This MGI 360 Rating™ is designed to help buyers, suppliers, and investors assess the product functionality, management teams, channel breadth, marketing strategy, and financial positioning of Salesforce‘s Configure Price Quote (CPQ) tool.

Salesforce receives an MGI 360 Rating of 61 and a Neutral analyst outlook in the Configure Price Quote (CPQ) market. With over 6,000 customers, Salesforce CPQ is the most widely sold CPQ solution in the market. In the past decade, Salesforce effectively brought CPQ to the masses and transformed sales quoting in the process. Functionally, the product is average and best suited for organizations with low-to-moderate sales complexity and modest volumes. While customer satisfaction is mixed, the product outcompetes others in its breadth and depth of integration, ecosystem, and brand visibility. In 2024, the company rebranded Revenue Lifecycle Management (RLM) to Revenue Cloud. This announcement marks the latest attempt to revitalize the CPQ brand and increase growth. While there is some market skepticism at the rate of customer adoption in RLM/Revenue Cloud, Salesforce has the resources and brand equity to significantly impact the industry. The current CPQ offerings (there are several variations) are in transition, and a newly architected version of Salesforce CPQ is being launched. Current and prospective customers should prepare for a re-implementation of Salesforce CPQ, with the associated time/expense of such endeavors. Revenue Cloud, as described today, is broad and aspirational in its functional reach.

*This graph highlights how CPQ vendors, including Salesforce, compare with one another across a combination of key factors. Salesforce’s go-to-market and solution strength are broken down in depth in the report. A fully labeled version of this graphic can be found inside the CPQ Top 25 Buyer’s Guide.

Who Is Salesforce?

Salesforce [NYSE: CRM] is a leading provider of sales and marketing automation applications. The company entered the CPQ market in 2015 and now has the largest installed base of CPQ software.

What Is Configure Price Quote?

Configure Price Quote (CPQ) is a software discipline that enables companies to automate complex sales processes. It is typically packaged as a mini-suite of related capabilities enabling precise product configuration, accurate pricing, and rapid quote presentation across all types of channels – direct, indirect, partner/reseller, self-service, guided e-commerce, and OEMs. CPQ is a key element of the agile monetization platform.

CPQ solutions promise a smooth end-to-end customer experience, reduced friction in the sales process, and improved precision and accuracy of product combinations, pricing, terms, and conditions. When properly implemented, CPQ reduces the possibility of quote rejection due to human error. It makes the sales channel smarter and faster, and makes the sales process and downstream outcomes more predictable.

CPQ allows mass customization of relatively complex product lineups, enabling channels to sell complex products at scale. This applies to a broad range of product types – from digital subscriptions and financial services to cars and wind turbines. CPQ has applications in a broad spectrum of industries and business models across a range of stages of maturity: B2B and B2C, physical, digital, and hybrid combinations of goods and services, across myriad channel combinations.

What Are MGI 360 Ratings?

MGI 360 Ratings™ are a comprehensive structured system for evaluating technology companies. The MGI 360 scores reflect analyst opinions based on a scale of 0 to 100, combined with an analyst outlook (Positive, Negative, or Neutral). The 360 Rating system is comprised of 149 unique data points across five pillars:

  • PRODUCT: How strong is the product’s competitive position?
  • MANAGEMENT: How competent and experienced is the management team?
  • CHANNELS: Does the company have a sales capability and channels needed to bring products to market?
  • STRATEGY: Does the company have a realistic view of the opportunity and a compelling strategy for success?
  • FINANCE: Is the company growing and profitable?

360 Ratings in Configure Price Quote condense hours of research and customer references into simple, easy-to-understand ratings and recommendations to clearly demonstrate strengths, weaknesses, and differences among CPQ software vendors. All 360 Ratings in Configure Price Quote are available in the CPQ Top 25 Buyer’s Guide.

MGI clients can download the report below to find out how Salesforce compares to peer averages in the CPQ market.

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