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

    • Using a CRM Client Script Button to create a Books Invoice

      Hello, I need help handling error messages returned to my client script from a function. The scenario I have setup a client script button which is available from each Deal. This CS executes a crm function, which in turn creates an invoice based on the

    • Building Toppings #2 - Learn how to use Bigin's Developer Console to build toppings

      Hey Biginners, In our last post, we discussed what toppings are, why they're essential to extending Bigin's capabilities, and how the Bigin Developer Center serves as the starting point for building them. As a cloud platform, the Developer Center empowers

    • Proposal for Creating a Unique "Address" Entity in Zoho FSM

      The "Address" entity is one of the most critical components for a service-oriented company. While homeowners may change and servicing companies may vary, the address itself remains constant. This constancy is essential for subsequent services, as it provides

    • Links are incorrect when sent out

      I'm adding in hyperlinks into my eDM. When I send a test email, it's all correct. However, when I send out the eDM, all the hyperlinks jump up one space so none of the links are opening to the correct page. Why is this happening and how can I fix it?

    • Tip of the week #16 - Search and filter threads based on criteria

      Zoho TeamInbox lets you search and filter threads with any information that you have about the thread. You just have to input the criteria and Zoho TeamInbox will list all the threads that match the condition.   Firstly, there is a global search you can

    • Introducing recipient authentication via Stripe Identity

      Hi everyone! It's important to authenticate your recipient's identity before they access and sign important documents to ensure the highest level of compliance. Zoho Sign already helps businesses do this with various authentication methods: SMS OTP Email

    • Introducing Multi-Asset Support in Work Orders, Estimates, and Service Appointments

      We’re excited to announce a highly requested enhancement in Zoho FSM — you can now associate multiple assets with Work Orders, Estimates, and Service Appointments. This update brings more clarity, flexibility, and control to your field service operations,

    • Open a record to edit based on another form being edited

      Hi all, I am trying to edit a record based on another record being edited. It works out like this: When I create a Monthly_Update and then submit I open the Monthly_Levels form and pass the ID from the Monthly_Update to a field called mu. I want it to

    • CRM: hosting a single html file in Zoho and displaying it as a widget

      I have seen that CRM offers the option of uploading a web project to Zoho itself and displaying it as a widget in CRM. The instructions then talk about setting a development environment with Node and developing an application to upload to Zoho. But I

    • Keep Converted Leads

      How do I keep the converted leads in the Leads Module after conversion (converting it to account, contact, deal). I want to add it in a converted stage in the leads module in order to get a report or dashboard and see all converted leads from my pip

    • Customizing Global Search Settings for All Users

      Hi Our team use the brilliant global search functionality within CRM many many times daily. But, we struggle with the out-of-the box columns that CRM gives you. We are always telling users to customize this look to more suit our business, to show the

    • Zoho CRM Kiosk issues

      Firstly this is for a system on the AU servers if that makes a difference. Issues are as follows (For Kiosk): 1. Re-ordering fields in the screen builder is broken. The fields seem to be re-ordering themselves, unless you order everything by moving the

    • Presenting ABM for Zoho CRM: Expand and retain your customers with precision

      Picture this scenario: You're a growing SaaS company ready to launch a powerful business suite, and are looking to gain traction and momentum. But as a business with a tight budget, you know acquiring new customers is slow, expensive, and often delivers

    • Introducing Formula Fields for performing dynamic calculations

      Greetings, With the Formula Field, you can generate numerical calculations using provided functions and available fields, enabling you to derive dynamic data. You can utilize mathematical formulas to populate results based on the provided inputs. This

    • From Zoho CRM to Paper : Design & Print Data Directly using Canvas Print View

      Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce a new addition to your Canvas in Zoho CRM - Print View. Canvas print view helps you transform your custom CRM layouts into print-ready documents, so you can bring your digital data to the physical world with

    • Tip of the Week #77– Stay informed of the activities happening in your organization

      Whenever a message is handled in Zoho TeamInbox, every action is recorded in the Activity Log. This ensures you always know what’s happening across your teams and inboxes. To access it, simply click the Audits icon on the left pane’s top bar after logging

    • Let us add Lookup fields in the Blueprint Transitions

      We are unable to add Lookup Fields in the blueprint transitions in Zoho Desk, we wanted to make it a requirement for our workflow but since it's not available in the transition we cannot. The lookup field exists in the Layout: But it cannot be added/selected

    • Zoho Logs - Not seeing logs since 30 Nov

      Hi, we have a few functions running, I am testing some new ones and noticed that although I can see executions, I cannot see any logs, even when the first line on the functions is a log. I reviewed some existing functions, one of which is invoked on a

    • Workdrive MS Office integration

      Have installed subscribed version of Zoho WorkDrive VSTO runtime not found is the error when I try to install Zoho_WorkDrive_For_Office Unable to open work files in Excel and Word Urgent, since I have migrated all my OneDrive files to work drive already

    • How do I create an update to the Cost Price from landed costs?

