Salesforce Add-On Licenses: Platform, Communities, CPQ, and More – How Salesforce Prices and Licenses Its Common Add-On Products
Why This Topic Matters
Salesforce’s licensing for add-on products is complex and often a source of hidden costs.
Many enterprises focus on the core Sales or Service Cloud license costs, only to be caught off guard by separate fees for add-ons such as Platform licenses, Communities (Experience Cloud), CPQ, Field Service, Einstein/AI features, and Marketing or Analytics modules.
Misaligned or unnecessary add-on purchases can quickly inflate your spend and underdeliver value. Read our overview of Salesforce Licensing 101: Editions, Clouds, and Add-Ons.
In tight IT budgets, every extra add-on license can be a potential drain if it isn’t fully used or needed. This is why CIOs, procurement leads, and IT sourcing managers must take a hard look at Salesforce add-on licensing – to ensure every license aligns with actual usage and business value.
Being vendor-skeptical and forward-thinking in managing Salesforce add-ons pays off. Salesforce, like many vendors, will employ a “land and expand” strategy – selling you more products over time and bundling in add-ons wherever possible. Read our overview of Salesforce Licensing 101: Editions, Clouds, and Add-Ons.
Without a clear strategy, organizations can end up over-licensed (paying for far more than they use) or locked into rigid contracts that hinder flexibility.
The goal is to break down how common add-ons are priced and sold separately from your core Salesforce subscription, highlight pitfalls that lead to overpayment, and equip you with negotiation tactics to optimize these costs.
Managing add-ons wisely can significantly reduce cost exposure and improve your CRM program’s ROI.
Understanding Common Salesforce Add-On Licenses
Salesforce offers a wide array of add-on products beyond the standard Sales Cloud and Service Cloud user licenses.
These add-ons each have their pricing models and licensing quirks. Understanding how each works is the first step to avoiding waste. Below is a breakdown of the most common add-on licenses and how Salesforce typically prices them:
- Platform Licenses: Salesforce Platform user licenses (such as Platform Starter and Platform Plus) are a lower-cost alternative for users who don’t need full CRM functionality. Platform licenses are priced per user (e.g., roughly $25/user/month for Starter, $100/user/month for Plus at list price) and allow access to core objects like Accounts and Contacts, and a limited number of custom objects (about 10 with Starter, up to 100+ with Plus). However, they exclude standard sales/service features, such as Opportunities, Leads, or Cases. These licenses are ideal for employees or partners who use Salesforce for custom applications, data entry, approvals, or reports, but aren’t involved in direct sales or customer support. When appropriate: Use Platform licenses for users who only require basic access – for example, back-office staff or contractors who just log project data – to avoid paying for full Sales Cloud seats they won’t fully use. Cost structure: significantly cheaper than full CRM licenses, but only available if you already have an Enterprise or Unlimited edition in your org. Limitations: Can’t be used to recreate restricted standard features (Salesforce will contractually forbid creating custom objects to mimic things like Opportunities to bypass buying Sales Cloud licenses). Essentially, Platform licenses save cost when carefully assigned, but you must ensure those users truly don’t need the omitted features.
- Community (Experience Cloud) Licenses: Salesforce Experience Cloud (formerly Community Cloud) enables you to create portals for external users, such as customers or partners. These external user licenses are available in various types, including Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, and Partner Community, each with distinct levels of access. Pricing models can be either per named user (per month) or login-based (pay per login up to a monthly limit). For example, a Customer Community license might be offered at a low per-user price (or a couple of dollars per login for each active user that month), whereas a Partner Community license (with greater access, including read/write on opportunities or cases) costs more (often an order of magnitude higher per login or a higher flat per user fee). The flexibility in Community licensing is useful: if you have thousands of external customers who log in infrequently, a login-based model can be cost-effective (you pay, say, a few dollars for each login, which might total far less than a full monthly seat for each customer).On the other hand, partners or power users who log in daily might be better on a named-user license. Common misallocations: Overbuying community licenses is a big pitfall. Companies sometimes purchase a large block of partner or customer community users based on anticipated sign-ups, but actual active usage turns out much lower. Without careful monitoring, you could be paying for 50,000 community user licenses when only 5,000 log in regularly. Another misalignment is granting every external user a higher-tier license (such as Partner Community) when many only require basic portal access (Customer Community) – essentially over-licensing external users. Align the license type to the user’s needs (e.g., Only sales partners need the full partner license; casual end-customers might be fine with the cheaper license. Salesforce’s Experience Cloud licensing requires close attention to usage patterns to avoid overspending.
- CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote): Salesforce CPQ is an add-on for advanced quoting and product configuration, part of the “Revenue Cloud” offerings. It is licensed per user and typically not included in your Sales Cloud—meaning each salesperson who needs the CPQ functionality must have a CPQ add-on license. Salesforce offers CPQ in tiers (for instance, a standard CPQ license typically lists at around $75/user/month, while a CPQ Plus or advanced version lists at $150/user/month, with additional features such as advanced approvals, guided selling, or usage-based pricing options). These costs are in addition to the base CRM license. Integration overhead: Please note that deploying CPQ often requires significant implementation effort and may involve integration with your ERP or billing systems. The license cost is one thing; the true cost includes the time and services required to configure product rules, pricing, templates, and other elements. A common pitfall is to invest in CPQ licenses for the entire sales team but then fail to roll it out broadly. For example, an enterprise might purchase 200 CPQ licenses in year one. Still, due to project delays or complexity, only 50 users actively use the tool, while the rest continue to use manual quoting. This leads to costly shelfware. When considering CPQ, ensure you have a realistic implementation plan and consider phasing the rollout to minimize disruptions. You might start with a pilot group of users and expand once the solution is proven, rather than paying for everyone upfront. Salesforce will price CPQ separately; therefore, negotiate those user counts and tier choices carefully according to your specific needs.
- Field Service Licenses: Salesforce Field Service (formerly Field Service Lightning) is another add-on that extends Service Cloud to dispatch and manage field technicians. Its licensing can be a bit confusing, as there are specific roles:
- Dispatcher licenses: for those coordinating scheduling and dispatch (often require a Service Cloud license as well).Technician (Mobile Employee) licenses: for field workers who perform
- Einstein & AI Add-Ons: Salesforce has been aggressively promoting AI and Einstein analytics add-ons, which their pricing models accompany. These can include:
- Einstein Analytics/CRM Analytics (Tableau CRM): an analytics add-on for advanced dashboards and data exploration inside Salesforce, usually licensed per user (often costing in the tens of dollars per user/month range for each analytics user).Einstein Prediction or Next Best Action add-ons: sometimes sold as capacity-based (e.g., number of predictions or records analyzed).Einstein GPT / AI Cloud add-ons: new generative AI features (like Sales GPT or Service GPT) might be priced per user (for instance, $50/user/month for enabling AI features for a sales user) and/or usage-based (with a certain allotment of AI credits or conversations included, and overages potentially charged per 1,000 predictions or
- Marketing and Analytics Add-Ons: Salesforce’s product family extends beyond the core CRM into marketing automation, business intelligence, and more. Common examples include Marketing Cloud (for email, SMS, advertising, etc.), Account Engagement (formerly Pardot), and analytics tools such as Tableau or CRM Analytics. These are often licensed very differently from user licenses:
- Marketing Cloud, for instance, is usually priced by contact volume or message volume plus a base platform fee, rather than per user. You might pay for tiers of up to X million contacts in your database, etc. If you only use Sales Cloud and decide to add Marketing Cloud, you’re now negotiating a separate contract with its metrics. A pitfall here is not keeping your contact database up to date – if your Marketing Cloud cost is tied to 1 million contacts but 40% of those are inactive or duplicates, you’re overpaying. Analytics products like Tableau can be user-based (Viewer, Explorer, and Creator licenses) or core-based, with capacity. If you already have a corporate BI tool, buying Salesforce’s analytics add-on could duplicate capabilities. Or vice versa: some companies end up with both Tableau and the older Einstein Analytics (CRM Analytics) add-on due to different teams’ decisions, resulting in paying twice for similar analytics functionality.
