Salesforce CPQ

The flexibility we have is great. While we want this flexibility we also want it contained within defined parameters and [Salesforce CPQ (formerly SteelBrick)] allows us to do this.

With the complex business scenario of working with configuration, this is very helpful and integrates well based on the requirement. I cannot think of a scenario where CPQ is less appropriate, having said that it is easy to use and navigate makes it a better choice.

Creating multiple quotes that can be presented to the customer.
Populates key metrics on the opportunity.
Gives a lot of structure and process to the selling process.
Parallel Approval Process
Sending out documents for signing is very easy by using the DocuSign connector.

Salesforce CPQ just works! It's the center of our entire quote to cash process.

Salesforce has definitely listened and helped us solve problems. They continually add additional features based on feedback from customers. The Salesforce CPQ leadership group are fanatical about listening and taking action to solve common use cases.

Could be interesting for big companies but not that unusual for small and medium enterprises.

The support team is good globally, but they need to be more reactive.

It is actually well suited in most sales scenarios, perfect for the one I am operating under, which is a budding and upcoming eCommerce platform like industry buying where new SKU's across various categories and subcategories and various pricing and discounts keep on being added to the system and quoting and finding details becomes a difficult task, there in Salesforce CPQ becomes a game-changer.

There have been some issues with multi-year pricing of certain products and services which we have been assured will be resolved but I guess are still underway, the support team apart from this has not been needed much and in the rare scenarios, it has been needed the resolutions of conflicts has been prompt and quick, so the overall support would have my high regards for being so helpful and customer-oriented so as to assure good performance of their toolset and customer satisfaction.

At TriNet, we utilize Salesforce CPQ for the quoting process of insurance products and Human Resources Outsourcing. The tool enables a sales professional the opportunity to build quotes from scratch. Then, he or she is able to pass the quote on to the next appropriate department for approval, which creates a seamless process.

The support from the team at Salesforce CPQ has been solid and consistent. Any time someone from my team is in need of assistance, the Salesforce CPQ team is always available and extremely knowledgeable. I feel like we are fully supported if there are glitches with the program or if I am stuck in a situation where I do not know how to accomplish a task.

CPQ is fantastic for straightforward, simple small product catalog selling. It is not the best when you try to use MLP (Multi-Language Processing) as it causes performance issues and other errors.

They are very responsive and try to help but don't always have the answers or give the best advice when it comes to a complicated problem or set-up.

I can understand what idea behind Salesforce CPQ is - to make it easy to quickly generate custom quotes by selecting different products - but unfortunately it just doesn't work the way it should. Creating quotes is an incredibly long arduous process where my SFDC admin usually has to get involved because things aren't working as expected. I'm not sure if this is because our system is not set up properly, it's a buggy system, or more likely a mix of the two. There are a few quirks/bugs you need to be aware of and hoops you need to jump through in order for things to work properly. If you are looking for a quick tool to spin up quotes that's simple and easy to use, this is not the tool for you. If you need to standardize onto a very rigid quoting platform, this certainly works for that.

If you leverage SFDC as your CRM, I recommend utilizing Salesforce CPQ given it's tight integration and ease of use.

When you get to the stage where you need a product like this, it's definitely a booster. but be warned that it is a major process change in most cases and one you need to budget time to let your salesforce adjust.

If you've got deep roots in SFDC already, I would recommend it. It's a nice application to layer on the existing platform and see further application integration benefits. It is a highly customizable CPQ platform, which can be easily adapted/configured to suit different business use cases.

It is a missing cog in the Salesforce ecosystem. The out of the box product management and discounting, plus customization capabilities, of Salesforce are pretty much bare bones. I would say that this is a required piece of evaluation when you are looking at the Salesforce ecosystem.

It is best implemented to its out of the box capabilities and doesn't really like being wrangled to suit situations where Salesforce has been modified away from its natural state.

For companies selling serves or in the technology industry, SteelBrick seems like a good fit. For a machinery company like us it is a bit of a stretch, but with some coding in the output document, the end result is OK.

SteelBrick support is not up to the level of core Salesforce products. It is a relatively new acquisition, so overtime this might change, but in my experience, contacting SteelBrick support is much less productive and takes longer to resolve than contacting Salesforce Support for an issue.

Very well suited for creating quick quotes and contracts

It's great for creating quotes and contracts through Salesforce. It's easy, quick and painless. It tracks to your pipeline to help you easily manage all the quotes you have on your various sales opportunities. It also supports a quote approval process.

SFDC CPQ is good for creating and generating quotes when you have a set, organized price-book and line items. If you have a lot of different price books or pricing that has changed over time, and different terms/amounts that need to be grouped together, it can be difficult to use, since you can't customize the prices, and it can be a bit clunky to arrange when you have a variety of products in a single quote.

I haven't had to get support from the SFDC CPQ team, but I would hope that they are responsive and helpful.

This is well suited for teams that are using Salesforce already as their main CRM and want to send quotes quickly and accurately to contacts and accounts. If you are using a different CRM I would recommend looking into other options that are better integrated.

I haven’t used their support myself but there is a lot of guidance and information online and seems to be a large community to ask questions.

SteelBrick works well because of following:

1. Clean and simple product for new users
2. Few custom components in SFDC
3. Easy quoting process

It doesn't work in following cases:

1. Advanced products and pricing requirements
2. Business Processes for amendment, cancellations, change requests

We were very small when we started and have grown considerably with the product. You may want to check if you are 500+ users with an extremely large price book. They have easily accommodated us but not sure of larger requirements.

Ease of configuration, use and support. How well the product works within Salesforce and Salesforce1.

Recently, I needed SteelBrick Support to assist in a change to certain layouts. In addition to resolving my issue, they provided guidance to improve our original needs. They consistently exceed expectations of a support group.

I think it's perfect for software / high tech companies, especially fast growing mid sized ones.

Very well suited if you need to standardize quotes, discounts etc. The level of customization and rules are really robust. The approval process is also very useful and allows for that automation in Salesforce directly as well. It is not as well suited if you need great customization of quote templates. The standardization is its strength if you need that, but if you don't or you need flexibility, CPQ is probably not the right tool.

For our business, the functions to allow line item pricing, and line item discount are a must have. This is one of the strengths of SteelBrick CPQ. It is also important to know that if your business has a high number of business rules or exception rules on pricing, it may be necessary for some moderate customization in the product.

Great when using AI tool Einstein to get recommendations on best quotes and added products and services to offer. It allows guided selling so new reps don't have to know the whole product catalog and allows easy discounting and approvals. It is tough with custom quote designs but can be solved with a CLM tool like Conga or SpringCM that will also provide other benefits like contract management and storage.