Launching CPQ for Zoho CRM! An in-built solution for bespoke quote management

Launching CPQ for Zoho CRM! An in-built solution for bespoke quote management

Hello everyone, 

We are thrilled to announce the public release of CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) for Zoho CRM, which is a fundamental block in sales management.
NOTE: CPQ was a public early access feature from March 2023 — January 2024.
Since February 2024, this is a public feature.

What is CPQ?

CPQ stands for Configure, Price, Quote. In simple words, CPQ is a software application designed to enable sales teams to create bespoke, accurate quotes for their customers, efficiently and quickly. CPQ is especially valuable when you have multiple product lines or service categories which involve dynamic pricing.

Why CPQ?

One of the biggest challenges sales teams face while navigating a sales process is the awfully long sales cycles for a specific deal. Now there could be many reasons for this length— the high value of the products could genuinely need that time. Or there are several stakeholders in the decision-making process, so that could consume a good amount of time. In such cases, having done their best, sales teams probably have to wait. But if the delays are attributed to delays or inefficiency with internal processes, then it is completely in the organization's control to identify and improve those systems.

Quote management is one such area where there could be undue delays due to which the sales process can take longer, or at times be unsuccessful. When you spend a lot of time and energy nurturing leads and converting them to opportunities, you need to ensure that when you reach a negotiation stage, the relevant quotes are also accurately drafted in a timely manner and sent for review, to close the deal promptly. Delays or inefficiency here could potentially cost you the entire deal.

Depending on the organization's processes, product lines, and pricing models, this stage can be very challenging and even complicated for some sales teams.

Consider cases of products sold along with specific accessories for free. Or the case of annual discounts and special offers. Every time a salesperson drafts a quote, they need to check the latest applicable offers, discounts, product combinations, and create an accurate quote for the customer, who is by the way still waiting for the quote after their deal was confirmed. In this process, manual error, red tape in processes, and lack of knowledge transfer within sales teams regarding updated prices and products could lead to serious delays in sales quotes and also make them inaccurate. As a result, the customers get frustrated, and this in turn prolongs your sales cycle.
In order to help this scenario, you need an effective CPQ engine, in other words, a solution called Configure, Price, Quote, in order to help you with bespoke quote management.

We are happy to announce the public release our own in-built CPQ system for CRM. With CPQ's line item automation, you can create timely, accurate quotes effectively. You can also upsell and cross sell with automated product suggestions in the CPQ engine and have all these data and possibilities inside your CRM system, contextually

Following are the rich feature sets of CPQ for Zoho CRM.

  • Configure the auto-addition of associated products in a quote upon the selection of a primary product.
    You can also mark a product as free while doing so.
  • Invoke product suggestions to a sales rep while creating a quote for effective upsell/cross-sell.
  • Apply direct or volume based list price/discounts on product line items automatically using price rules. 
  • Auto-update the quantity and price of secondary/associated products based on primary product.
  • Build your own interactive product recommendation system using Guided Selling.
  • Apply CPQ rules for any custom module or sub-form within a module. In case you are maintaining your quotes in a different module called Estimates, or you also want to apply CPQ for Invoices, you can do so.
Let's understand the capabilities of CPQ for Zoho CRM with the example of Zylker Watch Associates, an organization that sells a range of wall clocks, wrist watches and smart watches.

Product Configurator and Price Rules:

Here is a quick simple example to understand how price rules and product configurator can be applied for Zylker's scenarios.
— When a customer purchases a specific kind of expensive wall clock, a wristwatch set is offered for free.
— Besides, a year-end discount rule based on the purchase date will also apply a 20% discount on the list price of the wall clock.



Learn more>> How CPQ works

Dynamic quantity update for automated line items.

When multiple products are sold together, regardless of whether the secondary products are for free or come with a price tag, you need to define how many units of the secondary product need to go with the primary product.
 
In the case of Zylker Watches, consider the same scenario where a wristwatch set is offered for free upon the purchase of a wall clock. Now what if in a single order, 5 wall clocks are placed? Then, according to this plan, five sets of wrist watches should be added for free.

So the free product's quantity should "dynamically" change in the quote, based on the primary product's quantity. In this case, the formula to calculate the same would be, "Primary product's quantity * 1".

 
This is also possible in CPQ. You can also specify an absolute number or a dynamic value in the rule.


Building CPQ rules for custom modules and subforms

CPQ's product configurations and price rules can also be created for custom modules and custom subforms. Assume that Zylker Watch Associates is maintaining their quotes in a custom module called Estimates. Also, consider that in a different scenario, their price quotes are structured to include Primary Product items as the first sub-form and the Accessories as the second sub-form.

With CPQ's extended support for custom modules and sub-forms, they can now dictate automated product addition, suggestion, and price calculations on both these sub-forms in this custom module called Estimates.

Guided Selling

With CPQ's Guided Selling, you can create your own tailored and interactive product recommendations based on the unique needs and preferences of each customer, thereby enabling sales people to choose the most relevant products for them and create accurate, tailor-made quotes instantly.

In the case of Zylker Watch Associates, let's say a customer Leota is on the phone with a sales rep and is looking for a wristwatch for herself. Leota is quizzing the sales rep on the watches available, however the sales rep finds it difficult to narrow down to the particular product that would suit Leota's preferences. In this case, let's see how Guided Selling effectively helps the sales rep with recommendations based on the customer's preferences. Note that you can build this recommendation system yourself for your organization with CPQ's Guided Selling. 


 
So with CPQ's automated product addition, suggestion, price calculation, dynamic quantity update, guided selling setup, and flexibility to apply all these configurations to any custom module or custom subform, makes your quote management process greatly efficient and in turn accelerates your sales cycle and processes.

Roadmap:

We are constantly working on building the CPQ capability in Zoho CRM in order to maximize your experience. Here are a couple of key improvements that are on our roadmap for CPQ.
  1. Sandbox support — You will be able to setup product configurations and price rules in Sandbox before deploying them to the production environment.
    Tentative ETA:  End of Q2-2024
  2. You will also be able to build Guided Selling for custom modules aside from Quotes.  
    Tentative ETA: Q3-2024
To learn more, visit the following documents on CPQ: 


    • Recent Topics

    • Verifying Zoho Mail Functionality After Switching DNS from Cloudflare to Hosting Provider

      I initially configured my domain's (https://roblaxmod.com/) email with Zoho Mail while using Cloudflare to manage my DNS records (MX, SPF, etc.). All services were working correctly. Recently, I have removed my site from Cloudflare and switched my domain's

    • Zoho Analytics Regex Support

      When can we expect full regex support in Zoho Analytics SQL such as REGEXP_REPLACE? Sometimes I need to clean the data and using regex functions is the easiest way to achieve this.

    • Change of Blog Author

      Hi, I am creating the blog post on behalf of my colleague. When I publish the post, it is showing my name as author of the post which is not intended and needs to be changed to my colleague's name. How can I change the name of the author in the blogs?? Thanks, Ramanan

    • Show Attachments in the customer portal

      Hi, is it possible to show the Attachments list in the portal for the particular module? Bests.

    • Does Zoho Docs have a Line Number function ?

      Hi, when collaborating with coding tasks, I need an online real time share document that shows line numbers. Does Zoho's docs offer this feature ? If yes, how can I show them ? Regards, Frank

    • Please make it easier to Pause syncing

      right now it takes 3 clicks to get there. sounds silly, but can you make it just 2 clicks to get it done instead? thats how dropbox does it, 2 clicks to pause instead of 3.

    • Feature Request - Insert URL Links in Folders

      I would love to see the ability to create simple URL links with titles in WorkDrive. or perhaps a WorkDrive extension to allow it. Example use case: A team is working on a project and there is project folder in WordDrive. The team uses LucidChart to create

    • Organization Emails in Email History

      How can I make received Org Emails to show up here?

