CPQ

The Best Solution

In my first CPQ-focused blog post “Real World CPQ in Salesforce”, I discussed what CPQ is and what some of your options are.  In this post, I talk about the many reasons companies choose AgileQuote, including its ease of use, rich feature set, quick deployment, and low cost.  Our application can be implemented in hours and saves countless clicks when creating quotes and opportunities.  But don’t just take our word for it, let’s review some actual examples!

Speed

Three Wire Systems, a technology solutions provider for government and military, was looking for a tool that improved their speed and accuracy for processing orders.  The current crop of applications didn’t meet their criteria, so they turned to AgileQuote.  Simone Feldman, former Sr VP of the Technology Business Unit put it very succinctly: “The flexibility offered by AgileQuote has made all the difference for Three Wire Systems, allowing us to customize on the fly and streamlining our ability to go from RFQ to quote in less than 25% of the time it [used to take].  This has improved our reporting capabilities for tracking sales and quotes and made forecasting straight from the system possible.”

Not only is creating Opportunities and Quotes fast, but implementation time is also lightning quick and easy.  The goal of the tool was for customers to be able to self-implement in a few hours or a day, not in weeks or months.  All configuration is accomplished via setup screens, including quote line templates and powerful product search filtering:

Configurability

Another technology solutions provider, Moving On IT Solutions, required a quoting tool that was intuitive and flexible.  Compared to our other customers, they had a unique use case that AgileQuote and Salesforce easily managed: the ability to sell the same hardware SKU in different conditions such as New, Used, or Refurbished:

As Jan Collis, the CEO of Moving On IT states, “AgileQuote allows our team to easily create quotes for our customers based on their needs.  We are relatively new to the Salesforce platform, and AgileQuote has made adoption a breeze.  We’re able to have a quote to our customers within minutes of getting off the phone with them!” 

Functionality

AgileQuote provides functionality that you usually find in larger, more expensive applications such as product bundles, pricing discounts, dropship/fulfillment, and custom error handling.  Because AgileQuote uses the standard Salesforce quote objects, we can provide custom processing and implement business rules easily via Flows.

It was important for CloudFirst Labs to provide structured visibility and to allow processing via standard Salesforce declarative methods, using clicks not code.

Try It, You’ll Like It

Customers can always visit our AppExchange listing and start a trial in a Sandbox, which is what we recommend.  We provide configuration documentation, Quick Start guides, and YouTube videos to get you up and running, and the team is always available to answer questions or review your use cases before or during your evaluation!

Exploring Real world CPQ in Salesforce

It’s no secret or uncontested fact when I say that Salesforce CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) is the most comprehensive and complete solution for the Salesforce platform.  Hands down, end of story.

However, that solution is not for every customer and every situation, and in some cases, there are more nimble and affordable solutions available.

What is CPQ? 

CPQ stands for Configure, Price, Quote.  Fairly self-explanatory if we lay the ground rules that any tool which lets you:

• Configure products for a quote (bundles or with add-ons) based on rules or constraints
• Price products or bundles based on rules or discounts (user or customer based)
• Send a quote (or proposal) to the customer

Fits into our definition of CPQ.  While almost every version of Salesforce incorporates the Opportunity object, there are scenarios where a customer wants to drop a level below an Opportunity and provide a Quote to their customers.  Why?  There are several reasons: 

• A salesperson wants to present different quotes to address;
  • various brands or manufacturers (competitive or alternate products)
  • levels of services or support (different SLA or coverages)
• The company may offer discounts on their products based on payment terms

Some might ask, why not make another Opportunity?  The answer is that we don’t want to artificially inflate the company forecasting pipeline, because while a deal (Opportunity) may have several differently priced options (Quotes), only the Quote the customer is favoring should be included in your pipeline.

CPQ Basics 

The fundamentals of CPQ are easy to understand.  You use objects (Quote and Quote Line) in order to select products to sell to your customer.  These objects should link back to an Opportunity using standard Salesforce syncing.

In CPQ land, these selected products may require the configuring of attributes or features based on defined rules and what product options may require or exclude others(for example if you have complex rules (constraints) surrounding bundles of products, which itself can be infinitely complex and daunting).

After you have the correct products selected, you price thems.  Do you get volume discounts, new customer incentives, or return customer bonuses?  Again, pricing rules can be dependent on the conditions of the product (new, certified refurbished, etc.), purchase volume, customer status, supply chain considerations, and even seasonality in some cases.  As a company you may want to place limits on what the pricing options are and follow strict guidelines, providing the rules instead of letting salespeople price on their own.

Lastly, when the products and pricing are approved you can send the customer an electronic Quote document based on those products and pricing.  This document can be as simple as listing product info, prices, tax, shipping, surcharges, and a total.  Or it can include payment terms, conditions, company info, sales/specials, and can be more of a long proposal format.  But the option is there by using a document generation tool like Conga, or you can always build documents on your own using Lightning components or Visualforce.

Overkill and Options

What if we have simple requirements, a limited budget, and are in a time crunch?

In Salesforce, advanced versions do provide quoting objects and screens, so you can quote within the standard interface you have come to know and love.  You have the ability, albeit limited, to do CPQ at a basic level if that’s all you need. 

Alternatively, if you have requirements that surpass the capabilities of basic quoting, but don’t require the complexities of Salesforce CPQ, you should look at more purpose-built, nimble, and less expensive options. 

Our customers choose AgileQuote because it exceeds their current CPQ requirements in an easy-to-use and affordable way. The many features we include are dedicated to reducing the number of clicks to quote and saves users quite a bit of time (and money). 

Whether you need powerful in-line quote creation, editing/re-ordering on a single screen, or configurable layouts and discounts, AgileQuote was built for speed, both on the configuration and use of the tool.

Choose What Works

At CloudFirst Labs, we always recommend the best solution for prospects evaluating CPQ.  We have recommended all three options we discussed: standard Salesforce, AgileQuote, and Salesforce CPQ to customers, based on their needs.
 
Need help in addressing your CPQ requirements? We’d be happy to provide insights and guide you to the best solution. Click here to reach out and talk to an expert.