Build your own interactive product recommendation system in CRM with Guided Selling.

Build your own interactive product recommendation system in CRM with Guided Selling.

Update: CPQ was a public early access feature from March 2023 — January 2024.
Since February 2024, this is a public feature.

Zoho CRM's in-built CPQ engine now facilitates Guided Selling, a setup in which the CRM system makes 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.

Guided Selling — An overview

Guided Selling — An Overview

The primary goal of any business is to cater to the ever-changing needs and preferences of their wide customer base. This could result in the introduction of new product lines, modification of existing product suites or updates to pricing. While this is a great way to accommodate the demands of your customers, what this also means is you must appreciate and acknowledge the complexity that this could bring about for your sales teams to create accurate, relevant and timely quotes for your customers.

When a customer makes an enquiry and there are over a hundred products to choose from, how does a sales person navigate the existing plethora of product choices and offer the right fit for their customer?

It could become a tedious task and slow down your sales pipeline if a sales person has to refer to a product list every time a quote needs to be tailored for a customer.

Here's where Guided Selling helps. While automated product and price rules in CPQ help you with product combinations, free products and dynamic pricing, Guided Selling goes a step further and helps you with which product to recommend to a customer in the first place. Sales managers can now guide their reps via the CRM system on which among the wide range of solutions suits a customer's needs the best.

Consider the example of Zylker Watches, which offers an exquisite collection of wrist watches and wall clocks. The watches come in all sizes and colors for men, women, and children.


For a customer making an enquiry regarding available options for watches, a sales person may have to navigate various products. The right choice of watch for the customer would depend on a multitude of factors, such as the color, warranty preference, manufacturer, gender, and so many other features of the watch. A sales person in this scenario would be bogged down by the sheer complexity involved in selecting from the myriad choices, and here is where guided selling helps.

In this case, Zylker could construct a Guided Selling flow in CPQ, where all of these factors that influence the choice of the right product can be organized as a questionnaire of sorts for the sales person to answer.
The questions in Zylker's case could be as follows:

So, originally if there were 50 watches available, once you answer each question, you could narrow down from random 50 to relevant top 10 and that makes your selection of products easier. The system now acts as a senior sales consultant trying to prod and help the sales person select the right product by asking a series of "questions".

What's more, since the Guided Selling flow is part of Zoho CRM's in-built CPQ system, you can include not only product-based factors but also other related factors — that is, factors based associated accounts, contacts, vendors and deals (via lookup modules). This takes personalized selling to the next level and helps you build the most accurate and timely quotes.

In the same scenario, let's consider the following factors that are not directly related to the product itself.
— Say the customer prefers a particular watch Vendor only— named Titanix.
— Also, for more likely hits, the sales rep wishes to study and narrow down products previously purchased by customers similar to the one he/she is handling. For example, say the current customer is a student/homemaker. So the sales rep wishes to see which set of wrist watches were previously sold to other customers who were also students/homemakers. This would further narrow down the hunt with more likely hits.

So that leaves us with two additional factors based on two different modules in this case— Vendors and Contacts — which are related to the Products module.

This way, Guided Selling efficiently supplies the much needed sales context to the act of "guiding" a sales rep on identifying the most relevant products for their customers. Similar examples include:

  1. Filtering products that were <<previously sold to Indian customers.>>
    (Input field here will be: Associated Contact Mailing Country is India)
  2. Filtering products associated to <<winning deals.>>
    (Input field here will be: Associated Deal Stage is Closed Won)
  3. Filtering products that were <<previously sold to large enterprises.>>
    (Input field here will be: Associated Account No:of Employees >= 50)
So using related modules, you filter based on additional sales context that is supplied to you by the CRM apart from the straightforward product factors present in the Products module.

In the Guided Selling setup, each question is mapped to a particular "CRM field" as the "Input field". This way, all the sales person needs to do is choose the field value and as they answer each "question", what they are essentially doing is filtering the products further and further and zeroing in on the right products based on their answers or "criteria".

Note that the questions created in this Guided Selling flow involve input fields from both Primary module (Products) and Related modules (Accounts, Contacts, Deals, Vendors). Related modules are typically those that are associated to the primary module via a Lookup field.


To create a Guided Selling flow, all you need to do is create a set of Input Fields and frame your questions to the sales rep. These input fields could be from the primary (Products) module or Related Modules (Contacts, Deals, Accounts and Vendors).

To learn more about creating your own Guided Selling flows, please refer to this Help document. 

Availability and Release Status: 
Guided Selling is available in the Zoho CRM Professional Edition and above. It is live now in all DCs.
Note: CPQ and Guided Selling are available on the Public Early Access* mode. 

(*) Public Early Access — Refers to a the status of a feature that is available for all applicable Editions, however, is subject to changes, improvements and updates as part of continuous development. 

    • Recent Topics

    • Restricting Calendar View to Working Hours

      Hi: I'm trying to implement a calendar which displays all of my customer appointments.  Currently, the calendar shows all 24 hours of the day.  Is there a way to restrict the hours to simply the times my business is open? Thanks!

