Product Rules for All Occasions
Product rules come in four flavors. Let’s look at the different types and the different ways you can use them to help your sales reps.
| Type | Purpose | Example |
| Alert | Shows a message to your sales reps about a potential issue, but allows them to ignore it. | Reminds sales reps of an upsell opportunity when they add a specific product to the quote. |
| Validation | Shows a message to your sales reps about a problem they must fix before they’re allowed to save the configuration or quote. | Tells sales reps they’ve selected the wrong toner for the printer they’re trying to add, and stops them from saving the illegal configuration. |
| Selection | Automatically adds, removes, or hides products during bundle configuration. Also, automatically adds products to a quote. | Pre-checks options in a bundle based on the account’s industry type; unchecks and hides options known to be incompatible. |
| Filter | Shows only specific products in a feature that uses the Dynamic selection option. | Lists only products with a product code that contains the letters “cable” in a mini product selection page. |
When CPQ admins talk about product rules, they usually abbreviate the name of the rule. For example, they frequently shorten “validation product rule” to just “validation rule.” It’s OK to call it that. Just remember that it’s really a product rule of a certain type, and you go to the same tab in Salesforce to create all types of product rules.