Learn more by reading Salesforce Products Overview and Licensing Strategy.
Common Enterprise Scenarios Leading to Overpayment
Missteps in add-on licensing can cost companies millions of dollars.
Here are some anonymous real-world scenarios that illustrate how things can go wrong with Salesforce add-ons:
- Overbuying Community Seats for Low-Engagement Users: A global consumer goods company anticipated a huge customer portal adoption and bought 100,000 Customer Community licenses upfront. A year later, they discovered that only about 10,000 customers were actively logging in each month. The result was tens of thousands of paid-for community seats sitting idle. The licensing model wasn’t aligned with actual usage. Pitfall: The company could have started with a smaller volume or a login-based model, scaling up as engagement grew. Instead, they overcommitted and overpaid. Lesson: If your external user activity is uncertain, favor usage-based (logins) licensing or smaller commitments that can grow, rather than locking in a giant number of named users that may never materialize.
- CPQ Shelfware from Incomplete Rollout: A large manufacturing firm invested in Salesforce CPQ for 300 sales reps, adding a costly CPQ license for each user. Due to the complexity of migrating product catalogs and training the sales team, the CPQ tool was only rolled out to a pilot group of 50 users in the first year. The majority of the purchased CPQ licenses went unused, yet the firm continued to pay for all 300. Pitfall: The enthusiasm to improve sales quoting led to an over-purchase before the organization was ready to deploy. Lesson: It would have been better to negotiate a phased rollout – for instance, 50 licenses in year one, with the option to ramp to 300 in year two after a successful pilot. This way, spend would align with actual deployment, and the company could verify CPQ’s value before making a full commitment.
- Duplicate and Overlapping Add-Ons: An enterprise IT department discovered they were paying for overlapping Salesforce add-ons across different departments. In one case, the customer support team had purchased an “Einstein Bots” add-on for automated chat. In contrast, the marketing team separately licensed a third-party chatbot integrated to Salesforce – effectively paying twice for similar AI functionality. In another case, the sales operations group bought Salesforce’s Analytics add-on (CRM Analytics) to build dashboards, while the BI team was already providing similar pipeline analytics via Tableau (which the company also licenses). Pitfall: Siloed decisions resulted in the purchase of multiple tools that perform the same function, and some Salesforce add-ons replicate features already available in existing licenses. Lesson: Always inventory your capabilities before buying an add-on. Ensure there’s governance in place to prevent one department’s purchases from duplicating those of another. And check Salesforce’s product overlap – sometimes new features in your edition obviate the need for a separate add-on. For example, if your edition gains a built-in feature for basic quote handling, you may be able to postpone purchasing a full CPQ. Similarly, if Service Cloud offers a basic field service feature, you might not need every Field Service license initially.
These scenarios underscore a common theme: misalignment between what’s purchased and what’s used. Overbuying happens easily under vendor pressure or optimistic planning.
The cost impact is not just wasted subscription fees, but also opportunity cost – money that could be spent on other innovations is tied up in shelfware.
To avoid this fate, it is essential to employ diligent planning, internal alignment, and ongoing monitoring of license usage.
Learn about Upgrading or Downgrading Salesforce Editions.
Strategies & Best Practices for Optimizing Add-On Usage
To make sure your Salesforce add-on investments are right-sized and cost-effective, adopt the following strategies and best practices:
- Audit Before You Add: Before purchasing any new add-on product or additional batch of licenses, perform an internal usage audit of what you already have. How many of your existing licenses (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, etc.) are actually in use? Are there features in your current edition that could meet the need without an add-on? For example, if you’re considering an expensive analytics add-on, check if your existing reports or a cheaper tool could suffice. Auditing usage isn’t just about current licenses but also about understanding requirements: know which users or processes truly need the add-on. This prevents knee-jerk purchases based on hype or anecdotal requests. An audit-driven approach ensures that you only buy what you need and can use immediately.
