Automating Approvals in CPQ: Best Practices and Tips

In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business landscape, Sales Reps are under constant pressure to deliver quotes to their customers in a timely and accurate manner. With intense competition and customers expecting rapid responses, delays in providing quotes can lead to lost sales and frustrated clients. The approval process, a critical step in the quoting journey, often becomes a bottleneck, causing headaches for both sales teams and customers. Automation emerges as the key to overcoming these challenges, and nowhere is its impact more evident than in the realm of Salesforce CPQ, particularly with Advanced Approvals (AA) which comes with a CPQ Plus License. In this blog post, we'll delve into best practices and tips for leveraging Salesforce CPQ Advanced Approvals.‍

The Approval Conundrum
One of the most common pain points during CPQ implementations is the challenging approval process. Delays in approvals or routing quotes to the wrong approvers can lead to significant disruptions in the sales workflow. Recognizing the need for a streamlined and efficient approval mechanism, Salesforce CPQ offers AA to address approval workflow complexities.

‍Utilize Email Approvals with Email Templates
Approvers often need a quick and convenient way to review and approve quotes, especially when on the go. This is where email-based approvals and Visualforce email templates come in handy. Configure email templates to present all necessary information clearly, including specific instructions or a link directly to the quote record in Salesforce. With this setup, approvers can take advantage of AA features to approve or reject directly by replying to the email, even through mobile!

‍Enable Smart and Parallel Approvals to Reduce Approval Cycle Time
Have you ever submitted a quote for approval only for it to make it all the way to the last step in the approval process just to get rejected? If so, you understand the pain or frustration that a Sales Rep might feel thinning about having to resubmit their quote for approval once more. Luckily, Smart Approvals within the AA package can address this issue by preventing reapproval of unchanged quote conditions. This significantly reduces the approval cycle time for quotes that don't initially meet approval thresholds. Additionally, leveraging Parallel Approvers in an Approval Chain allows multiple groups to approve a quote simultaneously, removing sequential dependencies and enhancing overall efficiency. For example, if Operations, Finance, Legal, and the Executive Team all need to approve a Quote, Parallel Approvals will notify all groups at the same time as opposed to in a sequential order. Dynamic Approvers can be utilized to send approvals conditionally based on specific quote criteria allowing for greater flexibility and a reduction in the number of approval rules needed.

‍Use Salesforce Flow with Custom Objects
Salesforce Flow is a powerful tool that can further enhance automation in the approval process. By leveraging Flow, organizations can customize and automate complex approval workflows, ensuring a seamless and efficient process. This flexibility allows for tailored automation based on specific business needs like reminding approvers if they haven’t approved a quote within a specified time period or automatically submitting quotes for approval based on certain conditions. The features of Advanced Approvals open up beyond the realm of Standard Objects, opening up a world of possibilities for you and your organization to take your approval processes to the next level. This, combined with Salesforce Flow, not only enhances flexibility but also showcases the scalability of Salesforce AA, making it a cutting-edge solution for organizations with diverse and evolving business needs.
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‍Conclusion‍

In the competitive landscape of sales, automating the approval process is not just a convenience; it's a necessity. Salesforce CPQ AA, with its powerful features like Email Approvals, Smart Approvals, Parallel Approvals, and integration with Salesforce Flow, offers a comprehensive solution. By adopting these best practices and tips, businesses can streamline their approval workflows, reduce cycle times, and ultimately provide a better experience for both sales teams and customers. Embrace automation to propel your CPQ processes into a new era of efficiency and responsiveness.z