Salesforce RLM: What Is It, And Does Your Organization Need It?

RLM versus CPQ: That’s one of the hottest topics in the Salesforce world these days, but it’s also one of the most confusing.

Revenue Lifecycle Management (RLM) rolled out this spring to provide a seamless end-to-end sales experience for businesses, including product catalogs, pricing logic, quoting, order management, asset lifecycle, and a CLM—all with a layer of Einstein AI capabilities on top.

RLM originally existed under the Salesforce Revenue Cloud umbrella alongside CPQ and Salesforce Billing. Now, RLM itself has been rebranded as Revenue Cloud and stands separately from CPQ and Billing, but for the purposes of this article, we will still refer to it as RLM for clarity.

What does RLM mean for current CPQ users or those considering implementing it? We’ll shed some light on that in this post.

What is RLM?

You can think of RLM as an enterprise version of CPQ but with some major differences.

While CPQ is installed as a Managed Package, RLM is built directly on the Salesforce platform so it works well with Flows, Lightning Web Components, and native page layouts.
Much like CPQ, RLM has a Product Catalog, but it is managed through Product Catalog Management and uses the Business Rules Engine instead of clunky Product Rules and bundle configurations.
RLM manages pricing as well, but through the very generically named Salesforce Pricing set of tools. RLM’s CPQ portion (yes—RLM has its own CPQ that is separate from the original CPQ) includes a Product Configurator, Quotes and Orders, and Contracts.
In addition, RLM boasts a much more spreadsheet-like experience, which is ideal for rev ops teams that are clinging to their pressing tools built in Excel.

Other cool features in RLM include:

a native Document Generation tool
full CLM functionality
Pricing Waterfalls that show when you hover over any price in the Quote UI
a Dynamic Revenue Orchestrator, which puts Orders and Fulfillment on the same screen.

Does CPQ offer any advantages over RLM?

Yes!

Standard CPQ has usage-based pricing whereas RLM currently does not. (Note: We figure RLM will eventually go to usage-based pricing, but Salesforce has not announced it yet.)
RLM relies on Salesforce’s Standard Approvals while CPQ can be used with standard and its own Advance Approvals engine. If complex, matrixed approvals are a sticking point for your organization, the original CPQ is the better option (at least, for now).

Where is CPQ going?

In the short term: Nowhere, according to announcements at Dreamforce in September. Salesforce is planning to sell and support both products. But you can expect that Salesforce’s primary focus will be on RLM when it comes to new enhancements and functionality.

Is one easier to implement than the other?

Because RLM operates with native Salesforce functionality, Salesforce claims it provides a more intuitive way of working. That may be true, but mastering the interface is the easy part; getting your business logic to conform to rules in a system is harder. RLM still requires someone with a high level of Salesforce expertise to set up a complex Product Catalog with complicated pricing, and to build Renewal and Amendment logic.

Should we upgrade to RLM or stay with CPQ?

Like many Salesforce-related decisions, the answer is: “It depends.”

If your organization already uses CPQ and it’s working well, there’s no need to rush to RLM. RLM implementation is a significant investment and it may not deliver the return on investment your organization is looking for right now.
If you have not seen any ROI with CPQ—perhaps because of the product’s limitations or an ineffective implementation—RLM is worth a look. After reviewing your CPQ setup, you may find that RLM’s functionality meets your needs better.

A key determining factor to consider in your RLM vs. CPQ decision is how much of your Quote-to-Cash process you need to manage within Salesforce versus your existing systems, such as an ERP. If you need Contract Lifecycle Management, Billing, Subscription Management, and CPQ all in one system, RLM has you covered. But if you have other systems managing these aspects of your business well, investing in RLM may not be worth the up-front costs.

DCS’ Salesforce experts can help assess your current CPQ setup and walk through the ways RLM may (or may not) be a good fit for your business. If you’re having trouble navigating the RLM vs. CPQ question, we’re here for you: Contact us to start a conversation.