- Time Purchases with Renewals for Leverage: The timing of when you buy add-ons can affect your negotiating power. The best practice is to align major add-on purchases with your core contract renewal or expansion negotiations. If your Salesforce annual renewal is coming up in 3 months, and you’re considering adding CPQ or Field Service, bundle that discussion into the renewal. Salesforce reps are often more generous with discounts when they’re looking at a larger, multi-product deal or trying to close a renewal. Mid-term, one-off add-on purchases often give you less leverage (you might pay closer to list price because the immediate need is there and the deal size is smaller). By timing add-ons with renewals, you can also co-term the licenses (so they all expire together), which consolidates your negotiating clout and avoids being stuck with different end dates for different products.
- Bundle and Multi-Year Deals Strategically: When you know you’ll eventually need multiple add-ons or an expanded footprint, consider negotiating a bundle. Salesforce’s “Customer 360” and other bundles sometimes package multiple products (such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Platform, and Communities) at an overall discount. However, you don’t have to accept Salesforce’s suggested bundle blindly – you can propose a custom bundle of the specific add-ons you need. By committing to a multi-year, multi-product deal, enterprises can often secure significantly deeper discounts (for example, bundling Marketing Cloud and Analytics add-ons with your Sales Cloud might result in a better rate on both). Caution: Only bundle what you truly plan to use; a bundle deal is not a bargain if it includes one or two products you have no intention of rolling out but are paying for because they’re “included.” A strategic bundle focuses on real needs and uses the promise of a larger total contract value to negotiate better pricing across the board. Additionally, in multi-year agreements, negotiate price protections (caps on increases) since you’re committing longer term – ensure the bundle doesn’t hide a year-over-year uplift that erodes the initial discount.
- Establish Post-Purchase Governance: Treat add-on licenses as you would any significant investment – with ongoing oversight. Set up a governance practice to track license usage and ROI after purchase. This could involve quarterly business reviews where administrators or product owners report on metrics such as the number of active community users versus licenses purchased, CPQ usage statistics (number of quotes generated, users logging in), Field Service job assignments per technician license, Einstein feature usage frequency, and so on. By reviewing these regularly, you can spot underutilization early and take action. For instance, if only 60% of your CPQ licenses are being used after 6 months, investigate why – is it a training issue, or did you simply over-license? These reviews also help build a case for adjusting your license count down at the next renewal (or sooner if possible). In addition, assign clear ownership for each add-on product internally. Someone should be responsible for maximizing the value of that tool (e.g., a Community manager for Experience Cloud adoption, a sales ops person for CPQ usage). Governance and ownership ensure that add-ons deliver business outcomes, not just costs.
- Leverage What You Already Pay For: One of the easiest ways to overspend is to fail to use features you already have. Salesforce editions often come with more capabilities than an organization realizes. Before signing up for an add-on, double-check your current license entitlements. For example, suppose you have Enterprise or Unlimited editions. In that case, you may already have rights to several sandbox environments, a certain level of support, basic lead scoring, or basic field service features. We’ve seen companies pay extra for add-ons like additional sandboxes or encryption (Salesforce Shield) or analytics, only to discover they weren’t using the quotas or features included in their base subscription. Make it a practice to inventory and fully utilize existing features. Similarly, consider configuration or third-party alternatives: could a simple AppExchange plugin or some Apex development achieve your goal at lower cost than a hefty Salesforce add-on? This isn’t to say you should never buy add-ons (many add-ons provide huge value that core licenses don’t). Still, you should be confident that the functionality isn’t otherwise obtainable with minimal investment.
