Can I Customize Sales Cloud Instead of Using CPQ?
Have you ever wondered: Why am I paying for CPQ given the power of the Salesforce platform? Can I replicate CPQ functionality with flow or custom code? Would it work?
To answer these questions, I started to create a list of CPQ capabilities in order to get a sense of what it would take to rebuild CPQ with a combination of native Salesforce technologies (flow, custom objects, custom code, etc). Very quickly, I realized this would require a significant allocation of resources, incredibly smart design along with robust testing. A solid team could deliver a quality product and eventually, you might recoup the cost of CPQ but a few questions remain…
Would it continue working?
While a custom CPQ build would work initially - you’ll need to plan for its ongoing maintenance. Salesforce backs its Revenue Cloud product and ensures that each of its three annual releases won’t break CPQ. This same guarantee does not apply to custom built solutions. Before every Salesforce release, a business critical home grown solution will need to be thoroughly tested and potentially adjusted, distracting your team from focusing on creating new functionality for your users.
Could You use add-on solutions, like DocuSign or a NetSuite connector?
Third party solutions build connectors that jive with Salesforce CPQ because they serve many customers. With a home grown quoting solution, custom extensions and integrations are also required. Designing, building, and extensive testing would need to take place upfront and anytime these vendors issued new releases more testing and modifications. For instance, DocuSign has issued two releases so far in 2023.
Will you be able to support your custom solution in the long term?
At first, the core team who built the custom solution will be available to help and hopefully they created some incredible documentation. However, this won’t always be the case as employee turnover is a given. All new team members will lack full knowledge of the custom solution and how it ties to business processes. This means support starts to take longer and often we see the original team hired back in a consulting capacity just to ensure progress is being made. CPQ is expensive, yes. But building a custom solution may be short sighted (and as outlined above the cost to maintain it could grow exponentially).
Conclusion
CPQ is expensive, yes. But building and maintaining a custom solution is also pricey and may result in long term maintenance challenges.
If there is a single feature of CPQ you need, like subscription pricing, it may be worth building a custom solution. If you need multiple pieces of the solution, likely CPQ is worth it.
Holly Cullen is the Chief Operating Officer at Cloud Giants.