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: 


    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • Leistungsdatum in Rechnungen (Zoho Books)

        Hallo, ist es irgendwie möglich den Leistungszeitraum in der Rechnung aufzuführen? Beste Grüße Aleks

      • Zoho Trident Windows - Streams Not Visible

        Namaste We’re having an issue with Streams not being visible in Trident (Windows), which is important for us as we share many emails internally. It appears that the feature to show Streams above the Inbox folder, as seen in the default mailbox view, is

      • Sales IQ Chat Widget is Only Displaying Last Name

        Can anyone suggest why the widget is only displaying "last name"?! We have the latest version of the wordpress plugin installed. Thanks Thanks!

      • Shopify - Item sync from Zoho Inventory

        Hi team, We’ve connected Shopify with Zoho Inventory. We want that when an item is created in Zoho Inventory, it must create a product in Shopify. But currently, new items created in Zoho Inventory are not getting created in Shopify even after clicking

      • Bulk upload image option in Zoho Commerce

        I dont know if I am not looking into it properly but is there no option to bulk upload images along with the products? Like after you upload the products, I will have to upload images one by one again? Can someone help me out here? And what should I enter

      • Is it possible to setup bin locations WITHOUT mandating batch tracking?

        Hi fellow zoho users, I'm wondering if anyone else has a similar issue to me? I only have some products batch tracked (items with shelf life expiry dates) but I am trying to setup bin locations for my entire inventory so we can do stock counting easier.

      • Kill zoho meeting

        Saying the quiet part out loud. Can zoho please just give up on the idea that they can make a meeting platform and just make our workplace licenses cheaper when you remove it so people can switch to zoom or teams. Tired of the excuses, you guys cant make

      • Utilisation de Zoho en conformité avec l’article 286 du Code général des impôts (CGI)

        Cher(e) client(e), Conformément à l’article 286 du Code général des impôts (CGI) impose aux entreprises assujetties à la TVA d’utiliser des systèmes de caisse ou de gestion commerciale certifiés lorsqu’elles enregistrent des ventes à des particuliers.

      • Unable to Create Task as a Support Administrator

        Hello! I want to ask for help regarding creating tasks within the tickets. I am by default the Support Admin. I should be able to create tasks or activities right? But there's a prompt that I need to contact the Administrator. See photos for reference.

      • Introducing Forms in Zoho Sheet

        We hereby bring you the power of ​forms in Zoho Sheet. ​Now, build and create your own customized forms using Zoho Sheet. Be it compiling a questionnaire or rolling out a survey, Zoho Sheet can do it all for you. Forms is an excellent feature that helps you collect information in the simplest of ways and having it in Zoho Sheet takes it a notch higher. Build Simple yet Powerful forms Building forms using Zoho Sheet is fairly simple. The exclusive 'Form' tab lets you create one quickly. Whether you

      • Layout one survey question in a time & redirect next Page based on previous response

        I have doubt while, I am scripting survey on the Zoho where I redirecting to next page based on my previous response but didn’t get success on this. Please help me on this and tell me how I layout one survey questions in a time when I submit response

      • Zoho Bookings form pre-filled with Zoho Forms in

        Hi, I've got a contact page on my website and I'd like to have the option to book an appointment (redirected to zoho bookings page) after an option is submitted on the contact form. how would I go about doing this? thanks

      • Support “Other” Option with Free Text in Dropdown Fields

        Hello Zoho Bookings Team, Greetings, We would like to request an enhancement to the registration form fields in Zoho Bookings, specifically for dropdown fields. Current Limitation: At the moment, dropdown fields do not support an “Other” option that allows

      • Sending automated messages that appear in the ticket's conversation thread

        Good morning, esteemed Zoho Desk community, warm greetings Today I am here to raise the following problem, seeking a solution that I can implement: I need to implement an automation that allows me to send reminder messages to customers when I am waiting

      • Introducing parent-child ticketing in Zoho Desk [Early access]

        Hello Zoho Desk users! We have introduced the parent-child ticketing system to help customer service teams ensure efficient resolution of issues involving multiple, related tickets. You can now combine repetitive and interconnected tickets into parent-child

      • Please verify my account

        Hi, We have just launched our website and received media coverage in our country. Hundreds of users are signing up for our platform every day. We would like to send them a welcome email, but we are unable to do so because our ZeptoMail account has not

      • Payment Card or Identity form-fill from Vault?

        Hello! I'm working on replacing Bitwarden with Vault and one issue I've run into is that I can't find any option to fill address and payment forms from Payment Card or Identity info that has been saved in Vault. Is there a way to do this? Is it a planned

      • Ability to add VAT to Retainer Invoices

        Hello, I've had a telephone conversation a month ago with Dinesh on this topic and my request to allow for the addition of VAT on Retainer Invoices.  It's currently not possible to add VAT to Retainer Invoices and it was mutually agreed that there is absolutely no reason why there shouldn't be, especially as TAX LAW makes VAT mandatory on each invoice in Europe!   So basically, what i'm saying is that if you don't allow us to add VAT to Retainer Invoices, than the whole Retainer Invoices becomes

      • Time Log Reminder

        Tracking the time spent on tasks and issues is one of the most important functions of a timesheet. However, users may forget to update the time logs because they have their own goals to achieve. But, time logs must be updated at regular intervals to keep

      • [Early-access] Introducing Zoho's CommandCenter - Cross-Zoho business process automation

          Resources to help Webinar recording | Documentation  Feature Restrictions Currently available on early-access only for US data center accounts Features Role CommandCenter as a Service uses signals across Zoho services to propel the movement of records

      • Tip #58- Accessibility Controls in Zoho Assist: Learning- 'Insider Insights'

        Learning should be clear and interruption-free for everyone. Timely feedback plays an important role in helping users understand actions as they happen, without breaking their focus. In this post, we’ll explore the final section of Accessibility: Learning.