- Engage Stakeholders and Plan Adoption: Often, the IT or procurement team negotiates the licenses, but business users drive adoption. Avoid scenarios where you secure a big batch of licenses for an add-on without the business fully on board to use it. Work closely with business stakeholders (sales leaders for CPQ, service managers for Field Service, marketing for Marketing Cloud, etc.) to create a realistic adoption plan. If a business unit is lukewarm on using a tool, push back on purchasing it until there’s a concrete plan (including training, implementation resources, timelines, and success metrics). Salesforce add-ons are too expensive to buy “just in case” someone might use them. Ensure there is executive sponsorship and user buy-in to effectively deploy the add-on’s capabilities. This not only ensures you get value for what you pay, but also gives you a stronger footing in negotiations – you can say to Salesforce, “We will consider Product X in Year 2 once we see success in our pilot Year 1,” rather than getting talked into buying everything at once with vague promises of future use.
By following these practices, enterprises can significantly optimize their Salesforce spend on add-ons. It’s about being proactive and data-driven, rather than reactive and sales-driven, when it comes to licensing.
Negotiation Levers for Add-On Products
When it’s time to negotiate with Salesforce (whether for a renewal or a new add-on purchase), remember that everything is negotiable – not just the price, but also the terms and structure of your licensing.
Here are key negotiation levers to use that specifically help with add-ons:
- Multi-Year Commitments (with Protections): Committing to a longer term (e.g., a 3-year contract covering your Salesforce core and add-ons) can give you leverage to demand lower per-user prices on add-ons. Salesforce values securing multi-year commitments and may offer a larger discount or additional products as an incentive. Use this to your advantage, but structure the deal carefully. If you opt for a multi-year plan, insist on fixed pricing or capped increases for those years (no more than, say, a 5% annual uplift, or even flat pricing). Also, only commit to user quantities you are confident you will need long-term, or negotiate flexibility (more on that below). A multi-year deal can backfire if it lacks escape hatches – you don’t want to be stuck overpaying for unused add-ons for three years. The ideal scenario: lock in a good discount for a reasonable forecast of your needs, with clauses that protect you if your needs diminish.
- Volume-Based Discounts and True-Ups: Salesforce’s pricing is volume-sensitive – the more you buy, the better the rate you can push for. If you anticipate growth in the usage of an add-on, negotiate a volume discount tier upfront. For example, “if we purchase over 200 CPQ licenses, we get an extra 10% off the unit price.” Additionally, consider negotiating a “pay as you grow” (true-up) model for add-ons. Instead of buying 500 licenses Day 1 for a rollout that will take 2 years, you might contract for 500 at a locked discount, but only pay for 300 in year one and agree to true-up to higher counts as adoption increases. This way, you’re not paying for all 500 from the start, but you have pre-negotiated pricing for when you need them. Salesforce may prefer to book it all upfront, but if you make the case with data (such as a rollout schedule), they might agree to phased billing. True-up models are especially useful for add-ons where usage ramps are uncertain. They ensure you only pay for actual usage while still securing economies of scale in pricing.
- Mid-Term Flexibility Clauses: One of the strongest negotiation levers is to build in flexibility to reduce or swap licenses mid-term without penalty. Salesforce contracts are traditionally inflexible – you commit to a certain number of licenses for the term. However, large enterprise customers with savvy negotiation teams have managed to include terms such as: “After the first year, the customer may reduce up to 10% of unused licenses or convert them to other products of equal value.” For example, if you purchase an add-on and it’s not delivering value, you can swap those licenses for a different Salesforce product or reduce the quantity and lower the cost in the future. It’s not easy to get these clauses, but it’s possible, especially if you’re making a big multi-product commitment. Another angle is termination for convenience on specific add-ons – for example, the right to cancel a certain product after 12 months with 60 days’ notice. Salesforce might push back, but you can position it as necessary risk mitigation (“We’re trying a new product in our environment, and if it doesn’t work out, we need an out”). Even if they won’t allow full cancellation, you might be able to get a partial scale-down or the option to replace the add-on with another of similar value (perhaps by dropping one add-on and picking up another). The key is to avoid being completely locked in if the add-on underperforms.
