CPQ Deployment Process:
top challenges and best practices

CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) software is a powerful tool that helps businesses streamline their sales processes. It allows sales teams to configure complex products or services, generate accurate quotes, and automate the pricing process.

CPQ deployment process involves implementing CPQ in a business's Salesforce CRM. This includes:

CPQ deployment is a complex process that requires careful planning and execution as well as expertise in both technology and business processes.

In this article, we will discuss how CPQ deployment can benefit your business, what the typical CPQ deployment process steps are, what crucial challenges a company may face during the implementation process, and how to overcome different obstacles to make the deployment of CPQ software successful.

CPQ deployment can bring many benefits to your business, including:

CPQ can automate the sales process, reducing errors and increasing efficiency. CPQ software drastically reduces the bulk of the manual repetitive manual tasks involved in the sales process, such as generating quotes, discounts, and pricing approvals, negotiating, and pricing product bundles. This can save your sales team a significant amount of time and increase their productivity. Sculptor CPQ, for instance, has a Free plan with an intuitive drag-and-drop product configurator tool that allows a sales rep to create any complex product set with features and options for a client in a couple of clicks.

CPQ software provides real-time visibility into the sales process, allowing you to track sales performance and identify areas for improvement. A sales rep can view how each of the leads interacted with a quote and how much time an average deal can take to be closed.

CPQ ensures accurate pricing and quotes, reducing the risk of errors and recalculations. With CPQ, sales reps build quotes based on accurate information and the client’s account criteria, including product pricing, discounts, and promotions. This translates into fewer errors, leading to a better customer experience.

CPQ can help businesses sell more by providing accurate and timely quotes, reducing the risk of lost sales. CPQ software helps sales reps identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities, increasing the company’s revenue per customer.

CPQ provides customers with a seamless and personalized experience. With CPQ, sales reps can provide customers with detailed product information and pricing that is tailored to their needs. Some CPQ solutions, like Sculptor CPQ, provide interactive quote capabilities that allow customers to edit the product range and its quantity on the fly and send back an updated and approved quote proposal to a sales rep in a couple of clicks. All of these lead to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

CPQ deployment involves certain steps. These include:

The first step in CPQ deployment is to identify the business's requirements and goals. This includes identifying the core features that are essential to the business and prioritizing customization accordingly.

Once you have identified your business needs, you can begin evaluating CPQ software solutions to find the one that best meets your requirements. To simplify this process and get some insightful tips, refer to our recent Best Automation Software for Sales Checklist to help you select the right CPQ software for your business needs.

The next step is to configure the CPQ system to meet the business's requirements. This includes setting up data quality rules, defining pricing rules, and configuring workflows and approval processes. This may involve customizing workflows, creating product bundles, and setting up pricing rules.

Before deploying CPQ software, it is important to test it thoroughly to ensure that it is working correctly and meeting your business needs. This includes testing the system in the sandbox for accuracy, performance, and scalability.

Once testing is complete, the system can be deployed to production. This includes migrating data from the old system to the new system and ensuring a smooth transition for users.

Sometimes CPQ needs to be integrated with other systems. This includes identifying the data flow and mapping between systems to ensure consistency and accuracy that data is accurate and up-to-date. Sculptor CPQ, for instance, can be integrated seamlessly into Sales Cloud and then a third-party app for e-sign procedures can be installed upfront.

Once CPQ software has been deployed, your sales team will need to be trained on how to use it effectively. Some companies provide a certain number of learning hours free of charge to help your sales reps get used to CPQ software and start using it effectively.
Usually, CPQ vendors have online technical documentation like Notion or Youtube how-to tutorials.

Any CPQ software requires ongoing maintenance and support to ensure it continues to function properly. This includes monitoring system performance, fixing bugs and issues, and upgrading the system.

Let's highlight the key challenges of CPQ deployment and gain insights on how to overcome them.

