How to Create Product Bundles and Groups in Salesforce Without CPQ
At a Glance
Many executives believe they need CPQ to build product bundles and packages in Salesforce - but that isn't true.
Instead, the GSP Product Manager is a great place to start if you want an easy way for your sales team to add multiple products to opportunities or quotes (without the cost or hassle of CPQ).
The Product Manager allows salespeople to add individual products, bundles, and groups to opportunities and quotes. The essential difference between the two types of packages is that bundles have a fixed overall price, whilst the cost of a group is the sum of the constituent products.
In addition, the app provides an intuitive interface that enables admins to quickly and easily build the product packages the sales team needs to improve productivity and increase revenue.
As such, the Product Manager is a compelling alternative to CPQ if your sales team needs to add product bundles and groups to opportunities and quotes in Salesforce.
Let's dive in.
The Difference Between Product Bundles and Product Groups
The Product Manager supports both product bundles and product groups, but they work in slightly different ways:
- A product bundle has a total price defined at the bundle level.
- A product group is always the sum of all the individual items.
Let's take two examples.
Example – Product Bundle:
Imagine you have five products in a bundle, and their combined individual prices total $10,000. The product manager has the ability to price the bundle at $10,000 or choose a different amount. Either way, when a salesperson adds that bundle to an opportunity, the price remains fixed as set by the product manager.
In other words, salespeople cannot modify the quantity of individual items since the bundle price is pre-defined ($10,000 in our example).
Example – Product Group:
Now, take the same five products in a product group, where the total price is also $10,000.
In contrast to a bundle, when adding this product group to an opportunity, salespeople can adjust the quantity of items within the group because the total cost will automatically update based on these changes.
The Product Manager offers additional flexibility within these principles, which we’ll explore shortly.
The Benefits of Product Bundles and Product Groups
Businesses often want to create product packages in Salesforce for four critical reasons:
- Better Usability: Product bundles and groups make it quick and easy for salespeople to add multiple products to an opportunity. This improves usability in Salesforce and reduces time spent searching for products.
- Product Dependencies: Sometimes, interdependencies mean you must add related or supporting products to the core item. Creating bundles or groups reduces the risk of overlooking essential supporting products.
- Commercial Incentives: Bundling products or creating groups can enable you to offer customer incentives, such as purchasing multiple products at discounted prices.
- Incremental Value: The standard ‘Add Products’ interface in Salesforce doesn’t make it easy to find complementary products that will increase the value of an opportunity, especially if you have a significant number of products. Product bundles or groups help improve your business’s revenue by increasing the average number of products per opportunity.
How to Create Product Bundles and Groups in Salesforce
The Product Manager provides a straightforward interface for creating both product bundles and product groups in Salesforce.
The video below shows the process for creating both of these, without the need for CPQ.
Here are all the steps you will need to follow to create a product bundle or group:
- Click the Product tab.
- Click Create Package to open the Manager.
- Select Product Bundle / Product Group.
- Use the Wizard to add products to the bundle.
- Click Add Section to fine-tune the bundle layout.
- Drag and drop products into relevant sections.
- Enter the bundle or group price.
- Click Save.
How to Add Product Bundles and Groups to Opportunities and Quotes
The Product Manager makes it quick and easy for salespeople to add individual products, bundles, and groups to opportunities and quotes.
If you want to see how easy it is to add individual products to opportunities, check out this blog post:
Smarter Product Selection in Salesforce with the GSP Product Manager
Alternatively, here's a short demonstration of how salespeople can add bundles and groups to opportunities:
Here's the step-by-step process.
When a salesperson opens the Product Manager, they will see their products, bundles, and groups categorized in the left-hand pane.
System administrators can choose to place bundles in any category. In this example, let’s expand the ‘Generators’ grouping. You’ll see a combination of products, bundles, and groups.
Each group or bundle can be expanded; for example, let’s see the details within the Solar Large Roof Group.
Clicking the ‘+’ icon will add this product group to the opportunity.
Then, by clicking the cog icon next to the selected group, the salesperson can fine-tune their product selection.
The example below demonstrates how the Product Manager's built-in flexibility allows the salesperson to adjust the components within the group (remember – this is a product group, so the salesperson has more flexibility than with a bundle).
Once the products within the group have been selected, clicking Save will add the group and its products to the opportunity.
Commonly Asked Questions
What to Do Next
Now that you’ve seen how to create product bundles and groups in Salesforce and how to add them to opportunities, here are three ways to take the next step:
1. Learn how GSP apps offer a simple, high-value, low-cost alternative to CPQ in Salesforce: Understand more about how the GSP Product Manager, GSP Volume Pricing, and the GSP Subscription Manager work to streamline Salesforce product configuration by reading our article:
The Low-Risk Alternative to CPQ in Salesforce and Revenue Cloud
2. Find out more about the GSP Product Manager: Get pricing details, key features, and more by visiting our Product Manager page.
3. Get in touch! Do you have any questions, or would you like to see the Product Manager in action? Complete the contact form below to arrange a meeting.
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