- Tie Payment to Usage or Milestones: Another negotiation tactic is linking payments to actual deployment milestones. This is not standard in Salesforce deals, but you can attempt it for big add-ons. For instance, if you’re buying a large Field Service package, negotiate that only 50% of the license fees are billable in the first quarter, and the rest kick in once Salesforce has delivered certain enablement or once X number of users are actively using the system. This holds Salesforce (and your implementation team) accountable for adoption. If they want the full revenue, they need to ensure you’re using the tool in production. It’s a way of sharing risk. While Salesforce may not always agree to usage-based billing, even structuring the contract with ramp-ups (e.g., 100 licenses billable now, with an additional 100 billable next year automatically) can mimic this approach and reduce upfront costs.
- Ask for Add-On Trials and Credits: When negotiating, don’t just focus on the licenses you’re buying long-term – also ask for trial periods or credits for new add-ons. If you’re unsure about an add-on’s value, request a 6-month trial included at no cost, with the option to license afterward at a pre-agreed rate. Often, Salesforce will grant free access to something for a period as a concession (especially if it doesn’t cost them much to enable). Similarly, ask for training credits, support, or consulting hours to be bundled in if you’re purchasing a complex add-on, such as CPQ or Marketing Cloud. The goal is to minimize the risk and additional costs associated with making the add-on successful. Getting a $100,000 add-on for 20% off is good, but if you then have to pay $200,000 to consultants to make it work, your negotiation should have addressed that. Bring up these needs during negotiation – you might get better support or services included that ultimately improve your ROI.
- Maintain the Option to Downsize at Renewal: Even if you can’t get mid-term reduction rights, always keep the renewal as your “out.” Negotiate for shorter terms or, at the very least, the option not to renew certain components. For instance, if you’re unsure about an add-on, consider a 1-year term for that add-on while the rest of your core contract is 3 years. Or ensure that at renewal, you have no obligated renewal minimums for the add-on (sometimes vendors include language like you can’t drop more than X% of licenses at renewal – try to avoid that). You want the freedom to walk away from an add-on if it doesn’t justify itself. Salesforce account reps might try to bundle everything to co-terminate and then push for renewal of all – you should retain the choice to eliminate something at the end of the term. The leverage you have at renewal is your ability to say, “We don’t need this product, we’re dropping it.” Maintain that leverage by not agreeing to any clause that forces a renewal or automatic increase in quantities.
Using these negotiation levers, enterprises have saved substantial sums. The overarching principle is: don’t accept the first quote or the standard terms. Salesforce expects customers to negotiate, especially on large deals.
By preparing your asks (like those above) and making a data-backed case, you can often obtain better pricing and the contractual flexibility to protect yourself if reality doesn’t match expectations.
6 Clear Recommendations for Enterprises
To summarize the strategies above, here are six concrete recommendations for any enterprise managing Salesforce add-on licenses:
- Demand SKU-Level Pricing Transparency: Never accept a lump-sum quote that doesn’t break down the cost of each add-on. Insist that Salesforce provides itemized pricing for each product or license type (each SKU). This transparency allows you to see exactly what you’re paying for (e.g., how much of the total is allocated to CPQ, core licenses, or Community users). With itemized pricing, you can identify overpriced components and negotiate them individually. It also prevents Salesforce from hiding add-on costs in bundles. As a rule, make Salesforce display the list price, discount, and net price of each add-on on your order form – providing full clarity. This will empower you to eliminate unused items later and ensure that any future purchases are comparably discounted.
- Pilot Before Full Commit: Whenever possible, run a pilot or proof of concept with a new add-on before committing it enterprise-wide. If you’re exploring, say, Field Service or an AI add-on, start with a small subset of users or a limited scope trial. Use Salesforce’s trial licenses or short-term agreements for this phase. The pilot should validate the business value and uncover any implementation challenges. Only after the pilot proves successful should you scale up to a larger deployment and long-term licenses. Piloting prevents expensive mistakes – you might discover that an add-on doesn’t fit your processes as well as expected, or that adoption will be slower, in which case you can adjust the plan (or even decide not to purchase at scale). It’s much easier to negotiate a favorable big deal when you are confident the tool will be used fully, and that confidence comes from piloting and learning first.