      Hi fellow Zoho Inventory battlers, I am new to Zoho inventory and was completely baffled to find that the cost price of products does not update when a new purchase order is received. The cost price is just made up numbers I start with when the product

    • Checkbox Field Mapping Zoho Forms to Zoho Sign

      I have an application that will be filled out via Forms that I am mapping into a PDF Filler on Zoho Sign. I need to have a series of checkboxes mapped to the corresponding fields in Sign and I only see single checkboxes available via the mapping, though

    • How to change Zoho Vault password

      I am searching where I can change the Vault Password after having changed the Zoho account password. I don't see this option anywhere in my account. It should be simple and accessible! Please help. Thanks!

    • Zoho Workdrive - Communication / Chat Bar

      Hi Team, Please consider adding an option to allow admins to turn on or off the Zoho Communication Bar. Example of what I mean by Communication Bar: It's such a pain sometimes when I'm in WorkDrive and I want to share a link to a file with a colleague

    • Prefered Bin Missing in android APP

      Andoroid app dosent show preferred bin in the picklist. The workaround support reccomend is to use the computre to create the picklist. it shuld be information to be shown aas basic for the pciker.

    • When Marking a Multiple Choice Answer Exclusive - Not Following My Survey Disqualification Logic

      Using a multiple choice (many answers) question and I created survey disqualification logic that was working as intended. My question: Disqualification page logic is: If (QUESTION) is "any one of the following" then (OPTIONS) - a custom message populates

    • Where to Add Machines as Products to Map with Assets in Zoho FSM?

      implementing Zoho FSM for a clinical equipment supply company. The business sells and installs clinical machines in hospitals and clinics, and they also handle service requests, scheduled maintenance, calibration visits, and general machine upkeep. In

    • Changing Department often causes the Firefox tab to freeze

      Title, it doesn't seem to happen with neither Opera nor Chrome. And even in Firefox, sometimes it just lets me change the department I'm in no problem, even to All Departments which is probably the most, like, resource heavy? But most of the time, the

    • Show Zoom Link in Recipient's Calendar

      We set up meetings within a record, selecting the "Make this an online meeting".  We use Zoom. Most of the recipients go to their calendar (usually Gmail or Outlook, corporate) to join the Zoom meeting, but there is no Zoom link in the calendar. Can this

    • Creating multiple CRM leads from a Zoho Forms subform

      Hi all, We have a heavily used intake form that is used for new leads as a part of our intake. There is a subform that allows the lead to add additional team members, their titles and other basic info. That form submission creates a new Lead and the subform

    • Passing the CRM

      Hi, I am hoping someone can help. I have a zoho form that has a CRM lookup field. I was hoping to send this to my publicly to clients via a text message and the form then attaches the signed form back to the custom module. This work absolutely fine when

    • Zoho CRM for Everyone's NextGen UI Gets an Upgrade

      Hello Everyone We've made improvements to Zoho CRM for Everyone's Nextgen UI. These changes are the result of valuable feedback from you where we’ve focused on improving usability, providing wider screen space, and making navigation smoother so everything

    • Zoho Bigin - should be able to link a "contact" to multiple "companies"

      Hello Support, I called into telephone support and was told that a contact can only be linked to one company. We have situations were director are contacts of and directors of multiple companies so that seems a basic weakness in Bigin. When go to add

    • Does Thrive work with Zoho Billing (Subscriptions)?

      I would like to use Thrive with Zoho Billing Subscriptions but don't see a way to do so. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thank you

    • Using IMAP configuration for shared email inboxes

      Our customer service team utilizes shared email boxes to allow multiple people to view and handle incoming customer requests. For example, the customer sends an email to info@xxxx.com and multiple people can view it and handle the request. How can I configure

    • Radio button data won't update

      Wondering if anyone is experiencing the same problem. I tried bulk updating our data on Zoho Creator using API and noticed that the radio button field wasn't updated. I have tried updating it manually, it didn't work. When I tried updating a text field

    • Register the 'Contact Role' addition and change as a Potential edition so it can trigger Workflows

      We are trying to use "Contact Roles" in Potentials. Contact Roles are special and different than the other Related lists, so, it may have a special behavior. Something to keep in mind is that you will never have 100 Contact Roles as you can have 100 Tasks, Calls, or any other Related list. In our case we will have 2 in average and up to 4 or 5 maximum. The problem is that we need to bring information from 3 key Contact Roles to the Potential and adding a Contact to the Contacts Roles area never trigger

    • Synchronise item image between Zoho Commerce and Zoho Books/Inventory/CRM

      Here is a blindingly simple idea to tie several Zoho products together. Zoho - please include a method to synchronise the item image (or images) from one Zoho application to another. For example, if you upload an item image in Zoho Inventory, a user should

    • Accessing shared mailboxes through Trident (Windows)

      Hi, I have a created a couple of shared mailboxes. The mailboxes are showing up on the browser based Zoho workplace, but I cannot seem to figure out how to access my shared inboxes through Trident (Windows). Am I missing something or is this feature not

    • Introducing Global Sets for easy management of similar picklists in CRM

      [Update | Sep 2024] We've increased the maximum count limit for global sets. These new limits are now live for AU and JP data centers and will be gradually opened to all. Please check this link for the updated limits. Latest update (December 2025): You

    • Uploading a signed template from Sign to Creator

      Good day, Please help me on how to load a signed document back into Creator after the process has been completed in Sign. Below is the code that I am trying, pdfFile = response.toFile("SignedDocument_4901354000000372029.pdf"); info pdfFile; // Attach

    • Next Page