One of the most significant challenges of CPQ deployment is defining the scope of the project. The CPQ solution must meet the needs of the business, but it should not exceed the budget or timeline. To overcome this challenge, the project team should work closely with the business stakeholders to define the requirements and prioritize them based on business objectives.

- Create a detailed project plan with a clear timeline, milestones, and budget.

- Define requirements using a use case approach to ensure that the CPQ solution meets the needs of the business.

- Create a comprehensive scope document that outlines the project's objectives, deliverables, and timelines.

CPQ deployment requires the migration of data from legacy systems, which can be a significant challenge. Data migration can be time-consuming and expensive, and it is essential to ensure that the data is accurate and complete. To overcome this challenge, the project team should work with the business stakeholders to prioritize data migration and create a data migration plan.

- Identify critical data and develop a migration plan that prioritizes this data.

- Perform data cleansing to ensure that the data is accurate and of high quality.

- Develop a data validation process to ensure that the data is complete and accurate post-migration.

- Monitor the transfer process to ensure that the data is being transferred accurately and to track the success of each step of the transfer.

This integration can be challenging because sometimes legacy systems may utilize different data structures and formats. For instance, in the past, some apps for Salesforce CRM designed for Salesforce Lighting demonstrated bugs while trying to integrate them with Salesforce Classic.

- Develop a detailed integration plan that outlines the integration points, APIs, and data mapping required for the CPQ solution.

- Test the integration thoroughly to ensure that it is working correctly.

Another challenge in CPQ implementation is getting sales reps to adopt the new system. Sales reps are often resistant to change, and may be hesitant to use a new system that they are not familiar with.

- Involve users in the testing and validation of the new system.

- Provide comprehensive training and documentation to help users understand the new system.

- Offer support after the CPQ solution is deployed to ensure that users have the resources they need to use the system effectively.

Sales flows and automation are critical components of CPQ implementation. However, designing and implementing effective sales flows and automation can be challenging.

- Work with a Salesforce CPQ consultant who has experience in designing and implementing effective sales flows and automation in terms of complex pricing rules and product bundles. This can help to ensure that the system is optimized for the company's specific sales processes and requirements.

Revenue is a critical component of CPQ implementation. It's necessary to double check that the CPQ considered for deployment has embedded software capabilities for revenue tracking or automated revenue dashboard creation. However, accurately tracking revenue can be challenging, especially if the company offers a wide range of products and services.

- Work with a Salesforce CPQ consultant who has experience accurately tracking revenue and can teach your sales reps how to do it in the most effective way. This can help to ensure that the system is optimized for the company's specific revenue requirements.

CPQ solutions require customization to meet the specific needs of a business. Customizations can be challenging because they can impact the functionality and scalability of the CPQ solution.

- Define customizations using a use case approach to ensure that they meet the needs of the business.

- Prioritize customizations based on their impact on the overall CPQ solution.

- Test customizations thoroughly to ensure that they do not impact the overall functionality of the CPQ solution.

CPQ needs to be scalable to accommodate growth and changing business requirements. This includes the ability to handle increasing volumes of data and users.

- Choose the right hardware and software components to design a scalable data model.

- Consider the impact of scalability on system performance and the user experience.

Finally, CPQ requires ongoing maintenance and support to ensure it continues to function properly. This includes monitoring system performance, fixing bugs and issues, and upgrading the system.

- Make sure that the CPQ vendor can arrange a dedicated support team to provide timely and effective support to users, identify and fix issues proactively, and continuously improve the system based on user feedback.

- Make sure that CPQ vendor releases software updates regularly.

To ensure successful CPQ deployment, organizations should consider the following best practices:

1. Involve stakeholders in the design and testing phases to ensure that the system meets their needs and is user-friendly.

2. Provide comprehensive training to sales reps to ensure their adoption and proper use of the system.

3. Monitor and maintain data quality to ensure the accuracy of the system.

4. Develop a pricing strategy that maximizes revenue while remaining competitive in the market.

5. Continuously evaluate and optimize the system to ensure that it meets the evolving needs of the organization.