- Negotiate Add-On Trials and Discounts Upfront: Leverage the sales cycle to secure free or heavily discounted periods for new add-ons, which can be written into your contract. For example, if you’re signing a three-year agreement and adding a new Analytics add-on, negotiate that the first 6 months are free, or that you only pay a 50% rate for the first year as you ramp up. Salesforce is often willing to offer an initial discount or a grace period, especially if it helps secure the deal. Make sure this is documented in the contract (e.g., “Product X: $0 for first 6 months for up to Y users”). This approach gives you time to roll out the add-on and start realizing value without burning budget from day one. By the time you start paying full price, you’ll know whether it’s worth it. Additionally, if you feel an add-on is unproven, negotiate exit clauses after the trial (as discussed above). The main point is not to pay full price while you’re still in learning mode – bake in those trials or phased payments at the start.
- Co-Term All Licenses for One Renewal: Administrative simplicity and negotiation leverage both improve when all your Salesforce products co-terminate on the same date. Ensure that when you add an add-on mid-term, it is prorated to end on your master renewal date. Having scattered renewal dates (e.g., your core CRM renews in January, but your Marketing Cloud renews in July, and CPQ in September) will weaken your hand – Salesforce can tackle each renewal separately when your spend is smaller, rather than looking at your entire portfolio at once. Co-terming allows you to evaluate your entire Salesforce stack holistically each renewal cycle and make informed trade-offs (perhaps you’ll renew some products and drop others, or demand better pricing across the entire account). It also avoids the risk of forgetting to cancel something because the renewal slipped by in an off-month. Whenever you add something new, double-check that the end date aligns with the dates of your other licenses. If not, ask for a contract adjustment so that everything renews together going forward.
- Implement Quarterly Usage Reviews and License True-Ups: Don’t set your licenses and then ignore them until renewal. Establish a quarterly (at a minimum, semi-annual) review of all your Salesforce add-on license usage. This can be a meeting between IT asset management, business owners, and your Salesforce admin team to review key metrics, such as logins vs. licenses for communities, active vs. purchased CPQ users, etc. The goal is to catch under-utilization early. If you find in Q1 that only 70% of your Field Service licenses are being used, you have time to either improve adoption or plan a reduction request by Q4. These reviews should inform a true-up/true-down plan: if you’re over-licensed, identify how many licenses could potentially be cut or reallocated; if you’re under-licensed in one area but over-licensed in another, consider shifting your focus. By the time you reach renewal, you’ll have concrete data to adjust your license counts rather than relying on Salesforce’s suggested numbers. Regular reviews also create accountability for business units to utilize the resources they have purchased. It’s a governance discipline that directly translates to cost control – ensuring you’re not paying for things that people aren’t using.
- Avoid Feature Duplication – Use What You Have First: Before agreeing to any add-on purchase, do an internal check: “Is this functionality something we already have access to in Salesforce, or could achieve with configuration or a minor process change?” Salesforce’s product marketing will eagerly sell you an add-on for every little enhancement, but savvy teams often find that a combination of existing features can cover 80% of the need. For example, before buying an expensive survey add-on, see if you can use native Salesforce forms or an existing survey tool integration you already own. Or, if Salesforce wants to sell you an AI add-on for case classification, consider whether a simple rules-based approach or a free AppExchange component could work. Also, consider whether you’re already paying for an external system that covers this function (perhaps your ERP handles quotes well enough, negating the need for CPQ in some divisions). The point is to avoid paying twice for the same capability. When you decide an add-on is needed, ensure it truly provides net-new functionality that drives business results worth the cost. Being critical in this way prevents “shiny object syndrome” purchases that later turn into regrets.
By following these six recommendations, enterprises can maintain lean and aligned Salesforce licensing that meets their actual needs. It’s all about transparency, diligence, and proactive management.
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