How to Handle Custom Orders in CPQ Salesforce

How to Handle Custom Orders in CPQ Salesforce (with Valorx Fusion)

In today’s hyper-competitive, customer-driven market, businesses are increasingly required to deliver customized products and services to meet customer needs.

While Salesforce CPQ is a powerful system designed to streamline complex quoting, it becomes restrictive when faced with the distinct requirements of custom orders which can vary from order to order and business to business. Complex configurations, multi-tier pricing and other non-conventional factors can lead to frustrating CPQ experience, slowing down quote delivery and drawing out the sales cycle.

However, teams can continue leveraging CPQ and make it work for custom orders by enhancing Salesforce CPQ’s native capabilities. The right tool can provide the necessary flexibility custom orders require while still supporting CPQ adoption and keeping data in Salesforce.

Valorx Fusion, available on the Salesforce AppExchange, is an Excel-Salesforce connector that allows teams to work in any existing (or brand new) spreadsheet to manage live Salesforce data. This means Fusion users can view and update live Salesforce records using a spreadsheet interface and all its tools. This includes grid editing (copy/paste, drag to fill, drag/drop), conditional formatting, formulas, and much more. Once changes are made, they can be saved in Salesforce. Salesforce data never leaves the CRM at any point in time.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the common challenges custom orders pose in Salesforce CPQ and show how Valorx Fusion overcomes these challenges, but also positions businesses for high operational efficiency and revenue growth.

Understanding Custom Orders in CPQ

Custom orders in CPQ involve tailoring product or service configurations to meet unique customer needs. These orders can include specific product combinations, specialized pricing models, and unique approval workflows. Managing this complexity requires a system that is highly flexible while working with the Salesforce CPQ data model.

Typically, custom orders in Salesforce CPQ revolve around three key components:

• Product Configuration: Custom orders often require handling numerous product options, constraints, and rules. Salesforce CPQ offers tools for managing these configurations, but the complexity of custom orders—such as managing product bundles with unique attributes—can quickly overwhelm a standard system.
• Pricing Models: Tailored pricing models are essential for custom orders. Instead of relying on standard price books, businesses often need custom discounts, specialized price books, and unique approval workflows to ensure pricing aligns with customer needs while maintaining profitability.
• Quote Generation: Custom orders frequently involve multi-dimensional quoting, where different aspects of a deal—such as services, regions, or multiple product types—must be quoted simultaneously. This complexity can quickly strain a standard CPQ system, leading to errors or delays.

Key Challenges in Managing Custom Orders in Salesforce CPQ

• Complex configurations: Custom orders often lead to overly complex configurations that increase the likelihood of errors and slow down the sales process. Standard CPQ tools may not be equipped to efficiently manage intricate product configurations, which then requires manual efforts to produce, leading to bottlenecks that impact sales velocity.
• Data Integrity Issues: Maintaining consistent, accurate data across custom orders is vital. Any errors in configuration, pricing, or quoting can lead to significant losses in both time and revenue. Ensuring seamless integration between CPQ and other enterprise systems is crucial to maintaining data hygiene
• User Adoption: Transitioning to a sophisticated CPQ system can be a significant challenge for teams accustomed to working in Excel or other systems. Salesforce CPQ’s interface, while powerful, may feel restrictive to teams handling complex custom orders, leading to either low productivity or active resistance to adopting new processes.

How Valorx Fusion Enhances Custom Order Management

Valorx Fusion provides the perfect bridge between Excel’s flexibility and Salesforce’s robust data management, empowering teams to manage custom orders more effectively. Here’s how Fusion addresses the key challenges of custom orders:

• Streamlined Configuration: Fusion allows users to leverage Excel’s familiar interface for managing even the most complex configurations. Product rules, constraints, and bulk edits can be handled with ease, allowing users to update multiple quote lines simultaneously—saving significant time.
• Accurate, Real-Time Data Management: Fusion ensures that updates are synced in real-time with Salesforce, dramatically reducing the risk of data integrity issues. Teams can work in a familiar Excel environment without sacrificing the accuracy and visibility that Salesforce provides. Fusion also ensures compliance with Salesforce’s validation rules, maintaining high data hygiene.
• Ease of User Adoption: One of Fusion’s most significant benefits is its Excel-like interface. This allows teams to continue working in the environment they know while taking full advantage of Salesforce CPQ’s power. This smooth transition not only enhances user adoption but also boosts productivity.

Leveraging Valorx Fusion for Enhanced Custom Order Management

Fusion’s deep integration with Salesforce CPQ provides businesses with critical advantages for handling custom orders:

• High-Volume and Multi-Dimensional Quoting: Fusion empowers teams to manage thousands of quote lines at once with Excel’s familiar speed and flexibility. For multi-dimensional quoting, Fusion allows users to manage various product attributes in a single view, avoiding the need to navigate multiple Salesforce screens and significantly reducing quoting time.
• Real-Time Synchronization: Fusion’s real-time synchronization ensures that every change made in Excel is instantly reflected in Salesforce, reducing the time spent on back-and-forth revisions and ensuring data accuracy.
• Efficiency Gains: Fusion’s bulk editing, conditional formatting, and pivot table functionalities enable users to manage even the most complex custom orders with ease. Whether handling hundreds of line items or making last-minute adjustments, Fusion makes the process faster and more efficient.

Valorx Customer Story: BP Oil & Gas

One of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, BP Oil & Gas, faced significant challenges managing custom orders using Salesforce CPQ. Their sales team needed a way to handle 50 different attributes per quote line, a demand the standard Salesforce interface struggled to meet. By implementing Valorx Fusion, BP Oil & Gas was able to streamline their quoting process, using Excel to manage configurations, bulk edits, and formulas while keeping everything synced with Salesforce in real time.

As a result, BP’s sales team reduced the time spent managing custom quotes, improved data accuracy, and enhanced the overall efficiency of their sales operations.

You can read the complete customer story here.

Transform How You Handle Custom Orders

For businesses managing complex custom orders, Valorx Fusion is more than just an enhancement to Salesforce CPQ—it’s a strategic advantage. By seamlessly blending Excel’s familiar interface with the power of Salesforce, Fusion enables sales teams to handle custom configurations, pricing models, and quotes with unmatched efficiency and accuracy.

Don’t let the complexity of custom orders slow your business down. With Fusion, you can streamline your quoting processes, increase productivity, and unlock new levels of sales success.

To learn more about Fusion and its capabilities for your team, visit valorx.com/fusion/