Today we will be learning in depth about CPQ quotes and quote templates. If you are looking for speed and accuracy in a sales process, Salesforce CPQ is your solution. In CPQ, C is for configuration, which means making it easy to choose the right products according to the customer’s requirements. P is for Pricing which ensures the price amounts will be calculated in simple steps. And last but not least, Q stands for Quotation or Quotes, by which we share the order details in a proposal document in PDF format.

The days are gone when we open a template in a word processor and customize a proposal for every sale. Salesforce CPQ already knows customer details, prices & products, so it will create a professional quote just in a few clicks. Here there is no room for typo errors, forgotten details, or price calculation mistakes.

 

Create Your First Quote Template

As we know in Salesforce CPQ, we have some readymade templates to use for quotes. But in the real world, you might want to have a customized template with specific details. Let’s create a basic quote template to generate simple proposals.

The Template will have some details about your company, the customer, the sales rep, the products and their prices, and a signature block. This information is fixed in a layout.

• In the navigation bar, Under Quote Templates and click on New.
• Enter EWS Health Proposal as template Name
• By checking Default, it will make the template select the Generate Document page.
• Enter Top Margin as 0.5.
• Next, enter the Company Name as EWS Health company.
• Then enter the Company Slogan as Care for Everyone!
• Lastly, enter the contact number for the Company Phone
• Now you can either enter all the information for the company or skip it. But in real life, one must fill the whole information.
• Enter Shading Colour as #A020F0(Hex code for a nice shade of purple)
• Now click Save.

Easy right? You have a new personalized quote template! Let’s see what it looks like when used with Q-00067.

• Open Quotes Q-00067. And Preview Document.
• You will see EWS Health Proposal template should be selected automatically since was default. Click Preview.
• It will look similar, but it will have your custom purple colouring. Close the window now.

A good share of important information is on the basic proposal; One thing you might notice is that there is some text under the Terms & Conditions section. It’s because your CPQ-enabled org comes with sample Quote Terms, and Salesforce CPQ automatically includes them on all proposals.

 

Structure a Customized Quote Template

You can create a basic quote template and it will do a decent job for customers in sharing quote details. However, it has some limits. For example, you can’t change the structure of the template. Also, the cover page and layout. Most organizations want a great presentation through their proposal document. Fortunately, Salesforce CPQ provides tools to admins by which they can make required changes.

Let’s create content with HTML editor:

• In the navigation bar, open Template Content. And click New.
• Choose HTML as content type. Later you will learn about the other types of content.
• Click Continue and enter EWS Health Contact Details for Content Name.
• Click on the Table icon. Enter 2 for Rows. And click OK.
• Enter Prepared For in top-left cell. And Prepared By in the right.
• For just practice copy the below code & paste it in the bottom-left cell

{!quote.SBQQ__BillingName__c}

{!primaryContact.Name}

{!primaryContact.Phone}

• For Bottom-right cell-

{!template.SBQQ__CompanyName__c}

{!salesRep.Name}

{!salesRep.Email}

• Click Save now.

Similarly, you can add styling too.  I won’t dive into this part too much. This blog is to give you an overview of what Salesforce CPQ can do when we talk about Quote templates.

 

Add Conditions to Template Sections

It’s normal for organizations to have more than one type of proposal which takes care of different quoting situations. For instance, a formal proposal can include a cover page, but a casual proposal can be sent without a cover. What if you can do both tasks with just a single quote template? Salesforce CPQ can, by using the template section seem conditionally using its Conditional Print Field.

The Conditional Print Field tells Salesforce CPQ when the section appears on the template section. Let’s say you can have a checkbox on the quote to Include Cover Page which can be checked by sales reps if needed.

Let’s see how we can do this.

Open Setup. The Setup page opens in a new tab.

• Open Quote under Object Manager.
• Under Fields & Relationships. Click New. And choose Checkbox.
• Click on Next. For Field Label, put Include Cover Page.
• Click Next, Next, and Save.

Now you should update the Conditional print field picklist so that we can use this new field for template selection.

• Open Template Section under object Manager.
• Open Conditional Print Field under Fields & Relationships.
• Click New under the Values section.
• Enter Include_Cover_Page__c and save.

With a little creativity and some basic setup using Salesforce CPQ, you can edit your quote details when needed and show them when they’re needed. From a cover page to a signature you can create a proposal in just a few clicks. Good job!

 

To learn more about CPQ, check out the related articles below!

 

Additional Resources

• Trailhead by Salesforce: Structure a Customized Quote Template
• Automate Customer Lifecycle with Salesforce CPQ
• Guide Selling with Salesforce CPQ

Cover Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash