By: Nicole Kane

The deal cycle is one of the most important parts of Sales.   Sales Reps, Sales Managers, Executive Teams, etc. are always looking for ways to improve the sales process. The more efficient the deal cycle is, teams are able to close more deals sooner and begin helping customers in the way they need.

Leveraging the Salesforce Platform for pricing and quotes can help teams achieve an efficient deal cycle.  However, many organizations are unsure if the Salesforce standard quoting functionality is the best approach or if they need to move to a more robust tool like CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote).  Here is a breakdown of the key differences between the two:

Functionality

Standard Quotes

Salesforce CPQ

Quoting
  • Sync quotes with opportunities so that it maintains up to date price and quantity on both records
  • Sync quotes with opportunities so that it maintains up to date price and quantity on both records
  • Track quote variations

Approvals
  • Approval processes must flow in order (cannot have multiple approval processes flow at once)
  • Parallel approval processes
  • Multiple approval processes can flow at the same time

Pricing
  • List Pricing only
  • Must set a discrete price per product
  • Multiple price books allowed
  • List Pricing
  • Cost-based pricing (apply mark-ups)
  • Pricing based on bundles, account tier, region, industry, etc.
  • Block pricing (apply pricing based on subscription or scale
  • Contracted pricing
  • Multiple price books allowed

Dependencies/Exclusions

X
  • Configure products/pricing in price books based on company dependencies and exclusions

Guided Selling

X
  • Helps new reps get quickly up to speed
  • Create a set of questions that prompt sales reps to enter simple customer data to ensure correct product selection

Discounts
  • Apply discounts manually only
  • Apply manual discounts per quote or line item
  • Automatic discounts per quote or line item

Bundles

X
  • Can have multiple customized product bundles

Quote Documents
  • Simple, static quote templates
  • Dynamic quote templates

Renewal Management

X
  • Ability to track post sale renewal automatically
  • Amend contracts easily

With CPQ you can reach the goal of having more Closed Won deals. CPQ allows for shorter sales cycles as the quoting process is enhanced with automations and features the standard quoting process could only dream of.