Top 8 Salesforce CPQ features to optimize sales processes

CPQ is a sales tool for organizations to streamline their quoting process for efficiency and quicker closing of deals. The modern marketplace is evolving and growing, which means businesses also have to rapidly adapt and scale. 

Sales processes are getting more complex with organizations of all tiers deploying un-conventional sales processes to stick out amongst the competition. The success of the platform is evident from its growth, estimated to be at 20% through 2020. CPQ is feature-rich and customizable, allowing sales representatives to automate approvals, track their prices, and close deals faster. Furthermore, the platform is available to sales teams on every digital device 24/7, which also helps them in making quicker sales decisions and automating time-consuming manual tasks.

What cool features make CPQ unique?

• Advanced approvals – With advanced approvals, sales representatives can save valuable time by setting up predefined approval pathways. Free from waiting for lengthy approval times, reps can focus on productivity and doing what they do best, close deals. 
• Multi-dimensional quoting – With MDQ, organizations can build customized subscription packages for different segments of time. The name itself says it all, add dimensions to your quotes giving customers a wider range of options. MDQ gives sales representatives more flexibility when they are pitching different subscriptions to a service. 
• Product Bundle – A product bundle is a customized bundle of different products with one parent bundle for creating the best possible quote for clients. Additional products can be added that contribute to the bundle’s package price, users can also define option constraints to exclude product selection when a similar product is selected in the bundle. 
• Product rules – With CPQ product rules, users can define conditions to ensure that customers cannot make options against your product’s unique guidelines. Product rules can be configured to add, remove, or hide options in a product bundle. 

Product rules contain related lists for Error Conditions, Actions, and Configuration Rules. 

• Price rules – Another aspect of product rules is price rules, which are automated price calculations which are then updated to quote line fields.  Price rules determine the pre-configured conditions which can apply prices to a transaction. This feature is useful when there are products that affect each other’s prices in bundles. 
• Custom Actions – While adding products to a quote, instead of always browsing through full product catalogues, users can configure custom actions as buttons on quotes where top-selling products can be viewed directly with the click of a button.

For example, a computer peripheral company creates custom actions that classify hardware and software as two separate actions. A search function can also be configured to sort through products more rapidly. This helps sales reps quickly create quotes for specific products.

• Guided Selling – With Guided Selling, users can create a prompt that helps sales reps sort through a large product catalog, filter the products based on inputs, and quickly create quotes with exactly what they are looking for. At the beginning of every quote creation process, the guided selling prompt will present reps with a series of questions that will help them narrow down the products they are looking for.
• Discount Schedule – Users can create discount schedules based on the sale, the 3 basic types are:

Volume Discount – Based on the quantity of the order.

Term Discount – Based on the number of years of subscription.

Cost Discount – Discount offered instead of the list price.

Discount schedules help users create customizable discount schedules depending on determinant factors.

These features are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the true prowess of Salesforce CPQ. Sales processes can be scaled to growth, while at the same time creating impressive customer experiences and brand loyalty. Do you want to know how to integrate this versatile application to your organization?

At CEPTES we have a decade of experience integrating Salesforce and it’s functionality to a broad range of industries, get in touch with us here.