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Case Study · Industrial Services · Pricing & Proposal Management

Before the Proposal Went Out, the Pricing Had to Be Right

An industrial services company struggled with pricing corrections, exceptions, and approval delays before proposals could go out. We helped clarify the business rules and connected approved terms to automatic proposal generation, electronic signatures, and status tracking in Salesforce.

The real challenge

The company needed to prepare and send proposals without unnecessary delays. But the pricing and approvals had to be right first. Manual corrections and inconsistent exception handling were slowing down the quote-to-order process.

The challenge

Automating proposals wouldn't fix the pricing problems behind them.

Online quote-to-order processing took approximately 24 hours.
Pricing calculations required manual corrections.
Exceptions needed additional interpretation and intervention.
Proposal preparation depended on resolving pricing and approvals.
Inconsistent order results created reporting cleanup.
What was getting in the way Pricing calculations, exception handling, and approval requirements weren't working consistently. Employees spent time correcting information that should have been resolved before proposals were prepared. We needed to clarify the business rules and preserve the right approval decisions before automating the documents.
How we approached it

We started with pricing decisions, then connected the paperwork that followed.

1
Understand the quote-to-order process
We worked with the team to examine pricing calculations, date-related rules, order processing, and situations requiring corrections or intervention. We focused on what happened before proposals were ready to send.
2
Clarify pricing rules and approvals
We helped define how pricing exceptions should be handled in CPQ, which situations required approval, and who had authority to make those decisions. These agreed rules guided the Salesforce configuration.
3
Connect approved terms to proposals
We configured Conga Composer to generate customer-facing proposals using the appropriate pricing and approved commercial terms from Salesforce, reducing manual document preparation.
4
Connect signatures and status updates
We configured DocuSign to send generated proposals for customer signature and return signing-status updates to Salesforce so employees could track progress.
5
Test the connected process
We tested pricing calculations, exceptions, approvals, document generation, signature requests, and status updates together. We also addressed related reporting and usability issues and supported employee training.
What Changed

Pricing decisions and approvals became part of the proposal workflow.

Before
  • Online quote-to-order processing took approximately 24 hours.
  • Pricing calculations required manual corrections.
  • Exceptions depended on additional interpretation and intervention.
  • Proposal preparation involved separate pricing and approval steps.
  • Inconsistent order results required reporting corrections.
After
  • The covered online-order process moved forward without the previous 24-hour delay.
  • Improved pricing rules reduced the need for manual corrections.
  • Exceptions followed defined rules and approval paths.
  • Approved terms flowed into generated proposals and signature requests.
  • The previous reporting corrections were removed within the project scope.
Why it mattered

Generating a proposal faster only helps when the terms are right before it reaches the customer.

A proposal reflects the pricing and terms a customer is being asked to accept. We helped the organization establish clearer rules and approvals before connecting those decisions to document generation and signatures. The result was a more dependable process, not simply faster paperwork.

The result

Faster order processing, dependable pricing, and connected proposal signing.

Immediate
Covered online quote-to-order processing, previously approximately 24 hours.
Generated
Customer proposals using approved pricing and commercial terms.
Visible
DocuSign signing-status updates tracked in Salesforce.

"Immediate" describes the recorded online-order processing improvement, not customer signing time or every order scenario.

What we worked on
Business Process Improvement Requirements & Solution Design Salesforce Implementation & Optimization Workflow Automation Quoting & Order Management Approval Management Reporting & Dashboards Document Generation Digital Signature Workflows

How much work happens before your team can send a proposal?

If employees are correcting pricing, checking approvals, preparing documents, or tracking signatures separately, we can help connect those steps into a more dependable process.

Let's Look at Your Quote Process