The battle of CPQ: Salesforce vs. Apttus

Today, the business world revolves around how good you can quote your business services to the audience. Therefore, to make this aspect productive for your business, you need to analyze and choose the right solution that would help your business and services stand out in the crowd.

This is termed to be a quote-to-cash platform. Salesforce & Apttus CPQs are the two big rivals when you plan on taking up a quote-to-cash solution for your company. Both of them are big players of the platform and operate effectively. But you still need to choose the ideal one that would deliver you as per your expectations.

Apttus is the platform that enables the sales channels of the company to increase the sales rate and grab a firm hold over the cloud market. The Apttus CPQ is the platform that is responsible for boosting the sales effectiveness of the company by helping the users with a guide to better quotes for the product offerings, channels, and pricing factors. Not only that, but the CPQ quoting software integration on to the company platform will help automate the quote renewals based on the previous pricing.

Salesforce CPQ is yet another popular CPQ solution provider to help the company guide its users with better quotes. This helped in automated sales quoting with discount scheduling and guided selling features. Salesforce CPQ is all about giving you accurate, branded proposals for better business sales opportunities.

Here are some of the comparison aspects that you must consider to help know the efficiency of Apttus CPQ vs. Salesforce CPQ:

Both Salesforce CPQ & Apttus CPQ support Web-based platforms. But Salesforce CPQ comes with an additional iPhone app support, and Apttus CPQ supports the Windows Phone app platform.

Salesforce CPQ attends customers of small, medium, and large-scale businesses, whereas the Apttus CPQ is meant for serving medium and large-sized enterprises.

You can reach out to the Apttus CPQ team through phone, online chat, or video tutorials, whereas Salesforce CPQ is available over the phone and has a knowledge base to let the customers find solutions for all their problems.

These are a few of the comparison aspects of both Salesforce CPQ and Apttus CPQ. There are many more differences to help you understand the true efficacy of both platforms. Continue to read this article, and you will eventually gain impactful knowledge about the topic.

Also Read: Check How to Do Salesforce Customization in Six Easy Steps

1. Apttus CPQ has multiple quoting functionality, you can draft and save quotes with pricing features
2. It proposes to upsell or cross-sell recommendations.
3. You can change the price of your product or service offerings with Apttus CPQ.
4. You can also propose price or discount recommendations with the use of this quote-to-cash solution.
5. You can do commission calculation over your platform along with solution configuration.
6. Apttus CPQ provide customization options to handle the scenarios which are not possible by Apttus CPQ.

1. It gives you the ability to set the price and give a quote.
2. It keeps track of orders and renewals needed.
3. The Salesforce CPQ also acts as a product configurator.
4. The Salesforce CPQ assists in guided selling for improving business sales.
5. You can manage the contracts over this platform.
6. Salesforce CPQ will also handle subscription billing and other payments.
7. Salesforce CPQ offers revenue recognition, sales tax management, and other such transactional solutions.

Apttus CPQ is a sales tool that operates as a multi-channel remedy for medium and large enterprises to avail their price quoting, quote dealings, and configuration services. There is no such estimated pricing info mentioned by Apttus as you need to reach out to them for a demo and then request the price quote based upon your business requirements. As per the reviews are concerned, the services are not too costly.

The Salesforce CPQ has given out its pricing details to the clients and customers to keep everything transparent to help the clients decide better. There are three pricing plans of Salesforce CPQ that include CPQ Plan at $75 per month, CPQ Plus Plan at $150 per month, and CPQ+Billing Plan at a custom pricing plan. The Salesforce CPQ pricing plan breakdown is as follows:

At this price package you get:

At this price package, you get all the services available in the CPQ Plan along with some additional services:

1. Advanced level order management services
2. Portal Integration of the third party
3. Customer self-service
4. CPQ Plan features
5. Partner Self-service
6. Third party API integration

Here, you need to select the services you want based on which you will be given a price quote. But still, some of the services are common and will be provided to you even if you choose them or not. They are:

1. You will get Quotes & orders
2. Tax management services
3. Customer management services
4. Analytics report
5. Receivable management services
6. Payment collections
7. Subscription management services

Here, you will see the comparison of these two quote-to-cash solutions or platforms on select aspects such as Product Offering, Ease of Use, and Scope of Expansion.

Also Read: Step by Step Guide to Create Product Bundle in Salesforce CPQ

Both the products are having great market presence and are highly preferable amongst several businesses. Apttus is equipped with Max-AI, which is the sole efficacy of its CPQ used by the salespeople to generate effective quotes as per the requirements. The AI also chats with the salespersons to give recommendations based upon the quotes. Moreover, Apttus CPQ also offers to cross-sell & upsell opportunities for giving out optimal pricing strategies.

Just like that, Salesforce CPQ is also offering a powerful remedy for quote-to-cash solutions with an easy interface. The design of this platform makes it one of the most known CRM platforms. Salesforce also has an AI named Einstein that gives productive recommendations on quote scoring and also supports guided selling. There are many cool astounding features, such as real-time forecasting right after the quote delivery.

It isn’t easy to choose one amongst the two for the product offering aspect as they both have compelling features within for giving out better quotes. Both are considerably quite commendable in product offering aspects.

The salespeople and end-users are the same persons, and they prefer to pick the product or platform that they find easy for quote-to-cash solutions. No one wishes to take out a few hours of time to understand the software. Both the platforms, Apttus CPQ & Salesforce CPQ, have evolved their functionalities and features to make the design user-friendly for people to understand them easily. This is the sole reason for which both of these platforms have gained popularity in the market. It is simple with these platforms to deliver quality quotes to get your potential clients.

Every business undergoes expansion at some point in time. Therefore, the software they use and the platforms they rely on must also contribute positively to the expansion phase. Both Salesforce, as well as Apttus CPQ, are coming up to assist the expansion phase of the businesses. The Salesforce CPQ DNA is to evolve with the expansion of the businesses and offer developed solutions for the company’s new product offerings.

There are many different types of extensions available with Salesforce that implicates its ability to innovate. Apttus also offers expansion integrations with its partners, but this is on a small scale. If you feel like the base, Apttus CPQ is not able to reciprocate as per your needs; then you need to go for integrations to meet the requirements.

Pros:

1. It is the best tool for configuring prices and vendor quotes.
2. It is a perfect outsourcing tool for NetSuite.
3. It is easy to track and improve sales metrics with the use of Apttus CPQ.
4. The developer guide is truly intuitive, and you will find it easy to follow.
5. It comes with the community & partner portal for additional help.

Cons:

1. The customer support is not that appropriate.
2. All the updates undergo the testing phase to detect unwanted problems.
3. Customization is difficult with Apttus CPQ.

Pros:

1. The customer service is beyond excellent.
2. There are loads of features available for client satisfaction.
3. It is neither too simple nor too complex that makes it an ideal investment.
4. It has flexible pricing plans.
5. Better Lead Management.

Cons:

1. There are obstacles dealing with Steel Brick.
2. Data migration is difficult from other CRM.
3. Difficult to integrate with software of other brands or companies.

Both the products are highly efficient in their fields, and they are designated to offer the correct quote-to-cash solutions. You must come up with adequate research and analysis before investing in any one of them. Both are truly productive in helping you generate higher revenue and better sales.

Are you looking for a Salesforce CPQ Consultant? GetOnCRM Solutions is a global Salesforce registered consulting partner based in California (USA), with offices in Canada and India. At GetOnCRM Solutions, We help customers to get their CRM off the ground with a professional implementation process catered to their specific needs. Contact us for any Salesforce requirements.