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The Salesforce CPQ Implementation Handbook
The Salesforce CPQ Implementation Handbook

The Salesforce CPQ Implementation Handbook: Configure Salesforce CPQ products to close more deals and generate higher revenue for your business

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The Salesforce CPQ Implementation Handbook

Chapter 1: Getting Started with Salesforce CPQ Implementation

In this chapter, we will learn what Salesforce CPQ is, as well as begin to identify situations and business needs that can be aided by Salesforce CPQ. Typically, sales personnel spend a lot of time creating quotes, calculating prices, seeking approvals, and working through multiple legacy systems. These legacy tools may not be up to date and so are inaccurate, leading to delays in closing deals as well as impacting customer satisfaction. Salesforce CPQ helps to automate and streamline sales processes and create quotes quickly and efficiently, resulting in increased business revenue, the ability to forecast efficiently, and increased customer satisfaction.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • The relationship between the sales process and cloud computing
  • Understanding the quote-to-cash process
  • Introducing Salesforce CPQ
  • Salesforce CPQ advantages
  • Salesforce CPQ versus Industries CPQ
  • Installing Salesforce CPQ

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to install Salesforce CPQ either in a Salesforce test environment or in a production environment. You will also understand when your business needs Salesforce CPQ. With the examples provided in the upcoming chapters in this book, you will learn how to configure, test, and automate Salesforce CPQ.

The relationship between the sales process and cloud computing

In the past, the sales process was done manually. Sales representatives used printed catalogs and assembled quotes by hand. These quotes would then be physically delivered to customers. Changes to a quote or fixing errors in either the product or pricing meant the quote process had to be started again.

Before cloud computing, closing deals included business cards and manual processing. Over the decades, though, the sales process changed along with the advent of technology, and businesses started using automation as a result.

A business that hosts everything in-house is called an on-premises model. The on-premises model of using software also has its own challenges in the form of a lack of flexibility and agility for the sales rep. When data is disconnected, sales reps struggle to keep up with demand. Without the sales process being automated, businesses would face longer sales cycles, resulting in revenue loss.

The limitations that businesses face with an on-premises model were tackled by the introduction of cloud computing. Cloud computing has taken the world of software by storm and the sales process has not been left out, consequently getting a boost in the form of automation with speed, enhanced security, ease of use, centralized reporting, and an efficient sales process.

Salesforce is one of the leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) vendors, having realized the limitations of the traditional on-premises model, leading the transformation of the sales process through their cloud computing software.

With the evolution of cloud computing, the Salesforce sales process has also benefitted. We'll explore the quote-to-cash process in detail in the next section.

Understanding the quote-to-cash process

The sales process is key for any business to be successful. Although this seems pretty simple, right from leads entering the system, generating opportunities, quotes, shipping the products or services, and invoicing the customer, this process can become complex as your business grows. The quote-to-cash process refers to the sales process right from opportunity creation to the invoice being paid by the customer.

In any business, once the marketing team completes the lead generation process, the potential leads will be handed over to the sales team. This marks the entry point of the quote-to-cash process for the sales team. The first step in the quote-to-cash process is creating an opportunity to deliver a quote to a customer. Here is a look at the high-level quote to cash process (this is a generic sales process and this can be tweaked as per the customers' business needs):

Figure 1.1 – Quote-to-cash process

Figure 1.1 – Quote-to-cash process

The following are the major steps from Figure 1.1 for the quote-to-cash process:

  1. Opportunities are pending sales. You can create an opportunity in your system when the customer is interested in your business's products and services. In Salesforce, an opportunity can be created for an existing account or by converting a qualifying lead.
  2. Using CPQ software, you can start configuring the products and services, create product bundles, and automate product selection.
  3. The price is calculated automatically, and relevant discounts can be applied.
  4. You can then present the quote to the customer. Multiple quotes can be generated to adjust products and prices as per the needs of the customer and the terms and conditions.
  5. Once a quote is finalized and necessary approvals are completed, an order can be generated.
  6. Based on your business model and the type of product you are selling, subscriptions and contracts can be created. For example, if there is a one-time purchase such as hardware for the products and services you are selling, there won't be a need for a subscription. If you have a warranty associated with a product, then you need to create a subscription associated with the product.
  7. Once the customer agrees to place an order, it can be generated, and goods and services are shipped to the customer.