    • Static Prefill URLs Functionality in the App

      Hi, It would be great to be able to use the same functionality within the App, so create the Static Prefill URL as today and be able to use online as today, and then have an area within the App showing these Entries that can be pressed and opens the form

    • Outbound Gateway

      Hi, Is it possible to configure the Outbound Gateway to route external domains only and keep inter-domain emails locally delivered? When one of my users sends an email to another user within our own domain, I want user1@mydomain.com to user2@mydomain.com not to exit. However, if anyone within our domain sends to an external address, I want that email to be routed using the Outbound Gateway. Thanks. P.

    • Free Webinar : Unlock AI driven business insights with Zoho Inventory + Zoho Analytics

      Are you tired of switching between apps and exporting data to build customized reports? Say hello to smarter & streamlined insights! Join us for this exclusive webinar where we explore the power of the Zoho Inventory–Zoho Analytics integration. Learn

    • Delivery Note Delivered item must be reduce in inventory stock

      When I create any Delivery note with product like mobile In our stock if it was 10 Unit I sold thru invoice, 4 unit And thru Delivery note, 2 Unit and I also change Delivery note status as delivered So in my stock it should display remaining 4 unit But write now it display 6 unit only. Please help me for that Because when I creating new invoice it display 6 unit in stock but actually in my physical stock its only 4. So I miss guide with stock display

    • Adding bills from docs *** Internal Error ***

      Same internal errors in Chrome & Edge !

    • Response time when adding customers to the database is increasing over time.

      Response time when adding customers to the ZoHo books database is increasing over time. The response time to retrieve a newly added customer is now 1.5 to 2 minutes. The database has approximately 2,000 customers. I think you need to reorganise the

    • Excluded transactions in Banking

      Why are the payees not checked when 2 payments are for the same amount to avoid exclusion? If there are 2 ( or more ) payment amounts which are the same then they are automatically excluded, this should not happen unless the payee names are the same

    • Introducing Zia AI in Zoho Show

      AI is no longer a distant concept. It’s one of our everyday tools, from answering casual questions to generating critical business documents. And presentations are one area where AI can be especially helpful. At Zoho Show, we’ve been deliberate in how

    • Plug Sample #10 - Simplify Ticket Management (Zoho Desk) with Chatbots

      Hi everyone! We're here with another simple yet effective plug for your chatbot to integrate with Zoho Desk. When a customer reports an issue/request during chat, it's logged as a ticket on Desk. When they return for updates, you end up searching through

    • Trigger a field rule when Choice Availability reaches 0

      First of all, thanks for shipping the new Choice Availability counter. It solves the basic “stop over-booking” problem. What’s missing, though, is a way to react when an option is sold out. Right now we can only disable/hide the choice; we can’t fire

    • Unattended Access on Android without Play Store

      I'm testing Zoho Assist for remote config and maintenance of our IoT devices. The devices are running Android 8.1 and do NOT have Google Play Store installed, nor can it be installed. I've been able to install Zoho Assist on the devices and load the enrollment

    • Zoho People > Performance Management > Appraisal cycle

      Hello All I am using this 2 users to test out how it work on Performance Management User 1 - Reportee User 2 - Reporting Manager : Li Ting Haley User 1 : Self Appraisal Error How do i fix this error?

    • What's New - June 2025 | Zoho Backstage

      Plans change. People cancel. Tickets get handed off. It happens, and we understand. As an organizer, you need tools that offer flexibility for attendees while protecting your event’s integrity. That’s why we’ve built features to help you manage these

    • Include Article Sync Details in SalesIQ–Desk Integration Notification Email

      Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, Greetings, We are using the integration between Zoho SalesIQ and Zoho Desk to sync articles from the Zoho Desk Knowledge Base into SalesIQ. As part of this integration, we receive the following email notification: "Your scheduled

    • Naming a Visitor in SalesIQ Messes up First and Last Name

      When I go to Visitor History to manually associate a visitor with a known contact, I press the pencil symbol next to the system-generated ID number. I enter first and last name, then email. Looks good so far. However, when it syncs with CRM, first name

    • Partial Sync

      Hi, got an issue with syncing cards across windows app, web app and iphone app. If I create a card and add some text content then everything syncs across all platforms ok. If I create a card and add an attachment, be it pdf, jpg or movie then the card

    • Related activity records for custom modules

      For default modules in CRM, whenever I create a task for a contact, the task also appears in the record for the parent account. How do I replicate this with custom modules? My specific situation is that I have a custom module as a child module to Accounts.

    • Why Do My Portal Users Can't See Any Data in Reports

      In My zoho crm i have created a button automation which basically is it converts a quote into invoice and sales order , so initially when a person who is my app user submits a quotation form it goes into quote module and record is created and in each

    • Introducing Zoho Commerce 2.0 — It's more than just selling!

