Get Started with Salesforce CPQ Amendments
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe challenges that sales reps encounter when selling subscription products.
- Identify how Salesforce CPQ can help you generate quotes for changes to an existing subscription.
- Set up a special org to complete activities and hands-on challenges.
Making Change
If there’s one thing you can count on in business, it’s that things are going to change. Markets move, technology advances, and your business needs change. Your customers feel it too. One day they’re selling widgets like normal, the next they’re featured in Widgets Monthly magazine and their business explodes. Good for them, but also good for you, since you’re their sole provider of important business technology and services. A big new sales opportunity with them is looking pretty likely.
Now put yourself in the shoes of the sales rep who’s handling this sale. If you’re like many other businesses, you probably sell subscription-based services instead of products that are sold as a one-time deal. No longer do you sell typewriters; now you sell a yearly license to word processing software. Subscriptions are great for recurring revenue, but tend to complicate things if a customer comes back needing changes to what they originally bought. Suddenly you need answers to a bunch of new questions.
- What is the customer already subscribed to?
- When do the subscriptions end?
- What’s the price of a subscription that covers the gap between now and when the existing contract ends?
- Can the customer upgrade to a different level of service, and how much does it cost?
- Where do we track changes to subscriptions so we can base future sales on complete information?
This is a lot for most sales teams to handle, but Salesforce CPQ can make it so much easier.
Salesforce CPQ is built to track the subscriptions of all your accounts automatically. So when a customer calls to make a change to their service, CPQ knows what they already have, so you can use that information to quickly create an amendment quote. Salesforce CPQ makes it easy to amend contracts to handle the most common scenarios.
- Increase or decrease quantity
- Add new subscription products
- Cancel before the subscription end date (early termination)
- Cancel and replace
However you want to amend a contract, Salesforce CPQ manages all of the recordkeeping, so that your sales reps can focus on closing deals instead of entering data.
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 how to use Salesforce CPQ to amend contracts with subscription-based products.