In Episode 1, Salesforce Go turned on the Revenue Cloud foundation in minutes. But we were still left with an empty catalog, no products, and no pricing to quote with. Salesforce Go gives you a reference product catalog to get started: the Subscription Selling Solution.
In this episode of our Salesforce Go for Revenue Cloud Series, Khaled El Halabieh installs it in a clean sandbox and shows exactly what it does, what broke along the way, and the manual steps it still leaves on your plate.
What is the Subscription Selling Solution?
The Subscription Selling Solution is a reference configuration installed within a single guided flow. Salesforce positions it as something you install from Salesforce Go in a sandbox, so you can evaluate a subscription-selling setup before going anywhere near production.
Episode 1's initial setup puts in the foundation, while this gives you a working catalog and pricing to start quoting:
Foundation + Data: Installs the Revenue Cloud foundation, then product catalog and pricing content, in a single guided flow.
Sample Data: Catalog, categories, and pricing you can quote from right away. For an evaluation, include it.
Configuration: Setup > Salesforce Go > Revenue Cloud, filter by Get Started, then click Set Up on the Subscription Selling Solution tile. Choose Standard Installation and tick Include Sample Data.
Components
In our demo org, the install loaded a sample subscription catalog called QuantumBit: 3 catalogs, 50 products, 63 pricing options, and 4 selling models.
Behind the catalog, the setup also switched on 5 pricing and discovery procedures and 2 qualification rule sets, and moved product, catalog, and attribute pages onto Revenue Cloud layouts. Discovery context is activated so reps can search and filter products, and qualification rules decide what each customer can buy.
Demo: Subscription Selling Solution
In the following video, Khaled sets up the Subscription Selling Solution in a demo org and shows what it includes at design-time and how it works at run-time.
Grab the slides: Download here
Setup Issues
The install wasn't one-click for us. On a demo org, we hit three issues:
Code Coverage below 75%
Data Load Failures
Catalog Cache Access
The data load failures had five root causes worth knowing before you start:
Lookups still held source-org record IDs.
Selling models already existed under different names, so prices and options couldn't find them.
Picklists were missing a required Code, which blocked every attribute.
Some attribute links in the source data were wrong.
Running the load three times created duplicates that had to be cleaned up. We fixed everything and verified the result by querying the org.
Post-Install Manual Steps
After the automated steps, you need to execute the below manual steps or the run-time will not work.
Watch Out For
Decision Tables: Refresh all six (product category qualification, product qualification, price book entries, volume discount, bundle-based adjustment, and attribute discount entries) and confirm each succeeds. Without this, discovery and pricing don't see the sample data.
Price Adjustment Schedule Constants: These fail silently. They hold org-specific record IDs, so discounts simply won't apply if they're wrong.
PCM Cache Refresh Flow: Data Translation must be off before you create it.
The full list is in Salesforce's Subscription Selling Solution help article
Keep In Mind
Reference Catalog, Not Your Catalog: The sample product catalog does not contain your business's products, naming, pricing, etc. This is great for a POC or demo, but you will need to update or replace the catalog with your own.
Manual Steps: Remember to execute the manual steps after the automated ones. Use Salesforce Go's list as a checklist.
Record IDs in Constants: Price adjustment constants are org-specific. Re-set them after every sandbox refresh or deployment, and automate or document it.
DevOps: Typically if you want to promote this up, you would run it in the first environment in your pipeline, e.g. Development, then deploy it through your pipeline to QA, UAT, and production.
Wrapping up
Cutting to the chase, here's how we would use it for a project:
Discovery Demo Org: Spin it up in a sandbox before your first workshop. Showing stakeholders a real subscription quote in action with tiered and bundle discounts in week one beats slides.
Design Reference: Understand how all the pieces fit together, such as the product catalog, pricing proceure, and expression sets. Even if you don't keep them, you'll get an understanding of the end-to-end CPQ architecture.
Team Enablement: Give admins and sales ops a training sandbox while your real catalog is still being designed and built.
About the author
Khaled El Halabieh is a Principal Technical Architect at Stratus Carta. He has spent 10 years in the Salesforce ecosystem, working across Revenue Cloud and Steelbrick CPQ (Quote-to-Cash). Before joining Stratus Carta, he spent three years on the Revenue Cloud Practice Lead team at Salesforce, focused on delivery excellence. Connect with Khaled on LinkedIn to talk Revenue Cloud.
About Stratus Carta
Planning a Revenue Cloud rollout, or weighing your move from CPQ? Stratus Carta’s team includes former Salesforce and Vlocity practitioners who work closely with Salesforce product teams. We can help you get from foundation to first quote, and from first quote to a design that fits your business. Reach out to us on LinkedIn.
