How to Fully Automate CPQ (Quoting) to Salesforce SaaS Workflow

by 

Sandeep Jain

    |    

September 30, 2022

How to Fully Automate CPQ (Quoting) to Salesforce SaaS Workflow

Can I fully automate CPQ to Salesforce workflow?

How can my renewal opportunity reflect everything that the customer has bought over the contract period?

Can Salesforce reflect what a customer has purchased at any given time through all amendments?

If these are the questions you struggle with, you are not alone. Revenue operation teams and even founders (if you are an early-stage company) constantly grapple with such issues.

Frustrated Person when setting up revenue operations stack

The current approach is to do everything manually. This means unnecessary personnel overhead, increased possibility of errors, and worse, loss of revenue as your velocity to do business is significantly reduced.

That's about to become history, though.  

Problem

The root cause of all the above issues is that the legacy CPQ tools were built for non-SaaS sales in which every deal was one-and-done. However, SaaS sales are anything but one-and-done; instead, they have a life cycle starting from the first quote and then multiple iterations of up-sell/cross-sell/down-sell (during the contract period), and finally, renewal. Existing CPQ tools fail to represent this life cycle leaving the hard work to do manually.

Solution

The answer is evident: You need a Quoting tool that is explicitly built to handle SaaS workflows and that also works seamlessly with the upstream CRM. But why stop there? Imagine if this tool does billing as well. Now your entire Quote-to-Cash process is fully automated! Is there more? You bet there is! Imagine this tool supports the product-led growth motion from your website (using API-first architecture). Is this nirvana? Close.

It is a new paradigm for Revenue Operations. Instead of multiple point solutions, welcome to a single system of truth for your GTM — Enterprise Monetization Platform.

Happy person that figured out how to automate CPQ to Salesforce workflow

In this post, I will go over step-by-step instructions on how full automation can be achieved for Quoting to the CRM interface.

Requirements:

  1. MonetizeNow Platform
  2. MonetizeNow App on Salesforce App Exchange
  3. Salesforce Account

New Deal

  • AE/SDR creates an opportunity in Salesforce
  • AE clicks 'Create a Quote' on the opportunity, and a new browser tab opens with MonetizeNow Quoting Interface (contact, opportunity, and account are synced in real-time)
  • AE can create multiple quotes and send them to the customer
  • All the quotes are synced back to Salesforce and are also connected to the same Opportunity. However, only one of the quotes is marked as the 'Primary', and the corresponding information (amount, products, etc.) is synced to the parent Opportunity
  • Whenever the customer accepts a quote (through e-sign or manually over email), MonetizeNow Platform sends a signal to the MonetizeNow App running on Salesforce which then marks the Opportunity as Closed-Won. Also, a new Renewal Opportunity is created in Salesforce automatically.
  • MonetizeNow Platform also creates a lightweight contract object which will now track any changes to this deal. This contract object is also synced back to Salesforce.

Amendment —Upsell/Downsell/Cross-sell

  • AE goes to the relevant Account in Salesforce
  • AE clicks on the Contract object (created earlier) and clicks "Amend." This creates a new Amendment Opportunity, and a new browser tab opens with MonetizeNow Platform Quoting Interface
  • MonetizeNow Platform remembers what the customer bought earlier
  • AE can adjust the quantities (upsell/down-sell) or even add a new product offering (cross-sell)
  • Since this amendment is likely to happen in the midst of the contract, the MonetizeNow platform automatically and accurately does proration
  • The Quote is synced back to Salesforce
  • When the customer accepts the quote, the MonetizeNow Platform closes the Amendment Opportunity and also updates the renewal opportunity and the contract

This step can happen multiple times and the corresponding Contract and Renewal Opportunity will be updated every time keeping your Salesforce data accurate for this contract.  

Renewal

  • AE goes to the relevant Account in Salesforce
  • AE clicks on the Contract object and clicks "Renew." or uses the existing Renewal Opportunity and clicks "Create a Quote". In either case, a new browser tab opens with the MonetizeNow Platform Quoting Interface
  • AE can see everything that the customer purchased over the contract period and updates quantities, pricing, etc., as needed
  • When the customer accepts the quote, the MonetizeNow Platform closes the Renewal Opportunity as Closed-Won and creates a new Contract and another Renewal Opportunity

If you have any questions about the above, send them to us at questions@monetizenow.io. If you'd like to schedule a demo, please schedule it here.

About MonetizeNow

Founded in 2021, MonetizeNow is revolutionizing GTM operations for B2B SaaS Enterprises of any size. At MonetizeNow, our mission is simple: to make B2B commerce completely frictionless and provide a delightful experience for your customers to do business with you. 

Our innovative platform combines Quoting/CPQ, Metering, Billing, and Reporting, to deliver a truly plug-and-play Quote-to-Cash experience across all sales channels.

It’s time to empower your Sales, RevOps, and Finance teams with an all-in-one solution that will revolutionize your entire business. Reduce manual tasks, allowing a stronger focus on strategic pricing and innovative GTM strategies. Generate complex quotes quickly and enjoy full automation of your billing processes. Easily handle proration, co-term agreements, and renewals for seamless operations.

Get back to focusing on value. If you can build it, you can sell it with MonetizeNow.

If you’re interested in learning more about MonetizeNow, please check out our product page or schedule a demo.

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