Sales quoting is an important activity for businesses selling their products and services online. It acts as proof of how responsive, reliable, and customer-focused the business is. It is the key that makes them stand out from the competitors by closing deals efficiently.
However, creating a winning sales quote is a daunting task. It includes accurate pricing and product information, which when written manually can become a long and dreadful process. It also decelerates the workflow that leads to a piling up of quotes. When these quotes are not followed up immediately, it can take the customer away from the business.
Therefore, you need to automate your sales quoting applications to develop client relationships and make the quoting process seamless.
The reports published by Accenture states that about 83 percent of sales professionals are now using sales quote management software to streamline their operations.
In this blog, we will discuss all sales quotes and understand the tips to automate them using an appropriate sales quoting solution.
Why Is Automation In Sales Quote Necessary?
An automated quoting software enables you to create sales quotes instantly and eliminates all the backlog of requests of the customers. It is necessary to have your sales quote automated with one of the best quoting applications because:
- Saves Times- Automated sales quotes save a lot of your time by eliminating extra requests. It allows a rule-based engine to create a sales quote containing accurate product details and pricing. Responding to the quote requests immediately helps the customers to make faster purchasing decisions, thereby increasing your sales. It also provides extra time to your sales team to focus on other complex tasks, like improving customer relationships.
- Improves Customer Experience- The quoting and proposal software minimizes the lead time required in the sales process. Thus, the customer doesn’t have to wait for weeks to obtain answers for their quote requests. This way, it will improve the customer experience by saving their time as well.
- Helps You To Stay Ahead Of Your Competition- The benefits you acquire from sales quotes automation help you to stay ahead of your competition. It makes the decision-making process straightforward for the customer, which leads to a dramatic increase in sales.
- Increases The Closing Rates- You can use your sales quote as a strategic tool when automated with a sales quoting solution. It assists you in creating impressive quotes with visualized product information that can make a vast difference between losing sales or closing a big deal. When you increase your closing rates, you guarantee to provide your customers with a high-quality product.
- Eliminate Errors- Automating your sales quote significantly minimizes the errors made in the quotes. Based on the latest product information, it eliminates costly mistakes and immediately approves configured products.
Tips To Automate Sales Quote
Deliver Quotes Instantly
In sales, speed is always considered a determining factor. It is applicable in the situation where a prospect waits for quotes for a similar order from two or more potential vendors. In such a scenario, they tend to select the company that provides them the sales quotes instantly, within their budget.
With the help of a sales quoting solution, you tend to deliver the quotes to your client faster than your competitors. Automated quoting software also provides the sales reps with numerous templates that can be deployed to minimize the time incurred in creating quotes.
These templates have optimal readability that assists the buyer in making the purchasing decisions immediately. It enables them to see the impact of the goods and services provided by your company, thereby assessing the entire purchase value.
Create Customized Configurations
Configuration Management for different sales makes the quote creation process tough and time-consuming. Also, modern B2B buyers are making complex purchases, which increases the need for creating a customized quote for each one of them.
The management of the personalized configuration is very difficult to perform manually. Moreover, when you are dealing with more categories and options, there will be more chances of making mistakes. Even sales reps have to spend a lot of time filling up multiple components of the quotes. They also have to maintain and update the quotes constantly.
The use of quoting and proposal software helps the salespeople to control the personalization of quote configuration. It tends to obtain data directly from the CRM and ERP platform, thereby assuring access to the latest product information. This way, you will be able to adjust the prices and amounts, discounts, and several other aspects easily.
Provide Precise Quote To The Prospects
Your client expects the details to be reviewed appropriately before sending out the quote to him. A slight inaccuracy can put the closing deal on hold. However, automating helps you to create accurate sales quotes and limits the bottlenecks in the sales unit. This way, sales reps can spend more time on functions, like prospecting or creating quotes for other clients.
Furthermore, providing precise quotes to the prospects will highlight you as a person who values relationships and ensures to provide information that is suitable for both parties.
Automate Other Processes And Drive Value
Automation is considered the most crucial function of the quoting software. While certain tasks can be accomplished using automated quoting software, there are some which can be executed by a salesperson only. This underscores the importance of a software deployment process.
Tasks such as learning about the customers, enhancing their product education, or creating presentations that involve connecting products to the buyers’ needs and alleviating their pain points need a lot of time. Automating other processes provides them with the time to focus on such activities, thereby driving more value.
Eliminate Guesswork Involved In Contract Negotiation
Quoting software solutions have significantly transformed the quoting creation process. A worthy quoting software makes the contract execution process simple and intuitive. It automatically expands the field with updated data acquired from the connected systems. The software also takes appropriate care of documenting signatures before sending the contract to the appropriate parties.
You do not want to lose the customer due to oversight or mistake, after coming through a long way to the contract negotiation phase. Hence, it is advisable to utilize the best technological tool and reduce the risk of error or other mistakes and shorten the execution timeline.
Increase The Deal Size and Nurture Repeat Buyers
The sales quotes management software aims at providing you with more out of every deal you make and building a solid relationship with buyers. Utilizing quoting software assists you in providing the prospects with upsell and cross-sell products. It also keeps the value of the transaction tangible during the discussion.
For B2B eCommerce, sales quoting software has become a way of providing their customers with dynamic product pricing. According to Gartner, 40 percent of B2B eCommerce businesses enroll configure, price, and quote software solutions. Also, as more customers become familiar with the digital quote process, the requirement for this tool will increase too.
Key Takeaway
Customers like to get prompt responses from the sellers. And, by automating your sales quotes, you will be able to create a more efficient workflow, reduce time and error, and increase the closing rate significantly. This way, your business is all set for sustainable and durable growth in the future.