      • ZIA "Generate Content" action doesn't have contexual data from the ticket

        "Generate Content" action doesn't have contexual data from the ticket. I try to get AI to help me with this ticket but it doesn't seem to have any ticket information as context. Although the ticket has a lot of information in it.

      • Zoho Desk - Zoho FSM Integration issue on Mobile and iPad

        Hello Team, I am trying to create a Work Order (WO) using the Zoho FSM integration (Add-on Service) that is integrated with Zoho Desk. The issue is that the integration is not working on mobile devices and iPads. While I am able to create the WO, Request,

      • E-File Form 1099 Directly With the IRS From Zoho Books

        The Form 1099 filing season has begun, and businesses are required to e-file certain forms with the IRS to report payments made to vendors and contractors. If your business made qualifying payments during the year, you must e-file the appropriate Form

      • Can I hide empty Contact fields from view?

        Some contacts have a lot of empty fields, others are mostly filled. Is there a way I can hide/show empty fields without changing the actual Layout? I would like to de-clutter my view, and also be able to add information later as I am able. I would be willing to learn to code a button, but I am highly confused about it and thus worried it would be beyond me.  I've looked at a lot of the developer documents and I'm not able to make a lot of sense of them.  Thank you in advance to anyone who knows the

      • Suggestions for showing subscribed Topics in CRM (contact record)

        We have several Topics set up in ZMA. We also have a sync set up between ZMA and CRM. I'd like to display the subscribed topics on the CRM Contact record. This will allow the Sales team (who uses CRM) to see at a glance what topics a Contact is subscribed

      • Replies sometimes creating separate ticket

        Sometimes when a customer responds to an email coming from Zoho Desk, instead of adding a reply to the original ticket, a separate ticket is created. This happens even though the response subject line contained the ticket number, and the person responding

      • Re-hide fields when option is unselected

        Hi all Can anyone help me with this - when I create a 'show' field rule for when a dropdown option is selected, how to I make it so the 'show' option re-hides if that option is no longer selected?

      • Allow Attaching Quartz Recordings to Existing Zoho Support Tickets

        Hi Zoho Team, We would like to request an enhancement to how Zoho Quartz recordings integrate with Zoho Support tickets. Current Behavior: At the moment, each Quartz recording automatically creates a new support ticket. However, in many real-world scenarios:

      • I'm getting this error when I try to link an email to a deal inside the Zohomail Zoho CRM extension.

        When I click "Yes, associate," the system displays an "Oops!! Something went wrong" error message. I have attached a screenshot of the issue for reference.

      • Custom Fields

        There is no way to add a custom field in the "Timesheet" module. Honestly, the ability to add a custom field should be available in every module.

      • Remove the “One Migration Per User” Limitation in Zoho WorkDrive

        Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to raise a critical feature request regarding the Google Drive → Zoho WorkDrive migration process. Current Limitation: Zoho WorkDrive currently enforces a hard limitation: A Zoho WorkDrive

      • Translation from Chinese (Simplified) to Chinese (Traditional) is not working. It randomly translated. Google Translate accurately but zoho translate is not working at all

        Hi friends, The newly added language for translation. https://www.zoho.com/deluge/help/ai-tasks/translate.html "zh" - Chinese "zh-CN" - Chinese (Simplified) "zh-TW" - Chinese (Traditional) my original text: 郑这钻 (and it is zh-CN) translated traditional

      • Consultant-Only Booking Page

        Zoho Bookings does not allow for Meeting Type OR Workspace-Wide booking pages to be turned off. This is detrimental to organizations that have territory-based or assigned accounts, because if prospects can go to these booking pages and either select the

      • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

        The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Latest update

      • Call result pop up on call when call ends

        I’d like to be able to create a pop up that appears after a call has finished that allows me to select the Call Result. I'm using RingCentral. I have seen from a previous, now locked, thread on Zoho Cares that this capability has been implemented, but

      • Custom Sorting based on other columns in table

        I need the ability to apply custom sorting to a text-based dimension in the X axis where the sorting is based on another column in the table. For example, I have a chart report where the X axis is a text label. I would like to be able to sort those text

      • Feature Request: Enable Custom PDF Layout Editor for All Modules (Including Package Slips)

        Hello Zoho Community and Product Team, I am writing to share a suggestion that would significantly enhance the customization capabilities within Zoho Books. We all appreciate the power of the Custom PDF Layouts (the "New" template engine) that allows

      • Is there a way to invoke deluge function from within a widget?

        Hi! I have custom functions in deluge and I was wondering whether there is any way to call this function through a widget? Something like on click of a button inside a widget, run the deluge custom function. Would this be possible?

      • Can a default task Priority be set?

        The "Priority" field in the Task layout does not allow a default to be set. Is there another way of doing it? Because the current default is "None" and the Zoho Kanban board design has selected this field as critical information to surface by including

      • Next Page