The abbreviation CPQ stands for: Configure Price Quote.
It is a sales software application designed to help sales reps to effectively and efficiently search and Configure specific products and services out of an exhaustive product catalog, apply accurate Pricing based on various types of discounts, promotional offers and generate highly professional error-free Quotes.
For any organization, implementing a CPQ solution results in increased sales productivity, faster and accurate quotes, a higher close rate and greater revenue.
What is Salesforce CPQ (formerly SteelBrick CPQ)?
Salesforce CPQ, a 100% native configure-price-quote software on Salesforce Platform, is a part of Salesforce Quote-to-Cash solutions.
CPQ automates quoting, ordering, and contracting processes involved in the sales cycle. It enables the sales reps to configure the products, price your order, and rapidly generate flawless quotes with fewer clicks.
Hosted within the Salesforce ecosystem, this SaaS application gives your sales team an easy to use software, which is available anytime, anywhere, on any device and is linked directly with your CRM.
C is for Configure I.e. Product Configurations
Product Configurator in Salesforce CPQ allows users to search and identify the unique combinations of products and services according to the customer’s needs by using CPQ out-of-the-box features such as Search Filters and Guided Selling.
It can also be used to configure a bundle with a specific set of selectable options using Product Options and Product Features.
Product dependency and exclusion restrictions can be applied through Option Constraints.
Salesforce CPQ uses a set of configurable rules, known as Product Rules, to ensure that only valid combinations of options and features are selected and users get a warning or error messages while selecting incompatible products.
CPQ ensures quick and error-free product configurations so instead of searching for the right products manually, your sales team can do what they do best i.e. selling the products and closing the deals.
P is for Price I.e. Various Pricing Mechanisms
Salesforce CPQ pricing engine takes care of calculating the prices of products added onto the quote, based on the PriceBook values and pre-configured set of various pricing mechanisms.
CPQ Quote Line Editor allows users to easily adjust the price of a specific product by applying Manual Discounts either in flat amounts or in percentage values.
Discount Schedules can be set up to apply a Volume or Term discounts.
Attribute-based pricing can be implemented using a set of configurable rules, known as Price Rules.
Other pricing mechanisms include Customer specific contract pricing, Cost and Markup Pricing, Block Pricing, Percent-of-Total calculations and Batch Pricing.
CPQ ensures that your pricing is accurate and optimized so instead of doing the math, your sales team can do what they do best i.e. selling the products and closing the deals.
Q is for Quote I.e. Generating Quote Documents
Salesforce CPQ allows you to use fully customizable, pre-configured Quote Templates, Template Sections, Template Contents and Line Columns to quickly generate professional looking quotes and proposals containing all the products being quoted along with their pricing, company branding information, billing and shipping information and product-specific terms and conditions. These quotes can be directly sent to the customer with just one click. CPQ supports quote generation in PDF and Microsoft Word format.
Terms and conditions related to specific products can be displayed dynamically on a quote by using conditional Template Sections, Line Columns and Quote Terms.
CPQ ensures that your quote is accurate, consistent and professional looking so instead of spending time going back and forth on configurations and quote generation, your sales team can do what they do best i.e. selling the products and closing the deals.