Shipping and invoicing is not a pure CPQ process. Salesforce Billing can be used as an add-on to CPQ and helps customers to have an end-to-end solution on a single platform.

  1. Finally, an invoice will be created, and the customer is ready to make a payment. Once the customer pays, billing and payments can be processed for the order.

In the upcoming chapters, you will learn in detail how to configure and implement Salesforce CPQ to automate this process. You will also see how renewals can be combined with cross-selling and upselling to increase revenue and continue selling to new and existing customers.

From the preceding brief description, you will realize the important role that the quote-to-cash process plays, from quote creation to payments for your products and services.

When the quote-to-cash process is part of an integrated system, it will result in the following:

  • Revenue growth for the business
  • Speed and accuracy in the sales cycle using automation
  • Increased customer satisfaction
  • Improved overall productivity and accuracy
  • Profitability for the business

    Important Note

    All technical references in this book will be with respect to Salesforce only. You will be advised otherwise if a non-Salesforce-related topic is being discussed.

Now that you understand the elements of Salesforce CPQ and the quote-to-cash process, we will dive deeper into each of the components of CPQ.

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Key benefits

  • Maximize sales by reducing turnaround time and providing a quick analysis of profits and losses
  • Get up to speed with Salesforce CPQ concepts, best practices, and tips when choosing the right CPQ implementation strategy
  • Implement CPQ configurations and automations for B2B and B2C business scenarios

Description

Salesforce CPQ is innovative software that enables you create better quotes, improve quoting accuracy, and maximize sales and deals. It also provides a quick analysis of profits and losses, helping you improve the overall execution of sales processes, and allows a great deal of flexibility for your prospects, customers, and business partners. The book starts with the Quote-2-Cash business process in Salesforce and shows you how to assess when a business needs to implement CPQ. You’ll then progress to configuring opportunities, quotes, and CPQ products. As you advance, you’ll understand how to define and configure price books, price rules for CPQ quote automation, multidimensional quoting, and more. Next, you'll look at how to configure CPQ guided selling and create package configurations, contracts, and amendments. Later chapters will demonstrate how to perform data migration from a legacy system and the order in which the objects are to be migrated. You’ll also explore CPQ billing and its advantages with the help of different use cases before learning about Industries CPQ and how it is different from standard Salesforce CPQ. Finally, you’ll discover best practices for achieving optimal CPQ performance and avoiding performance bottlenecks. By the end of this Salesforce book, you’ll be able to implement Salesforce CPQ for any business.

Who is this book for?

This book is for Salesforce administrators, business analysts, functional consultants, sales managers, Salesforce architects, and those looking to gain Salesforce CPQ certification. Working knowledge of the Salesforce ecosystem is recommended to get the most out of this book.

What you will learn

  • Understand Quote-2-Cash business processes and configure opportunities and quotes
  • Create custom CPQ actions and use custom filters for automating business needs
  • Discover how to configure products and product rules
  • Understand the CPQ pricing structure and methods, rules, multidimensional quoting, and quote automation
  • Explore the CPQ data model and use the Salesforce Schema Builder to view and configure object relationships
  • Configure contracts, amendments, and renewals in Salesforce
  • Focus on CPQ billing and its advantages
  • Gain comprehensive insights into Industries CPQ

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Publication date : Apr 14, 2022
Length: 316 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781801075749
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Publication date : Apr 14, 2022
Length: 316 pages
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ISBN-13 : 9781801075749
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Table of Contents

