Scaling a manufacturing business comes with challenges, but sometimes, the biggest roadblock isn’t what you’re making—it’s how you’re selling it. Such was the case for a leading manufacturer that partnered with Lane Four.
For years, the manufacturing company relied on a sophisticated, Excel-based pricing and configuration strategy. It served them well—until it could no longer keep pace with their growth. As their product catalogue expanded and sales volume surged, their homegrown system struggled to keep up. Generating quotes became slower as it continued to be a manual process, creating numerous bottlenecks, which eventually led to lost opportunities.
They needed a system that could keep pace with their growth, and that’s where Lane Four stepped in—leveraging their expertise to untangle complex workflows and transform operational challenges into opportunities for success.
Manufacturing Isn’t SaaS—And That Matters Here:
A Custom CPQ Implementation
This company’s old approach had its merits and it got the job done. Sales reps could enter specifications and generate pricing as needed. But speed wasn’t the only factor, as scalability was the real problem. Lane Four identified the biggest challenges for this organization to be complex product configurations, a tedious manual submittal process, and the absence of real-time data. The reliance on manual workflows didn’t just slow things down—it pulled valuable time away from closing deals.
To address these challenges, Lane Four implemented a manufacturing-specific Salesforce CPQ solution designed to handle the intricate demands of the business, ensuring greater efficiency. Some key factors in the project included:
- Highly Configurable Products → The client’s products offered extensive customization, with numerous interdependent options and constraints. For example, selecting one component or size dictated compatibility with others, and pricing involved intricate multipliers based on dimensions. This required a flexible and detailed CPQ setup to accommodate thousands of potential configurations.
- Manufacturing-Specific Use Case → Unlike typical SaaS clients, the client’s focus was entirely on selling physical products, with no need for processes like renewals or amendments. This shifted the project’s emphasis from automating recurring revenue workflows to tackling the inherent complexity of manufacturing product configuration and pricing.
- Custom API Integration → A critical feature was the integration with the client’s API to generate submittals—detailed engineering drawings customized for each product configuration. This process, while partially pre-existing in a separate interface, required significant development effort to enable seamless integration within Salesforce.
- Scalability and Transition Challenges → Shifting from an Excel-based tool to a fully integrated CPQ solution within their CRM introduced both technical and strategic hurdles. Ensuring accurate data migration and structuring Salesforce to support physical product sales required careful planning. Again, unlike software, manufacturing operations depend heavily on logistics, delivery tracking, different invoice processes, and proofs of delivery—all of which needed to function seamlessly within Salesforce.
Overall, this project required advanced expertise in both Salesforce Revenue Cloud and manufacturing-specific processes beyond out-of-the-box solutions, making it a robust demonstration of Lane Four’s ability to handle complex, industry-specific implementations.
Continuing to Remain Agile
No project of this scale is without some surprises, but we did remain ready for them. Even with careful planning, a few unexpected needs surfaced along the way:
- Product Configuration Adjustments → The client initially planned to manage product creation internally, and while they were fully capable, the complexity and volume of configurations made collaboration with Lane Four a more efficient path forward. Our support helped accelerate timelines and ensure a smoother implementation. Since then, the client has been able to take ownership and manage most updates independently.
- Evolving Scope → Delivery tracking and making uploading invoices possible weren’t part of the initial scope, but as the system went live, it quickly became clear that these features were essential to daily operations.
- Ongoing Discovery → Midway through implementation, new product variations and pricing models surfaced, requiring real-time adjustments while keeping the project as timely as possible.
This project wasn’t just about launching a system—it was about creating a foundation that could grow with the business. Lane Four stayed flexible, adapted to new challenges, and continuously provided recommendations to ensure the best possible outcome for the client.
Beyond Go-Live: Ongoing Support That Makes a Difference
Many firms simply walk away after go-live—Lane Four isn’t one of them. To ensure the client remained confident in their new system and that the process architecture continued to meet evolving business needs, we stayed engaged through a flexible support agreement. This allowed us to tackle a backlog of enhancements while refining and expanding system capabilities as new requirements emerged. Our post-launch support also included developing a comprehensive knowledge base, including videos and documentation for end users and system admins, empowering the client’s internal team to manage the system effectively.
Salesforce CPQ implementations aren’t all created equal. Some are straightforward, while others—like this one—demand deep expertise in industry-specific workflows, pricing logic, and engineering integrations. Lane Four’s approach wasn’t just about replacing spreadsheets with software; it was about enabling smarter, faster, and more scalable sales operations. For manufacturing companies still wrestling with outdated quoting and configuration processes, the takeaway is clear: The right technology matters—but the right partner makes all the difference. Let’s chat!
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