We want sales. You want sales. Everything you do, everything you want, is for sales. From your swanky office cabin to the water dispenser in the lobby. Everything serves a single purpose of generating more sales. And for driving better sales, your business requires a well-defined Quote-to-Cash mechanism. And the folks at Salesforce CRM are a pro at this. This blog will be elaborating on some of the basics of the Salesforce Quote-to-Cash process. 

Quote-to-Cash… What?

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The sales process might sound like a simple exchange of products and money between two parties. Ask a business owner, and you will know what a complex cobweb it is. Sales are made possible in a stepwise manner involving many independent business departments with different roles and functions. Quote-to-cash or QTC refers to a customer’s journey from a business’s point of view.

 

The journey begins at the customer’s intent of buying a product and ends at the conclusion of the sales. All other steps like quotation, price negotiation, payment, delivery of the products, invoicing, etc., are covered in the QTC process. The purpose of putting all these processes under one umbrella is to make sure that a business has a robust and effective sales process.

Salesforce Quote-to-Cash

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As I mentioned previously, the sales process includes many individual steps. Different departments doing different purposes can and will produce problems in the form of errors, miscommunications, mismanagement of resources and information, duplication of data, etc. This can give a severe blow to your business as such problems will adversely affect the customer’s journey. This is where Salesforce CRM come in.

Salesforce CPQ is a Configure, Price, and Quote application. 

 

Salesforce is known for streamlining business processes and providing a central platform with all the required data and resources for better internal communication, management, and efficiency. Salesforce CPQ and Billing is an extension of the same. Salesforce’s tap into the sales process. Thanks to automation, Salesforce performs tremendously here too. In essence, Salesforce CPQ is the Quote-to-Cash process in automation.

The automation process does two things. The first is to eliminate errors, and the second, it is fast and accurate.

Steps in Salesforce QTC 

The Salesforce QTC sums up the complete sales process in the following steps:

  • Product Configuration

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This is the first crucial step. You have to ensure that the products you are offering solve your customer’s needs. You have to offer them the right combination of products and services. You will have this knowledge from the analytical data you received through your Salesforce CRM to help you provide personalized products for your customers.

  • Pricing

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Here it would help if you were careful. This is the stage where you decide the price that can land you better interest from the customer. You can use offers, discounts, cashback to pull the prospective customer towards making the final call. It would be best if you were cautious, as you may be cutting deep into your profits in the process of landing the sale quickly.

  • Quote Generation

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A formal quote is where the actual sales process happens. Until here, everything was marketing. Ensure that the quotation has all the details, is free of errors, and is easy to understand for any variety of buyers. The quote also needs to be delivered at the right time. Ignoring these simple things can have adverse effects on the buyer’s intentions.

  • Contract Creation and Agreement

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Contracts are vital as they set the terms for you and the buyer of doing the business. A contract is created after getting the thumbs-up from the client. Apart from terms and conditions, the contract should include other essential clauses related to insurance and warranty. The agreement should be straightforward. The client may want to negotiate some aspects of the contract. You may need to change or update the contract multiply times before the deal closes. After all the negotiations and conditions are agreed upon by both the parties and the buyer signs the contract, you can move to the next stage.

  • Payment 

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Depending upon your preferences, the payment can be made before the order delivery or after it. The client might want to make the transaction online or offline. Try having both options available. You don’t want unnecessary delays after the contracts are signed already, do you?

  • Product Delivery and Management

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Everything is done smoothly by far. Delivering the right product at the right time to the right customer is the ultimate goal you should aim for. Customers are Gods, aren’t they? You have to deliver them the perfect product experience. This, in turn, builds up your brand rapport and trust among the buyers. Salesforce will help you here with streamlining orders and shipping.

  • Invoice Generation

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Once again, Salesforce takes the load off your head with automation. Once the product is delivered and received is confirmed by the buyer, an automated invoice is generated and sent to the customer. The invoice can have various details about the order like discounts, offers, final price, and so on.

  • Revenue Realization

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You can realize your revenue only after the buyer has received the product. It’s the last step in the sales process, and this is where you make money. So it would help if you kept an eye here. I know you will, and Salesforce will help.

Salesforce QTC integration will reflect the validated income in the account books. Everything is automated, details are accurate, and you are in love with Salesforce.

 

Conclusion

No matter what effort you put in your business or how great the products and services you offer are. In the absence of a meticulous Quote-to-Cash sales process, your business is bound to suffer. Times are highly competitive, and the customer is aware and spoilt for choice. Customers want the best buying experience, and this is the sphere you want to perfect to take your business sky-high. Salesforce QTC is inarguably the best available platform for that. With excellent flexible tools from AppExchange, you need to look no further.

 

At Metaoups, we have pioneered the Salesforce CRM implementation practices, and our team of seasoned experts can guarantee you the best possible QTC implementation for your business.

Connect with us today. 

 

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