    • how to differentiate if whatsapp comes from certain landing page?

      I create a Zobot in SalesIQ to create a Whatsapp bot to capture the lead. I have 2 landing pages, one is SEO optimized and the other want is optimized for leads comes from Google Ads. I want to know from which landing page this lead came through WhatsApp

    • How to sync from Zoho Projects into an existing Sprint in Zoho Sprints?

      Hi I have managed to integrate Zoho Projects with Zoho Sprints and I can see that the integration works as a project was created in Zoho Sprints. But, what I would like to do is to sync into an existing Zoho Sprints project. Is there a way to make that

    • How to record company set up fees?

      Hi all, We are starting out our company in Australia and would appreciate any help with setting up Books accounts. We paid an accountant to do company registration, TFN, company constitution, etc. I heard these all can be recorded as Incorporation Costs, which is an intangible asset account, and amortised over 5 years. Is this the correct way to do it under the current Australian tax regulations? How and when exactly should I record the initial entry and each year's amortasation in Books? Generally

    • How to create a drop down menu in Zoho Sheets

      I am trying to find out, how do I create a drop down option in Zoho sheet. I tried Data--> Data Validation --> Criteria --> Text  --> Contains. But that is not working, is there any other way to do it.  Thanks in Advance.

    • Show Payment terms in Estimates

      Hi,  we are trying to set up that estimates automatically relates payment terms for the payment terms we introduced on Edit contact (Field Payment terms).  How can it be done? Our aim is to avoid problems on payment terms introduced and do not need to introduce it manually on each client (for the moment we are introducing this information on Terms and Conditions.  Kind Regards, 

    • Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce an important enhancement that will significantly enhance the readability and formatting capabilities of your information: rich text options for multi-line fields. With this update, you can now enjoy a more versatile

    • How can I calculate the physical stock available for sale?

      Hey Zoho Team,  I've tried to calculate the physical stock on hand in various ways - but always receive a mismatch between what's displayed in Zoho Inventory & analytics.  Can you please let me know how the physical stock available for sale is calculated?

    • When dispatched to crew, assigning lead missing

      Hello, For the past two or three weeks, whenever an officer assigns Service Appointment to a team, the lead person is missing from the assigned service list. Therefore, we have to reschedule the SA and then the lead person becomes visible in the assigned

    • Create Lead Button in Zoho CRM Dashboard

      Right now to create Leads in the CRM our team is going into the Lead module, selecting the "Create Lead" button, then building out the lead. Is there anyway to add the "Create Lead" button or some sort of short cut to the Zoho CRM Dashboard to cut out

    • open word file in zoho writer desktop version

      "How can I open a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) file in Zoho Writer if I only have the file saved on my computer and Zoho Writer doesn't appear as an option when I try 'Open with'? Is there a way to directly open the .doc file in Zoho Writer?"

    • I want to transfer the project created in this account to another account

      Dear Sir I want to transfer the project created in one account to another account

    • Inactive User Auto Response

      We use Zoho One, and we have a couple employees that are no longer with us, but people are still attempting to email them. I'd like an autoresponder to let them no the person is no longer here, and how they can reach us going forward. I saw a similar

    • Weekly Tips : Customize your Compose for a smoother workflow

      You are someone who sends a lot of emails, but half the sections in the composer just get in your way — like fields you never use or sections that clutter the space. You find yourself always hunting for the same few formatting tools, and the layout just

    • Zoho Slowness - Workarounds

      Hi all, We've been having intermittent slowness and Zoho just asks for same stuff each time but never fix it. It usually just goes away on it's own after a couple weeks. Given that speed is a very important thing for companies to be able to keep up with

    • Custom Bulk Select Button

      Zoho CRM offers the ability to select multiple records and invoke a Custom Button This functionality is missing from Recruit Currently we can only add buttons in the detail page and list But we cannot select Multiple Records and invoke a function with

