Are you interested in getting your hands dirty with Salesforce CPQ but you’re not sure where to start? As B2B eCommerce sales continue to grow, so does the demand of Salesforce CPQ Consultants and Developers. We had the pleasure of connecting with CPQ Architect, Hiren Shah, to give us a breakdown of the trends and benefits of being hands-on within Salesforce CPQ. Hiren is a Salesforce CPQ rockstar who owns his own CPQ Consulting and Solutions company, B2B-Matrix.

What is Salesforce CPQ and what does it do?

Until a few years back Salesforce only went as far as Leads → Account →Opportunity.

[Salesforce] then acquired a company named Steelbrick that now helps them go one step further in the Lead to Cash cycle by providing the ability to Quote, so we now have Leads → Account → Opportunity → Quote.

Of course within Quoting, there is a comprehensive capability to be able to configure the product (The C in CPQ) and to be able to Price it (the P in CPQ) to address various scenarios.

Who uses Salesforce CPQ?

If an organization currently uses Salesforce CRM, they are using some form of Leads → Account → Opportunity, and if they are doing upwards of 50 quotes a month, and have at least 5 persons quoting, then it would be a good candidate to consider Salesforce CPQ.

What are some benefits of using Salesforce CPQ?

The logical next step would be increasing efficiencies assuming you have the Opportunity Management in place. Once you have the quoting process in place, it sets you up for subsequent steps of Orders and Billing, so the Lead to Cash journey can be orchestrated:

Leads → Account → Opportunity → Quote → Order → Invoices

What trends have you been seeing in CPQ?

There are numerous CPQ solutions, even on the Salesforce platform itself. The market share of Salesforce CPQ has grown rapidly primarily due to a very low cost of entry. For example: a 5 user license may be about $300 per month.

In response to this growth, consulting companies have started offering quick start CPQ where in for about $10,000 in services, they can set it up so that the organization can start quoting out of Salesforce

How or why did you first start working with CPQ?

During my tenure at SAP in the 1990s, we did Quoting, Pricing, & Configuration and fulfillment. We just did not call it CPQ at that time.

What is your favorite feature?

The ability to set up the user friendly product structures, filters and guided selling to help the sales user generate accurate quotes quickly.

When screening CPQ candidates, what are some of the “Must Knows” for someone who claims to be an expert in the space?

I am not much of a fan of quizzing candidates on whether they know a particular menu path or how to do something in CPQ. I am more interested in knowing the approach that one would take in terms of understanding the requirement and being able to propose solutions.

For example, instead of saying how you want to do your quoting, it is more productive to say, I have understood your current process and I propose this solution and this is the reason why.

Looking to grow your CPQ skills? Salesforce CPQ Admin Fundamentals and Salesforce CPQ Basics on trailhead is a great starting point.