Salesforce CPQ, with its straightforward name indicating its functions—Configure, Price, Quote—begs further examination to answer crucial questions. What exactly does it configure? How does it handle pricing? What quoting functionalities does it bring to the table, and is it worth the investment? In this article, we dig deep into the distinctions between Salesforce CPQ and Salesforce standard quotes to guide you in making an informed decision tailored to your business needs.
Exploring Standard Salesforce Quoting Features:
While Salesforce CPQ offers advanced features, standard Salesforce quoting (available in Professional Edition and above) provides more capabilities than meets the eye. Here are its key features:
Basic Quoting Functionality: Allows syncing quotes with opportunities, maintaining updated pricing and quantities on both records. Multiple quotes for an opportunity are supported, with the ability to designate a synced quote.
Pricing: Operates on list pricing, offering flexibility through different price books for various customer segments. For example, you can create price books specific to a customer or industry if they have unique or negotiated rates.
Discounting: Supports manual discretionary discounts. For automated discounts, custom-built automations can be built, albeit with limitations.
Quote Documents: Generates PDFs with basic features, like images and rich text, yet lacks the flexibility of CPQ's templates.
Ultimately, standard quote functionality provides the tools your reps need to create and generate simple quotes in Salesforce. Standard quotes are easy to set up and use, making them ideal for businesses with uncomplicated sales processes. For smaller businesses with limited budgets, standard quotes might be a more economical choice, as there are no additional licensing costs.
With a straightforward pricing model, these features may be all you need, but standard quotes may fall short when dealing with complex product configurations, dynamic pricing, or intricate discount structures. Additionally, the manual entry of standard quotes can be time-consuming, leading to potential errors and inefficiencies as the business scales. If you need more enhanced functionality, read on to learn about the added features within Salesforce CPQ.
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Salesforce CPQ Features:
Salesforce CPQ enhances and extends the functionalities of standard quoting, providing a comprehensive solution for complex sales processes to help your reps sell faster and more accurately:
Advanced Pricing: Allows cost-based pricing, applying markups based on factors like account tier, region, or industry. Implements block pricing for scalable adjustments.
Multi-Tiered Discounting: Supports both automatic and discretionary discounts, with the ability to layer them. Distributor discounts can also be integrated.
Bundling: Enables the creation of customized product bundles, offering more flexibility in package configurations.
Product Validation: Goes beyond standard validation rules, comparing information across multiple quote lines for more comprehensive validation. CPQ can check for compatibility for specific products or multiple requirements. For example, you wouldn’t want to sell a Lightning cable to someone who is buying an Android phone.
Quote Documents: Offers dynamic document generation or terms and conditions, allowing customization down to individual words.
Subscription Management: Ideal for products with subscription models, automating ongoing subscriptions and renewals.
Customer Connectivity: With upgrading to Salesforce CPQ+, quoting functionality integrates into customer communities, allowing clients to generate their own quotes online. This empowers customers to self-serve without having to tie up one of your sales reps.
CPQ automates the quoting process, reducing the likelihood of errors and saving valuable time for sales teams. And, it provides extensive customization options, allowing businesses to tailor quotes to the unique needs of each customer and product. The cons to CPQ is that utilizing this tool comes with additional licensing and implementation costs, which might be a consideration for smaller businesses with limited budgets.
Is Salesforce CPQ right for your business?
In conclusion, while standard quotes provide essential tools for simple quoting in Salesforce, Salesforce CPQ emerges as the superior solution for businesses seeking robust features, intricate pricing, bundling, and advanced quote generation functionality. If your sales team demands a comprehensive solution to elevate their selling capabilities, Salesforce CPQ is the optimal choice.
