Get Started with Subscription Pricing

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Describe how subscription products add value and complexity to the sales process.
• Sign up for a special CPQ-enabled Developer Edition org.

How Services Changed Selling

When people heard the word "subscription,” they used to think of magazines and newspapers. Now you can get a subscription for almost anything. Ingredients for dinner? There's a subscription for that. New clothing every month to suit your style? Yep, that too. Those are just a few examples of how products that were traditionally sold through one-time transactions are now services. This shift gives businesses huge potential to increase recurring revenue, while keeping their customers engaged.

But these benefits come with a cost. Selling subscriptions requires more effort than individual sales. You have to gather more information, like the date the subscription should start and how long it should last. Also, more math is involved since there's a time element to consider. Even discounting can be affected by the length of the subscription. Thankfully Salesforce CPQ is designed to simplify subscription sales.

In this module you learn how to set up subscription products and see how sales reps interact with them. You also learn how you can affect pricing and discounting for these products.

Sign Up for a Developer Edition Org with Salesforce CPQ

To complete this module, you need a special Developer Edition org that contains Salesforce CPQ and our sample data. Get the free Developer Edition and connect it to Trailhead now so you can complete the challenges in this module. Note that this Developer Edition is designed to work with the challenges in this badge, and may not work for other badges. Always check that you’re using the Trailhead Playground or special Developer Edition org that we recommend.

1. Sign up for a free Developer Edition org with Salesforce CPQ.
2. Fill out the form.
   1. For Email, enter an active email address.
   2. For Username, enter a username that looks like an email address and is unique, but it doesn't need to be a valid email account (for example, yourname@cpq4ever.com).
3. After you fill out the form, click Sign me up. A confirmation message appears.
4. When you receive the activation email (this might take a few minutes), open it and click Verify Account.
5. Complete your registration by setting your password and challenge question. Tip: Write down your username, password, and login URL for easy access later.
6. You are logged in to your Developer Edition.

Now connect your new Developer Edition org to Trailhead.

1. Make sure you’re logged in to your Trailhead account.
2. In the Challenge section at the bottom of this page, click the playground name and then click Connect Org.
3. On the login screen, enter the username and password for the Developer Edition you just set up.
4. On the Allow Access? screen, click Allow.
5. On the Want to connect this org for hands-on challenges? screen, click Yes! Save it. You are redirected back to the challenge page and ready to use your new Developer Edition to earn this badge.

Now that you have a Salesforce CPQ-enabled org, you’re ready to learn how to use Salesforce CPQ to sell subscription products.