Why Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Need a PIM

Key takeaways

• Salesforce CPQ is reaching 'end of sale.' At that point, Revenue Cloud Advanced will be the only revenue lifecycle platform sold by Salesforce. However, both products will continue to be supported by Salesforce for some time.
• Both Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced need a PIM. A dedicated PIM provides the structure, governance, and depth of product information these platforms rely on to perform at a high level. 
• Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced are only as accurate as the product data behind them. Without a PIM, quoting slows down, errors increase, and customer trust erodes.
• Pimly delivers the single source of truth Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced need, centralizing all product information, digital assets, and relationships natively inside Salesforce.
• Native Salesforce integration is essential. Pimly removes sync delays and complex connectors, ensuring real-time product data flows directly into Revenue Cloud Advanced and Salesforce CPQ.
• Modern PIM capabilities boost quoting speed and accuracy, from hierarchical product modeling to governance, automation, and AI-ready data for tools like Salesforce Agentforce.
• Enterprises using Pimly see faster sales cycles and higher revenue, thanks to error-free quoting, smoother product launches, and aligned sales, marketing, and service teams.

Customers expect accurate information the moment they ask for it, and any delay or inconsistency puts revenue at risk. But managing product data across teams is complex, with different business units often relying on details that sit in disconnected systems or outdated files. 

Those gaps slow quoting, introduce mistakes, and erode buyer trust during the moments that matter most. 

Configure, price, quote (CPQ) software like Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced help reduce that friction by automating the process of creating accurate, personalized quotes. 

While these tools help streamline chaos from fragmented data by automating configuration and pricing, they’re only as reliable as the product data feeding them. This is why you need a product information management (PIM) system — to serve as your single source of truth.

Below, we’ll break down Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced, covering what they are, what to look for in a PIM integration, and why close integration between product information and quoting is key to business success.

What are Salesforce’s CPQ solutions?

CPQ is a category of software that automates how businesses configure products, calculate pricing, and generate accurate quotes. Salesforce CPQ is Salesforce’s legacy CPQ product that enables sales teams to configure products and generate accurate quotes. Revenue Cloud Advanced extends this with billing, amendments, renewals, and revenue recognition — offering full quote-to-cash workflows. 

Although Salesforce CPQ is nearing end of sale, Salesforce will continue to support it for customers who already use it. 

Both products rely on Salesforce’s Product2 object to store product information, which makes accurate, centralized product data essential for quoting. Because of that shared dependency, both Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced require a reliable PIM to ensure teams can generate fast, accurate quotes.

Why do businesses turn to Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced?

Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced were both designed with Salesforce’s larger goal in mind: streamlining revenue operations and creating new opportunities for native integrations that eliminate data silos.

Manual quote configuration slows the sales cycle and introduces errors — especially for teams selling complex SKUs, bundles, or variable configurations that shift based on customer needs. 

Accurate product information affects more than quoting speed. It influences cross-sell and upsell opportunities, contract amendments, billing precision, and downstream revenue recognition. When product data is inconsistent or incomplete, the issues surface immediately in Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced as slow or inaccurate quotes.

That said, many companies using these tools still struggle with slow or inaccurate quoting, which can lead to lost sales opportunities. Research shows that businesses lose about 13% of sales due to negative customer experiences during the sales process, so it’s more critical than ever to quote quickly and accurately — not just one or the other. 

Product data is the foundation of successful CPQ

Slow or inaccurate quotes are just a symptom of an underlying problem: inaccurate or disorganized product information.

When product information is scattered across systems, drawing up even a simple quote becomes complicated. Sales reps run into pricing errors and their quotes are delayed because they’re stuck double-checking data that should already be correct. 

Inaccurate product data affects more than just Sales. Marketing risks using outdated customer insights to run targeted campaigns, and Service might give customers bad information that hurts their confidence in your business.

That’s exactly why 70% of brands rely on a PIM system — to centralize product data into a single source of truth.

While Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced do have a Product Catalog feature using the Product2 object, it isn’t a product information management system. The Product2 object is a flat product record, equivalent to a row in a spreadsheet. This may work fine if you only have a few products. But it can’t meet the demands of mid-market and enterprise companies that have thousands (or tens of thousands) of SKUs to maintain, plus new products to launch.

The Product2 object was designed to store basic product details for sales and customer service teams to reference — not to manage complex catalogs of digital assets, related products, or variants. 

A PIM system functions as the foundational layer, managing all of your product data to ensure accuracy and structure. Pimly brings enterprise-grade product information management directly onto Salesforce. It centralizes assets, related products, variations, and governance workflows in one place and feeds that enriched information into Salesforce CPQ or Revenue Cloud Advanced.

With detailed, dependable product data flowing into the quoting process, reps create accurate quotes the first time. Pimly becomes the fuel that powers CPQ performance and strengthens every downstream workflow.

What to look for in a PIM for Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced

Choosing the right PIM starts with understanding how well it fits into your existing systems. Before Pimly, all PIM systems required complex and fragile integrations to feed product information into Salesforce CPQ or Revenue Cloud Advanced. 

