, Price and Quote. Let’s take a look at these features in more detail.

Configure Products

This tool allows you to configure different types of products and services based on their characteristics, whether they are product bundles or multidimensional quoting products. The latter allows you to configure order lines by time components, establishing independent quantities and discounts. Together, the process is optimized using the product rules, which avoids considering incompatible products in the quotes. These rules also help facilitate cross-selling and upselling propositions.

Fix Prices

Salesforce CPQ has several price books that correspond to different business scenarios. The platform predetermines the corresponding book for each case, including advanced options to optimize pricing in different contexts. For example, block prices, volume discounts, pre-agreed prices with specific clients, etc. In this way, it is possible to obtain a precise and adequate price, while optimizing this entire process.

Generate Quotes

Salesforce CPQ enables real-time, automated creation of high-quality documentation, both in form and content, that fits the business. The sales team can predefine the elements to be reflected in the document, such as terms, conditions, and sections among others, based on quote models and templates that this document generator brings with it. In addition, the documents are adapted in their structure, uniformity and presentation to the identity of the brand, which promotes an image of strength and consistency for your company.

Other Features of Salesforce CPQ

The most publicized features (Configure, Price and Quote) are not the only ones that this tool has. There are plenty of others that are also very useful and valuable.

Guided Selling

Guided Selling enables sales reps to determine the best products to sell to their customers. In this process they are proactively guided through a sequence of questions that appear in the configuration of each order. Thus, representatives can navigate through a wide catalog of products and their requirements, ranging from quantities to specific customer needs. In this way, it helps them to choose according to the appropriate criteria and to quickly and accurately determine the best products to offer, as well as making the quote configuration process more efficient.

Product Bundles and Product Rules

The sales team can create four types of bundles (Static, Configurable, Dynamic and Nested) that include groups of customizable products and are sold together to fully meet customer expectations. Using product rules allows you to add, remove, or hide options from a bundle. As a result, during the quote, possible incompatibilities are avoided and customers are prevented from placing orders against the regulations.

Quote Line Groups

This functionality of Salesforce CPQ has a multitude of utilities. It can be used to apply differentiated parameters depending on the type of presentation of a product, either at an individual level or at a group level. For example, a group of products or services may project a certain percentage of discount when requested as a whole, which does not apply if they’re requested individually. This is optional for the client, so it does not affect the total of the quote. This functionality can also be used when products must be delivered to different locations, but have been paid for in the same invoice.

Salesforce CPQ in the Hands of the Sales Team

The complexity of each company to generate quotes for their products or services is channeled through the use of Salesforce CPQ. Although other less powerful managers could also get the job done, when the nature of these quotes becomes complex, it is necessary to use an optimized tool for it. Salesforce CPQ, with its features and capabilities, makes this process much smoother and totally progressive by eliminating the need for intermediate reviews. This favors greater agility and a recurring relationship with customers that leads to their loyalty.

The sales team finds an ally in this Salesforce solution to achieve their goals. It’s an easy-to-use app, hosted on the Salesforce ecosystem, and available anytime, anywhere, on any device. Thus, a result is obtained that is adjusted to the specific situation, personalized, highly competitive and error-free.

Salesforce CPQ optimizes the time of sales representatives because, by speeding up quotes, they can move better in the process of closing contracts. In turn, it radically reduces the number of errors by showing a clear and organized image of the products and services available. It also prevents accidental sending of unauthorized prices or promising unavailable products. With all these features, this tool also allows tracking, action collection, analysis and possible forecasts.

Check out another amazing blog by SkyPlanner here: Top 10 Benefits of Salesforce CPQ for Your Business

The aforementioned tool could reverse the criteria of 82% of managers who consider that their sales representatives are not prepared.

After the first sale, the relationship with the customer becomes stronger. This solution therefore contributes to the establishment, correction and automatic renewal of contracts to maintain recurring opportunities based on a forecast. It guarantees complete punctuality and accuracy in renewals as well as automatically prorating prices on the existing contract and creating a new opportunity from that amendment.

Salesforce CPQ could be summed up as a solution capable of fully implementing the sales process at a level never seen before. What used to take days now takes only minutes. Would you like to learn more about this powerful tool? The SkyPlanner team, thanks to its certified experience and more than 600 implementations in different countries and sectors, can provide you with the guidance you need! We can even offer you a standardized package that is quick to implement and proven effective. You can write to us at [email protected].