Interview Questions on CPQ Product Configuration
Searching for a Salesforce CPQ specialist or want to become one, then this article is for you!
Instead of theoretical interview questions, this series of Salesforce CPQ Interview Questions focuses on the practical use cases and scenario based interview questions that would help you to understand the significance of Salesforce CPQ configurations and features in detail.
1. ABC Corp. sells packages/bundles of Software, Harware and Service type of products. What is the best way to show ABC Corp’s product catalog to their Sales Reps from an user experience perspective?
Answer:
# Create SOFTWARE, HARDWARE and SERVICES Product Features under each Bundle Product and include respective type of products under each Product Feature using the Product Option i.e. set SOFTWARE Product Feature lookup on the Product Option record for a software product and so on.
# Set Option Layout to Tabs on the bundle product.
Trailhead Article Link – https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/cpq-product-configuration/use-features-to-organize-options?trail_id=cpq-admin&trailmix_creator_id=dennishpalmer&trailmix_slug=morecpq
2. There is a bundle with 20 Product Features. Each Product Feature has 50+ options under it. What is the best way to configure this bundle to avoid excessive scrolling during the quoting stage?
Answer: Set Option Selection Method on all the Product Features to ADD. The ADD setting replaces the list of options (displayed using the CLICK setting) with an Add Options link avoiding the need of excessive vertical scrolling.
Trailhead Article Link – https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/cpq-product-configuration/use-features-to-organize-options?trail_id=cpq-admin&trailmix_creator_id=dennishpalmer&trailmix_slug=morecpq
3. As a Software Product Manager, I want to show special instructions to my Sales Reps under a Software Product Feature. How would you achieve this?
Answer: Create a special TEXT/TEXTAREA field “AdditionalInstructions” [API Name: AdditionalInstructions__c] on the Product Feature object. Go-to the Software Product Feature record and enter special instructions text as a value in this field.
Trailhead Article Link – https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/cpq-product-configuration/use-features-to-organize-options?trail_id=cpq-admin&trailmix_creator_id=dennishpalmer&trailmix_slug=morecpq
4. How multiple Product Features with related options can be grouped together on a bundle product configuration page?
Answer: By using Product Feature’s Category field. Go to Product Feature object’s Category field and add a meaningful picklist value (e.g. ESSENTIALS) to be used to group the related Features. Go to ALL the related product feature records and select the same Category value.
Note: Categories override any Option Layout you selected on the bundle product.
Trailhead Article Link – https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/cpq-product-configuration/change-the-feature-user-experience?trail_id=cpq-admin&trailmix_creator_id=dennishpalmer&trailmix_slug=morecpq
5. Salesforce CPQ shows these five Product Option Fields under every Product Feature on the bundle product configuration page: Quantity, Product Code, Product Name, Product Description, and Unit Price. As a Product Manager, I want to show an additional field of “Max Quantity” under the Hardware Product Feature. How can you achieve this so that every Product Feature may have a different set of fields displayed to the sales reps?
Answer: By using Product Feature’s Configuration Field Set Field.
Go to Product Option object -> create a new field set [HardwareConfigutaion] -> add all the necessary fields including “Max Quantity: field in the field set.
Go to Product Feature OBJECT -> Configuration Field Set Field -> add API Name of the field set [HardwareConfigutaion] created in the above step.
Go to HARDWARE Product Feature RECORD -> Configuration Field Set Field -> select a value of newly created field set [HardwareConfigutaion].
Note: You can only add fields from the Product Option object into the field set. If you want information from the Product record, create a formula field on the Product Option object that pulls the value from a Product field.
Trailhead Article Link – https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/cpq-product-configuration/change-the-feature-user-experience?trail_id=cpq-admin&trailmix_creator_id=dennishpalmer&trailmix_slug=morecpq
6. At a bundle product’s Quote Line level, how can we capture the details of ALL the selected options to be displayed on the quote document?
Answer: By using Package Product Code and Package Product Description Fields on the bundle product quote line.
For CPQ to populate Package Product Code on bundle product’s quote line level, you need to enter values in below fields-
1. Product Option -> Component Code [e.g. value for 256 GB Hard Disk = “H256”]
2. Product Option -> Component Code Position [numeric value to be used in the next field as a merge field e.g. 1]
3. Bundle Product -> Configured Code Pattern [e.g. LAPTOP-{1}]
Result : Package Product Code on the bundle product’s quote line = LAPTOP-H256
Similarly, for CPQ to populate Package Product Description on bundle product’s quote line level, you need to enter values in below fields-
1. Product Option -> Component Description
2. Product Option -> Component Description Position [numeric value to be used in the next field as a merge field]
3. Bundle Product -> Configured Description Pattern
Trailhead Article Link – https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/cpq-product-configuration/configured-code-and-description?trail_id=cpq-admin&trailmix_creator_id=dennishpalmer&trailmix_slug=morecpq
7. ABC Corp. sells SmartWatches in 2 sizes (40mm and 44mm) and 3 accents to capture the preferred color of metal used for the watch housing (Light Gray, Dark Gray, and Gold) along with a Watch Band accessory. What is the best way to configure this type of product catalog?
Answer: Create a single Smartwatch Bundle Product Product. Add Product Options for the Watch Band accessory. Create Size and Accent Configuration Attributes to be available for selection on the Product Configuration Page. There is no need to create a separate SmartWatch product for each combination of Size and Accent as it would lead to SKU Proliferation.
Here are the steps to create a new configuration attribute:
1. Create a field with an expected data type on the Product Option object.
2. Add API name of the field created in above step as a value to the “Target Field” picklist field on the Configuration Attribute object.
3. Create a Configuration Attribute record on a bundle product by navigating to the Confihuration Attributes related list.
8. What is the difference between Configuration Attributes and Global Attributes?
9. ABC Corp. sells BASIC and PREMIUM Laptop bundles. BASIC Laptop comes with 4GB or 8GB RAM and PREMIUM Laptop comes with 16GB or 32GB RAM. How would you configure these 2 bundles to avoid incorrect selection of RAM by the Sales Reps?