16 Chapters
Section 1: Getting Started with Salesforce CPQ Implementation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Salesforce CPQ Implementation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 2: Configuring Opportunities and Quotes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 3: Configuring CPQ Products Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 4: Configuring CPQ Pricing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 5: Generating and Configuring Quote Templates Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Section 2: The Next Stage of the CPQ Journey Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 6: Configuring Guided Selling Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 7: Creating Contracts, Amendments, and Renewals Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 8: Configuring CPQ Package Settings Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Section 3: Advancing with Salesforce CPQ Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 9: The CPQ Data Model and Migration Concepts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 10: Salesforce Billing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 11: Understanding Industries CPQ Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 12: CPQ Implementation Best Practices Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.7
(19 Ratings)
5 star 78.9%
4 star 15.8%
3 star 5.3%
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Matt M May 13, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is a well written implementation guide and a must have for both newbies and CPQ veterans. The author starts off explaining how to get started in a new CPQ implementation and moves through the details of setting up Opportunities and Quotes, and Products. Next is where CPQ really starts to show it's power - and it's complexity! The author does a fantastic job explaining pricing and discounting, explaining the price waterfall, and configuring a robust quoting engine while avoiding common mistakes. From there, the reader is guided to setup contract amendments and renewals and gets a in-depth look at the robust CPQ data model and the various settings of the CPQ package. I personally refer to this book frequently and have recommended it to my customers as their go-to guide for maintaining and changing their CPQ configuration. CPQ is a powerful tool and that inherently comes with a lot of complexity; the CPQ Implementation Handbook by Madhu Ramanujan will significantly reduce your implementation time, save you many hours of headaches, and be a trusted resource you refer to time and time again.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Ramana Metlapalli Apr 16, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is a very good reference for the Salesforce CRM practitioner. The book begins with a high-level orientation to Salesforce CPQ and follows it up with in-depth chapters on each of the main aspects – configuration of products, pricing, quotes, guided selling, contracts and amendments, billing.I found the screenshots and figures weaved into each major discussion very useful. It shows diligence and care on the part of the author to ensure the reader isn't lost anytime.The chapter on Industries CPQ should be useful and new material to even the seasoned Salesforce CPQ practitioner. (Salesforce renamed Vlocity as Salesforce Industries).Industries CPQ, formerly Vlocity CPQ, is a module within a specific industry cloud), extends the native Salesforce capability to the industry-specific Quote-To-Cash (Q2C) process.So also the chapter on Data Model and Migration concepts. The section on the CPQ implementation strategy in this chapter is a candidate for expanding into a chapter in itself. A case study, even if fictional of an organization making a purchase decision, going through the considerations of whether CPQ is needed in the first place, implementing it and ensuring adoption would be a terrific addition for future editions.Another section that I suggest expanding the good discussion out into a full-fledged chapter in upcoming editions is “The best practices for improving CPQ performance”.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Jane May 12, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I typically use the Sales Cloud and Nonprofit Cloud in my day-to-day work and am less familiar with CPQ, but I found this book to be a very helpful resource to get started. It provides a great overview of key CPQ features and in-detail configuration instructions for each of the elements - products, prices, and quotes. I also appreciated a chapter on best practices for successful implementation and improving performance. There is some discussion around quote to cash process, I think it would be interesting to briefly touch on the cart to quote scenario as well and how CPQ works with the Commerce Cloud. Overall, this book is a solid resource and I would recommend it to other Salesforce practitioners.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Stuart Edeal May 01, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Salesforce Sales Cloud’s primary goal is to be a sales enablement tool, creating and tracking Opportunities that may have products and services associated with them in order to report and calculate customer’s lifetime value and your company’s revenue.CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) is an additional package to Salesforce that allows for further clarification to your Opportunities to build additional revenue. Through the process of configuration of products in bundles, product selection features, and filtering the right products can be put together. Pricing can be set based on product packaging, calculations can be automated and discounts can be applied. Quotes are created to present options to customers with ability to sign and agree.All of these capabilities are amazing and require an amazing developer on the back-end to build all of these features based on the organizations desires. This is where Madhu Ramanujan and the wisdom in the book Salesforce CPQ Implementation Handbook come so handy. Madhu walks us through the entire process of Salesforce CPQ and step by step functionality and the meaning behind the behavior of the product.I appreciated all the details around explaining terminology such as Twin Fields and walking through the data model. There are good reference pictures scattered in the book that help understand the methods in the chapters so it is easy to follow.I am very glad I have this book and will be reading it further as I study CPQ further. I am planning on continuing my study in CPQ and will use this information as a guide.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Harsha Vardhan R Munagala Jul 25, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The “Salesforce CPQ Implementation Handbook” is a great read for everyone who is part of the Salesforce industry, be it a developer, Admin, Platform Builders, product manager, or technical program manager. This is a very well written book that can help new and experienced to build better solutions and succeed in CPQ Implementation.The beauty of this book is that it covers a wide variety of topics all in one place as it starts on a high-level implementation schema and object model followed by in depth concepts around Products, Bundles, Quotes, Orders, Advanced Approvals, Rules, Billing, Invoicing and guided selling. I would highly recommend reading this book if you were starting out or advancing CPQ Implementation for any organization.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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