    • How to create a Zoho CRM report with 2 child modules

      Hi all, Is it possible to create a Zoho CRM report or chart with 2 child modules? After I add the first child module, the + button only adds another parent module. It won't let me add multiple child modules at once. We don't have Zoho Analytics and would

    • Zoho CRM still doesn't let you manage timezones (yearly reminder)

      This is something I have asked repeatedly. I'll ask once again. Suppose that you work in France. Next month you have a trip to Guatemala. You call a contact there, close a meeting, record that meeting in CRM. On the phone, your contact said: "meet me

    • Power of Automation :: Smart Ticket Management Between Zoho Desk and Projects

      Hello Everyone, A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate

    • First day of trying FSM in the field.

      What we found. 1. with out a network connection we were unable to start a service call? 2. if you go to an appointment and then want to add an asset it does not seem possible. 3. disappointed not to be able to actually take a payment from within the app

    • BUG - Google Business Buttons - Add a button to GBP Post

      I am experiencing an issue with the "Add a button" feature when creating posts for my Google Business Profile (GBP) through Zoho Social. When I schedule or publish a GBP post and include a call-to-action button with a specific URL, the post itself publishes

    • Rich text Merge field - Not using font specified in HTML

      I have a rich text merge field in a writer template which is creating a table. I have chosen to use this method instead of a repeat region because I need to specify specific cell background colours which change every time the document is created. The

    • Support for Custom Fonts in Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal

      Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to use custom fonts in the Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal. Currently only the default fonts (Roboto, Lato, and Montserrat) are available. While these

    • CC and/or BCC users in email templates

      I would like the ability to automatically assign a CC and BCC "User (company employee)" into email templates. Specifically, I would like to be able to add the "User who owns the client" as a CC automatically on any interview scheduled or candidate submitted

    • Trying to export a report to Excel via a deluge script

      I have this code from other posts but it gives me an error of improper statement, due to missing ; at end of line or incomplete expression. Tried lots of variations to no avail. openUrl(https://creatorapp.zoho.com/<username>/<app name>/XLSX/#Report:<reportname>,"same

    • Zoho Reports Duplicating Entries

      I have a custom costing tab with a table where we entre invoices. These are under a Heading (PO Subject) and notes added in the form with different line items. In the reports, I have organised the report to group per PO Subject, with the total of the

    • Need help to create a attach file api

      https://www.zoho.com/crm/developer/docs/api/v8/upload-attachment.html Please help me to create it... It's not working for while. Do you have some example?

    • Export view via deluge.

      Hi, Is it possible to export a view (as a spreadsheet) via deluge? I would like to be able to export a view as a spreadsheet when a user clicks a button. Thanks     

    • how to add subform over sigma in the CRM

      my new module don't have any subform available any way to add this from sigma or from the crm

    • Outdated state in mexico

      Hello Zoho team, the drop down to add the state for customers, when they introduce their state in mexico has a city named “Distrito Federal” that name changed many years ago to “ciudad de mexico”. could you please update this so my clients can find the

    • Support new line in CRM Multiline text field display in Zoho Deluge

      Hi brainstrust, We have a Zoho CRM field which is a Muti Line (Small) field. It has data in it that has a carriage return after each line: When I pull that data in via Deluge, it displays as: I'm hoping a way I can change it from: Freehand : ENABLED Chenille

    • Possible to generate/download Quote PDF using REST API?

      See title. Is there any way after a quote has been created to export to a PDF using a specified template and then download it? Seems like something that should be doable. Is this not supported in the API v2.0?

    • Creating an invoice to be paid in two installments?

      Hi there, I own a small Photographic Services business and have not been able to find a way to fit my billing system into Zoho, or any other Accounting software. The way my payments work is: 1. Customer pays 50% of total price of service to secure their

    • Next Page