Hello everyone!
We are elated to inform you that CPQ's capabilities have been extended beyond the default Quotes module to all inventory modules across CRM as well as custom modules. Besides this, CPQ rules can now be run on custom sub-forms in a record. These long awaited capabilities make CPQ a more robust and reliable system to manage your quotes in CRM.
For the uninitiated, CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) enables bespoke quote management in Zoho CRM by facilitating line item automation on your quotes. With CPQ, you can automate product addition, product suggestion and customized price calculations during the creation of a quote for a customer. If your business deals with multiple product lines and services, and involves dynamic pricing, then CPQ is especially useful in helping your sales teams draft instant, accurate quotes for your customers, which would otherwise be a herculean task prone to delays and errors, if done manually.
CPQ in Zoho CRM has so far been supported for the default Quotes module only. If you have been maintaining your estimates in a different custom module instead of the default Quotes module, you can now run CPQ rules on it. Similarly, if you have organized your quoted items by using multiple sub-forms and wish for line item automation to kick in for all of those, you can now do this with CPQ as well.
Let's understand these updates with the help of an example. Zylker Watch Associates sells exquisite wrist watches and various kinds of accessories. They maintain their quotes in a custom module called Estimates. Also, 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.
In essence, CPQ rules are now effective for all modules with at least one sub-form and a lookup field in that sub-form. Popular use cases for this capability include the following:
— Case 1: Default Quotes Module, Default Quoted Items Sub-form. This is already effective.
— Case 2: You want to run CPQ for custom sub-forms in either default or custom modules.
(a) Default module, Custom sub-form
For example, you want to make a note of the list of items a customer is interested in as part of the Deal itself. So you have included a custom sub-form in the Deals module called "Items interested in" and you have brought in Products as a lookup module here to record the list of products in question.
On this sub-form if you want to run CPQ rules, that is possible now in CRM.
(b) Custom module, Custom sub-form:
Case 3: Default inventory modules aside from Quotes (Purchase Order, Sales Order and Invoice).
These extended capabilities in CPQ make it much more flexible and powerful for running your sales operations efficiently. Do give these updates a try in your CRM account and let us know your questions or suggestions by commenting below.