Pimly changed that, becoming the first PIM built natively on the Salesforce platform — no integration required. That shift changed what companies should expect from a PIM, raising the bar for how tightly product information should connect to CPQ software.

With that in mind, here’s what to look for when evaluating a PIM for Salesforce CPQ or Revenue Cloud Advanced:

• Integration requirements: Make sure it works natively in Salesforce without external connectors or integrations. That way, your teams can access product information instantly without syncing delays or risk of broken integrations.
• Centralized product hierarchy management: Your PIM should make it easy to organize and update thousands of SKUs, variants, and product relationships in one place to ensure consistency across every customer touchpoint across every channel or locale.
• Scalability and governance: Your PIM should include validation rules, readiness reporting, and governance tools to keep data accurate and compliant as your business grows.
• Detailed, accurate product information: Sales, Marketing, Commerce, and Service teams need direct access to complete, real-time product data, so they can quote faster and more confidently.
• Digital assets and related products: Look for a system that supports images, videos, PDFs, and related or complementary items to enrich the customer experience and drive upsell opportunities.

A PIM with these features makes your CPQ workflows faster, more accurate, and more reliable, powering Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced to their full potential.

Pimly also delivers a major advantage as companies adopt AI tools like Salesforce Agentforce. Because Pimly structures and centralizes product information directly inside Salesforce, Agentforce can act on that data in real time. Agents can surface specifications, validate configurations, answer product questions, and support quoting tasks using the same trusted product information that drives CPQ. This creates an AI-ready foundation that helps teams work faster and with greater accuracy across the Salesforce ecosystem.

Why close alignment between PIM and Salesforce CPQ or Revenue Cloud Advanced is essential

When your PIM and CPQ work together, everything runs smoothly. Having accurate, centralized product data speeds up quote creation, eliminates mistakes, and prevents teams from using conflicting information.

You see the difference in daily operations. Shorter sales cycles, greater quote accuracy, smoother product launches, easier catalog updates, and better collaboration across departments means that teams can focus on closing more deals and less on reconciling data conflicts.

Because Pimly is built directly on Salesforce, this alignment happens automatically. It keeps product data updated in real time with no third-party connectors, complicated integrations, or disconnected systems. 

Empowering teams with unified, intelligent product data

Pimly serves as the single source of truth for all your product information, including descriptions, specifications, and dimensions, as well as digital assets like images, videos, and PDFs. It feeds this detailed product information into Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced, so that every team works with consistent, up-to-date data. 

With Pimly’s proprietary Flash tool, you can push large volumes of data into your product catalog in seconds, so teams get what they need instantly. When sales reps have accurate, detailed product information, they can quote quickly and confidently — increasing revenue from faster deal closures and boosting customer satisfaction from a smoother sales process.

How to evaluate and implement a PIM for Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced

To get the most from your Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced investment, start by taking stock of your product data and how it flows across teams with this simple framework:

1. Assess your current data landscape: Where does product information live, and how easily can sales, service, and marketing teams access it? Pimly makes this easy, helping identify where your data is so you can sidestep major cleanup efforts.
2. Identify integration pain points: Look for duplicated data, manual updates, slow quote cycles, or missing product information in Salesforce.
3. Prioritize Salesforce-native solutions: Choose a PIM built directly on Salesforce to minimize complexity, reduce your tech stack by eliminating an external integration, and ensure real-time data updates. Because Pimly is Salesforce-native, setup is fast and intuitive, happening on the platform your teams already use.

Build a unified revenue engine with Pimly and Salesforce

Accurate, unified product data is the engine behind faster sales, error-free quoting, and stronger customer trust. Pimly acts as the connector that transforms Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced into your go-to-market system for digital product information.

Unlike external PIM systems, which still leave Salesforce limited to the flat Product2 object, Pimly centralizes all product information directly on the Salesforce platform. Sales reps get the full context they need — detailed specs, digital assets, variants, and related products — so they can quote confidently and accelerate deal closure.

Turn your Salesforce investment into an instant revenue engine: Book a demo with Pimly today.

Frequently asked questions

What makes a Salesforce-native PIM different from external PIM platforms?

External PIM systems rely on connectors and sync jobs that add complexity, slow down quote cycles, and introduce risk. A Salesforce-native PIM removes that overhead by keeping product data on the platform, ensuring instant updates and consistent information across Salesforce CPQ and Revenue Cloud Advanced. 

What’s the risk of relying solely on Salesforce Product2 for complex catalogs?

Product2 wasn’t designed to manage large product catalogs, deep hierarchies, variants, or rich digital assets. As your catalog grows, the limitations become bottlenecks — slowing quoting, complicating updates, and increasing the risk of data inconsistency.

Can a native PIM help us prepare for AI-driven quoting and sales automation?

Yes. AI tools like Salesforce Agentforce rely on clean, complete, and well-structured product data. A native PIM ensures your AI agents have the context they need to generate accurate recommendations, automate tasks, and support reps more effectively.