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Working with Proposal Builder in Salesforce

Overview

This article applies to the classic version of Proposal Builder. The Responsive connector for Salesforce is required for the functionality described below.

Proposal Builder provides a way for Sales and Marketing teams to get ahead of opportunities by providing personalized and professional selling/informational documents before they are requested. There are three main building blocks to Proposal Builder - catalogs, section templates and response templates.

Here is an example of the Proposal Builder for Salesforce generation cycle:

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Permissions

If you the have the Custom Roles feature turned on, and want to create a role that allows someone to create proposals from Salesforce, here are the minimum role permissions needed:

  • The Project toggle must be turned on and the following selected:
    • View projects: My
    • Update project information: My
    • Generate export response: My
    • Download export package: My
    • Create project: All
  • The Catalog, Section template, and Response template toggles must be turned on

Select the applicable tab for your edition of Responsive.

  • Creating and managing catalog structures

    Catalog structures are templates that can be used to define and organize various products and services. See Creating and managing catalog structures for more information.

    Creating and managing catalogs

    Catalogs serve as a listing of all the various products, offerings, services of a particular company or product line. See Creating and Managing Catalogs for more information.

    Creating and managing section templates

    Section templates serve as pre-written sections needed for various proposals. They may vary in inclusion and order based on the specific requirements of each proposal (such as introductions, add-ons, or professional services, for example).

    See Working with sections templates in projects or Working with section templates in the Content Library for more information.

    Using catalog merge tags within section templates

    Section templates can be organized like other pieces of content by using metadata such as tags. Doing this helps keep your section templates organized, especially when you have similar section names with different content.

    • Catalog merge tags are automatically replaced with the content of the catalogs that are chosen during proposal creation in Salesforce.
    • Use the catalog merge tag in the section description as below:
      • [catalog#<catalog_tag_name>] or
      • [catalog#<catalog_tag_name>#noname] (to exclude header name)

    See the Updating section templates section of Working with section templates in the Content Library for more information on how to add tags.

    Creating response templates

    Response templates are used to configure the final format of the finished proposal. See Working with Response Templates for more information.

    Creating proposal groups

    To simplify the Salesforce proposal creation process, you can group catalogs, section templates, and response templates together to create Proposal groups.

    1. Go to Organization Settings > Proposal Builder > Proposal Groups and click Create New.
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    2. Do the following on the Create Proposal Group pop-up:
      • Enter a name for the proposal group.
      • Select a primary Business Unit (BU) if applicable.
      • Expand the Catalogs, Section templates and Response templates sections and select the ones you want to include.
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        • You must select at least one catalog, one section template and one response template.
        • Click Preselect if you want these items to be automatically be preselected for the group during proposal generation.
        • Org Settings - PB - Proposal Groups 3.png
    3. Click Create.

    Creating Responsive proposals in Salesforce

    Generating unsolicited proposals

    You can easily create proposals from Salesforce without logging into Responsive.
    Note: Proposal settings must be configured in Responsive to be able to generate proposals from Salesforce.

    1. From the Salesforce Opportunities page, click Create Proposal to go to the Responsive Projects page in Salesforce.
      Note: Any proposal groups that have been created in Responsive are listed here.
    2. Select a proposal template and specify the required details.
      • Once the template is selected, the sections, catalogs, and response templates available in the proposal template are listed in each section.
      • The catalogs, sections templates and response templates belonging to the proposal group will be listed with pre-selections if made during proposal group creation.
    3. Check the Auto-publish proposal to Salesforce box if the Auto-publish export response packages to Salesforce option is turned off in your Organization Settings.
    4. (Optional) While creating the proposal, you can create a project at the same time by attaching RFx files and other supporting documents. If you'd like to create a project during this process, see the Creating projects during the proposal creation process section below.
    5. Click Generate Proposal, then click Generate on the Preview proposal pop-up. The created proposal is exported as a package and is displayed on the Salesforce page.
      • It may take a few seconds for the package to be generated. You can refresh the page to view the proposal.
      • The proposal will be available in .zip format on the Opportunities page of Salesforce.
      • A project with the proposal details is created in Responsive and is available under the project's Export Responses page.

    Generating Proposals that include RFx

    1. In Salesforce, click Create proposal option under Opportunities page.
    2. In Responsive, go to Organization Settings > Proposal Builder > Preferences and provide the proposal details.
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    3. Choose a Proposal Template from the drop-down list. The catalogs, sections templates, and response templates belonging to the proposal group will be listed with pre-selections if made during proposal group creation.
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      Note: If no selection is made, choose the required catalogs, section templates, and response template for your proposal.
    4. Upload your RFx under Attach RFx Questionnaire.
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    5. (Optional) Add attachments to your proposal from the Attach Supporting Documents section.
    6. (Optional) Click Advanced Options to clone sections from the existing projects into your proposal. These sections will be displayed in the Table of Contents.
    7. Click Create Project. The Project primary contact and additional primary contact provided in the proposal details form will be sent a mail notification with an option to directly view the package in Responsive under Export Responses.
    8. Click Open Project on the prompt to view the project in Responsive.
      Note: You can manage your RFx and generate proposal from Export Responses.

    Creating projects during the proposal creation process

    While creating a proposal, you can directly create a project by attaching RFx files and other supporting documents.
    Note: You can either use files from Notes and Attachments, or import local files.

    • If an RFx file is is attached, the Create Project button appears instead of the Generate Proposal button during Step 5 of the Creating Proposals from Salesforce section above.
    • Upon clicking Create Project, a Success message appears (to view the project, click Open Project on the message window). The project is created and appears in the Projects page of Responsive and is also visible in Salesforce.

    Salesforce CPQ integration

    Note: This is an add-on feature that applies only to the classic version of Proposal Builder and must be enabled prior to use. Contact your account manager, or accountmanagers@responsive.io, to enable it.

    This feature allows you to include Salesforce CPQ quotes in projects with Proposal Builder. Users can pull pricing tables from quote objects and configure Quote Tables quickly and easily, allowing you to configure multiple quote object items within a single document. Proposal Builder includes all the quotes associated with the opportunity, and the quote details appear at the bottom of the proposal document.
    Note: The quotes must be associated with the opportunity before Quote Tables can be used.

    1. Locate the Quote Table option.
      CPQ_Screen1_SelectQuote.png
    2. Click the Edit icon and select a Quote template. The selected quotes are generated along with the Proposal Document and is embedded at the end of it.
      CPQ_Screen1_SelectTemplate.png

  • Essentials features are subscription-based and may not be available for all users. Contact your account manager, or accountmanagers@responsive.io, for more details.

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