Implementing CPQ the Right Way for a Team of Tech Savvy Developers
Before turning to Cloud Giants, tech firm Devada faced not one, but TWO unsuccessful CPQ launches.
When Matt Webb stepped into the role of chief financial officer in November of 2018, he immediately recognized that a successful relaunch was a top priority for the organization’s growth and faith in the CRM.
As the leading resource for engaging developers around the world, the Devada team naturally had certain expectations for how the technology should work. When the two previous launches fell short of these expectations, Salesforce started to lose its value as a solution and instead became an expensive burden.
Unsurprisingly, CPQ became a four-letter word.
The Challenges
While Devada had implemented Salesforce, their CRM system was not set up for the team to track the multiple deliverables in each of their agreements. It was an issue that impacted the business as a whole, not just one specific team of users.
Sales was bound by these limitations and unable to maximize opportunities for upselling and cross-selling that would benefit their organization as well as their customers. Delivery did not have the clarity it needed to execute the work they had the knowledge and expertise to deliver. Finance was stuck navigating the opaque process as well.
They knew they were leaving revenue on the table as well as operational efficiencies that could help continue their award-winning growth.
With two unsuccessful launches behind them, the technical challenges were as crucial to address as the user frustration with the system. Working with Alex Kenney-Ackerman as their lead Salesforce consultant, Devada and Alex were able to identify the major challenges they would address.
These included the need to:
Address user frustration and restore faith in the system.
Clearly show what is available to sell.
Give priority to what needs to be sold that’s near term.
Define the quoting process in an efficient way that also maximizes opportunities for selling.
What did their products and price books need to look like?
What would be included in their standard agreement?
How would approvals be automated?
What rules would need to be made around approvals?
How would the system prompt for authorization of approvals that needed a higher level of intervention?
Establish clean processes and clean data around what was sold and customer specifications around those products so the delivery team could deliver them well.
Develop a consistent mechanism for tracking deliverables.
Adapt their CRM and CPQ systems for their internal production system on which their work hinges, a system that is loved and cannot change to accommodate Salesforce.
It sounds fairly straightforward, though CPQ is, of course, a complex beast.
With a focus on the right priorities that would provide immediate value and build trust, Alex and Devada forged ahead with a plan that would keep things as simple as possible while achieving the desired results.
The Strategy
Together, they defined a multi-phase approach that prioritized their most pressing needs while creating quick victories. These quick wins were designed to build trust in the technical roadmap, develop confidence with the new tools, and create excitement for the process of re-launching CPQ. They acted as milestones for the project’s overall success.
With input from the stakeholders, Alex and Devada identified power users to involve from the start of the project timeline. It was part of their strategy for encouraging user input, feedback, and adoption. The power users also provided key input for the technical design to help ensure it aligned with their true business processes and accurate pricing information.
Identifying these power users was a great strategy for bringing their team along the journey and rebuilding trust in the system — in our experience, people own what they help build so involving the right team members encouraged an ownership mindset for the solutions and system.
Regularly scheduled communication around the work, the remaining needs, and outstanding issues helped to further foster trust in the process — a key concern considering this was launch number three.
The Devada office is only a few doors down from Cloud Giants HQ on The Frontier campus in Research Triangle Park, so Alex could easily meet with the team when an issue was brought up.
That kind of access was invaluable for building trust, especially when previous implementations had damaged their trust in external partners.
Even when we aren’t a few doors down, nor able to meet in person, the team uses remote conferencing tools, shared Slack channels with stakeholders, and a defined schedule for project communication to ensure our long-term success.
The Solutions and Results
Salesforce CPQ is a complex tool, so it’s necessary to keep the inputs feeding it as simple as possible.
One of these inputs is the SKU list, so at the start of the engagement, Alex worked with Devada to streamline it and improve scalability. As the sales team customized products to encourage deals closing in a timely fashion, those new variations of the product were added to the SKU list.
It’s a challenge called SKU proliferation and it’s one organizations often face as they scale. Before you know it, your organization has grown so much that the list of SKUs has become unwieldy, bogging down a once simple system.
Together, they were able to assess hundreds of SKUs, cutting the list to only 30 and reducing products by 50+. Instead of a product for every permutation possible, they captured the necessary data, ensuring they could report on it clearly and accurately.
With this consolidated list, the system was easier to maintain and use. It also made it possible to report on what types of products customers were purchasing based on selected attributes. This was a key goal for Leadership, as they lacked that clarity in the previous system. With this first step completed, other goals were woven into the remaining parts of the multi-phased project plan.
Their custom CPQ project plan included the following deliverables and milestones:
Consolidated product list and SKUs.
Created dynamic bundles for products.
Implemented discounts on products that are dynamic so when the product is bundled with other products these discounts update automatically.
Added guardrails for dynamic pricing, taking into account different factors related to products, timing, and other dependencies.
Implemented an automated approval process for quotes.
Prior to our work, management needed to manually approve each quote. With CPQ, 98% of approvals are automatically approved in the system with only 2% needing minimal management effort for approval.
Added branded quote templates to the system.
Simplified the quote template while maintaining strong branding across customer-facing elements.
Improved DocuSign integration for e-signature.
Re-implemented CPQ and DocuSign with tight integration between the two.
Built out quote terms and added the ability to include custom and modified terms.
Built a dynamic way to include modified terms.
Gave users the ability to edit terms on a quote-by-quote basis as necessary.
Streamline quote generation steps so the process is user friendly and completed through guided clicks rather than open ended process with room for error.
Ensured all quote term data can be easily reported on without rummaging through the details of any documents.
Provided on-site training and guidance for users of the new system.
Delivered support after go-live to ensure success and final needs were met prior to concluding the project.
No longer a four letter word, CPQ has become so woven into their quoting process that it’s almost an afterthought.
Leadership now has a clean line of sight into what’s being sold, with minimal need to oversee the approval process. Sales reps are able to see what’s near term and prioritize selling those products. Delivery can trust that the system is showing exactly what needs to be delivered and when in a clear way. Likewise, Finance is able to see what and when to bill customers easily.
Overall, there’s a renewed trust in Salesforce as integral to their business processes.
And the best sign that the re-implementation of Salesforce CPQ was a success? They don’t talk about it anymore. What used to cause daily headaches is a thing of the past. They know they can rely on their investment in Salesforce CPQ to do what it needs to do so they can focus on the important things they can’t automate — providing excellent experiences to developers and empowering them to learn, share, grow, and succeed.