      Hello! We are proud to launch Zoho Commerce 2.0, a reimagination of how online businesses look, feel, and function. This launch is both timely and symbolic, as we reaffirm our commitment to empowering small and medium enterprises with powerful, yet simple-to-use

    • Introducing prompt builder in Zoho CRM

      We’ve introduced a new way to put Zia’s generative AI to work—right where your teams need it most. With the all new prompt builder for custom buttons, you can create your own AI instructions to generate tailored content, suggestions, or summaries across

    • Item Batch Creation/Updation

      I have a requirement to integrate a local system with Zoho Books. I need to create items in Zoho Books with batch tracking enabled, but I couldn't find a specific API for that in the Zoho Books API documentation. Is there a dedicated API endpoint to create

    • Education Zoho User Group (ZUG) virtual meetup featuring Zoho Sign

      Hi there! The educational sector often faces the hassle of handling extensive paperwork, which leads to increased operational costs. A digital signature solution like Zoho Sign can help you modernize your processes, go fully digital, and seamlessly collect

    • Troubleshooting Delays in Zoho CRM Automation Workflows for Lead Status Updates

      Dear Zoho Community, I am refining a sales pipeline in Zoho CRM, implemented in May 2025, to enhance efficiency for a small business managing client leads. While the CRM effectively tracks leads, I am encountering delays in automation workflows that update

    • 📣 [Webinar] Spikra shows how businesses leverage Zoho Bookings to increase revenue

      [Webinar] Spikra shows how businesses leverage Zoho Bookings to increase revenue Hi all, Service-based businesses need to be on top of their client experience game to stay ahead. Spikra, one of our Advanced Zoho Partners, has been helping businesses deliver

    • Kaizen #172 - Leveraging the 'crmAPIResponse' Object in Queries

      Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! We released the Queries feature sometime back and hope you have tried it out. A little gist about this feature before we move on to our post. Zoho CRM's Queries feature enables dynamic data retrieval

    • transforming 1D tables to 2D and the other way round

      Does Dataprep have tools to convert 1D tables to 2D tables and the other way round? The actions that are commonly called "pivot" and "melt". What I mean is transitioning between these two kinds of table: 2D id ____ name ____ surname ____ age 00 ____ Matt

    • How I Migrate data from one SharePoint Tenant to another

      I want to perform SharePoint tenant to tenant migration, but the problem is I don't know how to do so. I’ve heard about different SharePoint Migrator, but I’m not sure which one is the best for this type of migration. Any guidance would be really he

    • Rebrand your CRM with the all-new custom domain mapping setup

      UPDATES TO THIS FEATURE! 19th Jan, 2024 — Custom domain mapping has been made available for portal users in Zoho One and CRM Plus. 23rd June, 2023 — Custom domain mapping has been made available for all users, in all DCs. Hello everyone! We are elated

    • authentication

      We cannot connect via IMAP. We are receiving the following error: Error: You are yet to enable IMAP for your account. Please contact your administrator (Failure)

    • Bad User: Authenticated but not connected

      Zoho CRM cannot send/receive emails and it appears as if it may be an api configuration change either via Zoho or MS. Does anyone have information on how to fix this error message? I am admin on all my accounts. Zoho and MS are blaming each other.

    • Edit email address that appears on invoice

      Hi How do I change the email address that appears on invoices, it is showing the email address that i used to sign up to zoho with but I want to change it to another email address that we use for accounts. also is there a way to edit the position of a

    • Zoho Tasks - Add Sorting by Priority

      We are able to Group by and Filter by Priority but for some reason we can't Sort by Priority on the Task lists. Please allow for sorting by priority if the current view is not grouped by priority.

    • customize payment page

      Is there a way to customize, other than the theme colour, the payment page that customers are taken to from invoices? I can't seem to find a way. I just don't like the formatting of the current page and would like to make it look better. I've looked at

    • Zoho People > Candidate Form > error Editable Primary Lookup is needed to set add permission

      Hello All I have try to turn on the add feature in the candidate form It show the error Editable Primary Lookup is needed to set add permission What is missing from my side?

    • 6 time-saving tips for working with tables in Zoho Writer

      Tables have always been the best way to represent data. They help you structure and categorize information systematically and present them in a simpler way. While tables in Zoho Writer are easy to implement, some tasks might not be that obvious.  Here are some time-saving tips to help you work better with tables in Zoho Writer:    1. Insert Multiple Rows / Columns in a Table Adding more rows and columns is the most common action performed while working with tables. Instead of using the Table tab,

    • Add Built-in "Partner Finder" / "Contractor Directory" Tab to Zoho Desk Help

      Hi Zoho Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request a new feature for the Zoho Desk Help Center: A built-in, configurable "Partner Finder" / "Contractor Directory" tab or section, similar in concept to your own Zoho Partner Finder at: 🔗

    • Can't get sender adress to work

      Hi, I am having some trouble getting the sender adress to work for responses on tickets. I would like to configure a sender adress that is different from the zohodesk emailadress that is normally used. These are the steps I have followed: 1. Add a new

    • Question Regarding Deleted Reports in Zoho Desk Analytics

      Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, I hope this message finds you well. We have a question regarding the Analytics module in Zoho Desk, specifically related to deleted reports/dashboards. We would like to understand the following: Is there a recycle bin, recovery

    • Add an option to start zobot when user clicks the Chat with Us button

      I would like to have an option to start the zobot when user clicks on "Chat with us" button when chat widget is maximized that way visitors could see first the homepage and decide which channel they would like to use to connect, or to see the quicke help

    • Next Page