Use Salesforce CPQ for Discounting
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe how discounting with Salesforce CPQ improves the sales process.
- Sign up for a special CPQ-enabled Developer Edition org.
Discounting in the Sales Process
When a sales rep puts together a quote, it’s almost certain they will want to apply discounts to at least a few products. After all, they’re trying to negotiate a deal. Salesforce CPQ supports this kind of basic discounting, but it also does much more. For example, your business can reward customers who buy large quantities of items by giving them a volume-based discount to encourage bigger sales. Salesforce CPQ can apply volume-based discounts automatically so that sales reps don’t have to search through tables of out-of-date discounting data. CPQ also keeps track of different types of discounts, such as partner or distributor discounts, so that pricing details are never lost. Salesforce CPQ aims to make discounting easy by simplifying or automating the process.
The Price Waterfall
There are a lot of ways that Salesforce CPQ can automatically adjust prices, some of which we tackled in the Pricing Methods for Salesforce CPQ module. There you can learn how CPQ calculates pricing before discounts. In this module, we’ll focus on how discounts are applied both manually and automatically.
To keep track of adjustments to pricing and discounts, Salesforce CPQ uses multiple pricing fields on the quote line, each field representing specific changes. Some fields, such as List Price, represent adjustments covered in Pricing Methods for Salesforce CPQ, but most fields are affected by some kind of discount.
| Pricing Field | What It Represents |
|---|---|
| Original Price |
Price book price |
| List Price |
Price book price, percent of total price, block price, or option price override |
| Special Price |
Cost plus markup price, contracted price, or option discount |
| Regular Price |
Result of volume-based discounts |
| Customer Price |
Result of manually editable discounts |
| Partner Price |
Result of partner discount, set manually or through automation |
| Net Price |
Result of distributor discount, set manually or through automation |
This list of prices is often referred to as the price waterfall because each price cascades down to affect the next price. For example, CPQ takes the special price and deducts the volume-based discounts to calculate the regular price. Then, it takes regular price and deducts manual discounts to calculate customer price, and so on.
It’s good to be familiar with the price waterfall so that you can understand how CPQ eventually calculates the net price. This is what we actually ask the customer to pay for a given product, and it is synchronized to the opportunity product price.
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.
- Sign up for a free Developer Edition org with Salesforce CPQ.
- Fill out the form.
- For Email, enter an active email address.
- 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).
- After you fill out the form, click Sign me up. A confirmation message appears.
- When you receive the activation email (this might take a few minutes), open it and click Verify Account.
- Complete your registration by setting your password and challenge question. Tip: Write down your username, password, and login URL for easy access later.
- You are logged in to your Developer Edition.
Now connect your new Developer Edition org to Trailhead.
- Make sure you’re logged in to your Trailhead account.
- In the Challenge section at the bottom of this page, click the playground name and then click Connect Org.
- On the login screen, enter the username and password for the Developer Edition you just set up.
- On the Allow Access? screen, click Allow.
- 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 the many ways that you can use CPQ to discount products manually and automatically.