Salesforce CPQ is a beast to implement but with good reason. The sheer horsepower of the platform allows companies to customize and adapt technology infrastructure to the  evolving Go-to-Market, pricing, and positioning strategies.

For early-stage startups, they are constantly experimenting on the pricing, renewals, and expansion front. In those situations, Salesforce CPQ can be somewhat rigid, lacking the agility to move as quickly as the business needs.

When dealing in the Enterprise, the Quote-to-Cash process has matured - and a platform is needed that can fully enable established business processes.

Splunk is a 20-year-old company but leadership realized a transformation was necessary as they kicked off a massive pivot to subscription billing.

• In Fiscal Year 2019, they sold $1B in one-off licenses and hadn't adopted subscription billing at all yet.
• By FY’22: they did $1.05B in Licenses and a whopping $943m in Subscription revenue.
• Fast forward to FY’24 (Runrate) and they are looking at $933m in Licenses vs. $1.73B in Subscription revenue.

To do achieve this pivot successfully, you need the right Technology infrastructure and a proper investment in the team behind it.

Splunk's Salesforce CPQ Org

Leadership

• (1) Quote-to-Cash Transformation Leader
  

Salesforce Admins

• (2) CPQ Analysts
• (1) CPQ Specialists
  

Salesforce Developers

• (3) Sr. CPQ Engineers
• (2) Salesforce CPQ Engineers
• (1) Salesforce CPQ QA Engineer

In total, 16% of Splunk's 72-person Salesforce Team is dedicated to Salesforce CPQ.

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While most organizations don't need to undertake the kind of transformation seen at Splunk, it speaks to the scalability and horsepower of the CPQ platform.

It's worth investing in but only if your organization is prepared to continuously invest in the resources necessary - this is not a platform you deploy with a Consulting Partner and set aside. It's an ongoing, incremental investment - a living, breathing piece of infrastructure that needs to be treated as such.

Curious to see a Full Breakdown of Splunk's Salesforce Team? Check it out!

Interested in what the Founder of SteelBrick (now Salesforce CPQ) has to say about Why CPQ Requires an Ongoing Investment? Listen to our interview with Max Rudman.
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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Implementing CPQ

If you're considering implementing CPQ, you can schedule a call with us. We'll help you figure out if it's the right move and recommend how to staff it correctly.

In the meantime, here are some baseline mistakes to avoid when adopting CPQ:

1. Trying to do it all at once: Implementing and customizing every process the tool touches on day one can limit your ability to innovate without significant changes. Taking a phased approach to CPQ adoption is essential, focusing on key priorities first.
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2. Implementing and forgetting about it: Revenue Operations should continuously evaluate pricing and packaging strategies. However, adopting CPQ doesn't end with implementation. You need the capability and commitment to implement and manage ongoing changes.