In the contracting process, sales and legal teams play a vital role in deal closures. While the sales team is accountable for crafting a quote and converting the very quotation to contract, the legal team is required to review that contract towards approval. For both, doing the job manually is tedious and time consuming, prone to errors. Therefore, the need of the hour is the seamless CLM integration with Salesforce CPQ that helps teams maximize efficiency, productivity and accuracy in the ecosystem.

In this blog, we will explore why you should choose a modern AI-powered CLM that can seamlessly integrate with Salesforce CPQ tool to enhance your sales cycle times and close deals faster.

_{CPQ- Configure, Price, Quote}

Crafting a quote manually during sales proposals is time consuming and prone to varied risks.  What if you forgot something important such as a discount in your quote? Or is there any pricing error while crafting it? Having spent hours on the quoting process with no desired outcomes makes sales teams frustrated, leading to increased contracting cycle times. Undoubtedly, efficiency and accuracy in the sales contracting process are key to maintaining a competitive edge. A CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) tool helps sales teams automate and optimize the quoting process ensuring the proposals are accurate and tailored to customers’ specific needs.  

But after quoting phase, what next? Here arrives the role of a legal team who is not deriving any benefit from CPQ and needs a specific CLM platform to function.

‍_{What is Salesforce CPQ?}

Salesforce CPQ (Configure, Price and Quote) is a sales software tool that helps enterprises to configure products, accurately label the price for those products and generate quotes promptly. The CPQ software tool ensures that sales teams can provide customers with precise pricing and product configurations, minimizing errors and expediting the sales process, enhancing the entire cycle.

‍_{What is Contract Lifecycle Management?}

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Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) refers to the process of managing contracts from initiation, negotiation, reviewing, approval   through execution, performance, expiry and renewal.  CLM systems help enterprises to automate and streamline contract processes across lifecycle stages, minimize risks, ensure adhering to compliances and improve overall efficiency.

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_{Why CLM Integration with CPQ is Required}‍

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A CPQ as a standalone tool, for example Salesforce CPQ template, might be a boon for the sales team to increase sales productivity while crafting a quote /quotation process, but other stakeholders involved (customers, employees) in sales cycle may not benefit much owing to the poor or no integration between the CPQ and CLM. Thus, the requirement of CLM integration with Salesforce CPQ surfaces which facilitates a smooth transition from price quotation to negotiation of a contract and continues through the final signature, renewal, and maintenance of the contract/ document concerned. The legal team might need an AI-powered assistant to review the contract after the sales team has just finalized on quoting.

Enterprises need to be proactive, and CLM Integration with Salesforce CPQ tool is the right decision to ensure a seamless transition from the phase of sales quote generation to contract execution. You can experience more ease, control and growth when there is robust integration between CPQ and CLM systems. Based on the pricing and discounting policies, the integration automates the quoting process as well as the approval and other contracting workflows. This leads to higher sales productivity and compliance   and consistency in the contracting process with enhanced customer experience.  

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^{Integrating CLM with Salesforce CPQ: Benefits}

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The CLM integration with Salesforce CPQ leads to an increased sales productivity as it provides the sales team with single user experience leading to greater adoption rates. Both the sales and legal contract teams work together from a unified platform, a centralized location called ‘single source of truth platform’. This allows less prone to duplication of varied processes and minimizing manual errors. Access to contract data and AI-powered contract analytics enable them to uncover valuable insights leading to speeding up the deal closure process.

_{Benefits of integrating AI-powered CLM with Salesforce CPQ tool are:}

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Seamless data flow between CLM & CPQ: The integration of the two systems ensures that data flows in the right direction, seamlessly between the AI-CLM system and the Salesforce CPQ software tool. This allows maximizing efficiency and consistency across platforms with the scope of near-zero errors.

Enhancing Efficiency: The integration involves seamless automation of the overall quoting and contracting processes. Automating quoting process is based on inputs like predefined pricing and discounting policies. Contracts can be created directly from opportunities, quotes, or orders, ensuring consistency and reducing manual errors.  Automating the transition process, right from ‘Quote’ to ‘Contract’ reduces manual work, speeds up the sales process in the contracting cycle allowing sales teams to just focus on closing deals.

Enhancing Compliance: The CLM-CPQ Integration facilitates smooth and consistent compliance process, sales contracts adhering to company policies and regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of legal issues.  During the negotiation stage, when contracts are sent for internal approvals before being shared with customers, the integration ensures the process is compliant with standards while reducing the risk of errors.  

Improved Contract Visibility: Sales teams gain better visibility into the contract status, helping them manage customer expectations and follow up on pending approvals or signatures.

Reduced Risk: By automating contract management including the sales process, enterprises can reduce the risk of errors, missed deadlines and opportunities, and non-compliance issues.

_{Integrating CLM with Salesforce CPQ: Challenges}

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Integration Complexity: Integrating two robust systems like CLM and Salesforce CPQ can be a complex affair due to the lack of adequate technical expertise in an organization.

Lack of Accuracy during Data Migration: Maintaining accuracy during data migration process between systems is a challenging task for enterprises following an outdated integration system. Especially if there are large volumes of data or complex data model/architecture in the integration space.

Lack of Customization as per Needs: Customizing the CLM-CPQ integration to meet specific business needs can be time-consuming and may require recurring and continuous maintenance. This ends up in huge overhead costs beyond the budget, leading to revenue leakages in enterprises involved.

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_{Best Practices for CLM-CPQ Integration}

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Defining Goals: Define your clear objectives, set goals before you start your integration journey. This ensures that the CLM integration with Salesforce CPQ meets your specific business needs maximizing ROI.

Choosing the Right Integration Platform: Select the integration platform that is compatible with   both Salesforce CPQ and your CLM system. Seek the advice from an expert in the field.

Ensure for Accuracy in Data Migration: Develop a detailed plan for data migration, including data mapping, validation, and testing to ensure accuracy.

Testing Thoroughly: Conduct thorough testing to identify and resolve any issues before going live with the integration.

Training Your Team: Provide training for your sales and contract management teams to ensure they understand how to use the integrated system effectively.

Monitor and Optimize: Continuously monitor the integration to identify areas for improvement and optimize the system for better performance.

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_Bottomline

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Integrating AI-powered CLM platform with Salesforce CPQ software helps to streamline the entire sales processes by automating, managing contracts alongside quotes and pricing. The integration leads to improved sales productivity, reduced time spent on repetitive tasks, and enhanced customer experience. By following best practices and addressing potential challenges, you can ensure a successful integration that delivers significant benefits to your business.

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Explore how AI-CLM integration platform with Salesforce CPQ can enhance your sales contracting process maximizing deal closing rates and enhancing ROI. Connect with our experts today for step-to-step guidance.

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