5 Salesforce CPQ Interview Questions (With Answers And Tips)

Updated 29 September 2022

Many businesses use the Salesforce CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) business software application to make impactful sales decisions with minimal errors. When employers interview software developers for Salesforce CPQ positions, they may ask various questions related to the software's configurations, customisations, product options and prices. By understanding the questions employers are likely to ask during interviews for Salesforce CPQ positions, you can practise answering them and improve your chances of getting a job offer. In this article, we provide five Salesforce CPQ interview questions with sample answers to help with your job interview preparation.

Salesforce CPQ Interview Questions With Sample Answers

Here are five Salesforce CPQ interview questions along with their sample answers that can help you prepare for your interview:

1. What is Salesforce CPQ?

Interviewers may start the job interview with this question to gauge your basic understanding of the Salesforce CPQ business software application. You can respond by giving a brief definition of Salesforce CPQ and explaining its uses. You can also mention how businesses can benefit by using Salesforce CPQ.

Example: 'The CPQ in Salesforce CPQ is short for Configure, Price and Quote. It is a business application that you can add to your customer relationship management software to simplify, speed up and better organise the business sales process. You can use it to generate new product details, sell appropriate product combinations, decide on product quantities, target specific customers, determine selling rates, regulate discounts, check stocks, automate approvals and record sales. You can view and manage different sales data and coordinate the inter-functionality of different organisational departments to make essential business decisions for increasing overall sales.'

2. Can you tell us about Salesforce CPQ product rules?

The purpose of this question is to assess your knowledge of creating product rules in Salesforce CPQ. You can answer the question by explaining what product rules are in Salesforce CPQ. You can also explain each of these rules.

Example: 'Product rules in Salesforce CPQ enable businesses to automatically adjust various product options. They can make accurate evaluations of product options and multiple quotes based on customer-made conditions, error conditions and specifically targeted bundles to perform relevant actions. The four product rules in Salesforce CPQ for displaying the correct products to customers are the validation, selection, filter and alert rules.

The validation rules consider predetermined conditions and confirm that these match the values in the quote line field or the product combinations given in a quote. The selection rules consider the options in a bundle and they can then automate the process of adding, removing, hiding, enabling or disabling them. The filter rules prefilter available products and add them to a bundle. The alert rules send alerts to guide and inform businesses when configuring or pricing products.'

3. Can you explain Salesforce CPQ price rules?

This is a frequently asked question during Salesforce CPQ job interviews. The purpose is to test your knowledge of the Salesforce CPQ software's price rules. Since price rules enable businesses to automate and update product price calculations, it is essential to know these rules when working in Sales CPQ. You can list the price rules in your answer.

Example: 'In Salesforce CPQ, the price rules target the configurator to set the field of the configurator evaluation event. The price rules can apply here when the customer saves and when the customer edits and saves a bundle. These rules also target the quote line editor's calculator to set the calculator evaluation event field. Here, the price rules apply before, after or during calculation or during any combination of all three. The price rule record includes price rule fields, price conditions, price actions, configurator evaluation events, price rule considerations and price rules for pricing guidance.'

4. What do you know about Salesforce CPQ product bundles?

Knowing about product bundles is necessary for working with Salesforce CPQ since it is a strategic sales functionality that enhances the customer's shopping experience. When interviewers ask this question, they want to know if you understand the process of guiding customers to select what they are looking for and offering them many attractive options. In your answer, you can explain what product bundles are in Salesforce CPQ and mention the different types of product bundles.

Example: 'Product bundles are Salesforce CPQ solutions that enable the grouping of multiple related products or services for selling them as a single unit for the same price. For creating a product bundle, selecting a product as a parent product is essential. This is generally the product with the highest price. For example, in an industrial ice cream machine bundle, the ice cream machine is the parent product. Sales managers can use the Configuration Type and Configuration Event options to choose the right product options for the product bundle.

The product options are generally related to the parent product. There are different configurable fields that can enable you to set parameters to determine how the product options act in the product bundle. You can select feature options to improve the product options display in a bundle. There are three types of product bundles, namely static bundles, configurable bundles and nested bundles. Static bundles have predefined products, quantities and final prices and do not undergo subsequent changes. Configurable bundles are customisable to suit client preferences or requirements. Nested bundles include parent products of one bundle as options in another.'

5. What are the pricing methods in Salesforce CPQ?

When interviewers ask this question, they want to assess your understanding of the different pricing methods in Salesforce CPQ. Since this knowledge is essential when you work with the software, it is important to be able to answer correctly. You can respond to the question by listing the pricing methods and by providing a brief explanation for each of these Salesforce CPQ pricing methods.

Example: 'There are four pricing methods in Salesforce CPQ namely block pricing, cost-and-markup pricing, batch pricing and contracted pricing. Block pricing involves pricing products according to different quantity ranges against which Salesforce CPQ can check new products and price accordingly. Cost-and-markup pricing involves pricing products according to their costs and markup amounts. In batch pricing, the prices of the components and accessory bundle products depend on static amounts per their quantity ranges. Contract pricing involves using negotiated product prices on new, renewal and amendment quotes.'

Tips To Prepare For Your Salesforce CPQ Interview

Besides preparing for the interview questions on Salesforce CPQ, the following tips may help you improve your chances of getting a job:

Research the company and the role

Research the company, its products and services and the responsibilities of the available role. There are various ways of gathering relevant information, such as viewing the content on the company website, social media sites and professional networking sites. You can use search engines to find online news and articles about the company and its business. This can help you prepare relevant questions for the interviewers and also format your responses according to the company's mission and vision. It can also help you understand the employer's expectations.

Refresh your knowledge of Salesforce CPQ

It is a good idea to refresh your knowledge of Salesforce CPQ before the interview even if you have extensive work experience with this business software application. Being well-prepared can enable you to knowledgeably and concisely answer all the questions that the interviewers might ask. The interview questions may be about using Salesforce tools, developing dashboards, generating visualisations, using dimensions and measures, performing computations, implementing block prices, handling queries and creating representations. You can improve your chances of receiving a job interview by being ready to answer these and other interview questions.

Review the Salesforce CPQ job interview format

You can find out about the company's interview format and conduct similar mock interviews to prepare yourself for the actual one. Consider asking a family member, friend or work colleague to conduct the mock interviews and give feedback on your performance. You can also video record the mock interview and assess how well-spoken, knowledgeable and confident you appear. It is a good way of making improvements in your interview performance and building your self-confidence.

Compile a list of questions to ask the interviewer

Since interviewers often ask if you want to ask them anything, it is advisable to prepare a list of questions to ask about the company and the available position. By doing so, you can demonstrate your diligence in researching the role and your interest in working with the company. It can also help you to participate in the interview process more proactively.

Please note that none of the companies, institutions or organisations mentioned in this article are associated with Indeed.