You need to come up with a quote, but it’s a process. You need to determine your costs, remember any specials or coupons you have out, and negotiate with clients. It’s a time-consuming situation, and it’s one that your sales team spends much of its days completing.
What if you could free up that time for other activities? With sales quote software, also called quoting software, you can. This software automates the quoting process to help reduce the time spent on this task while also improving consistency across product and pricing information.
Your industry, as well as others that offer products or services, can all benefit from quoting tools. Small businesses benefit from the elimination of manual quoting tasks, while mid-sized businesses build better consistency by reducing errors related to complex pricing models. Even enterprise-level organizations can appreciate making the quoting process more efficient, since streamlining the sales process is better for the bottom line.
Why Is Quoting Difficult For Businesses?
Some of the key problems businesses have with the quoting process include:
Trouble Configuring Products and Services
The reality of quote creation is that B2B transactions are complex. Even if you’re working with consumers, you could have several prices for the different products or services you offer. And depending on what the client wants, the pricing you offer may change with add-ons, coupons or discounts, or other adjustments.
Pricing Errors
Quoting isn’t a straightforward process, which is what makes it so difficult for businesses. To create an accurate quote for a client, it’s necessary to know your company’s products and pricing. You also have to know about any discounts or specials.
On top of that, you’ll need to be excellent at negotiation, since many customers will want to work out a price that’s right for them (this is particularly common at the enterprise level).
Excessive Discounting
Everyone loves a discount, but your business’s bottom line can be affected if too much takes place. With a sales team, every one of your sales employees could offer discounts to close deals…and those discounts could end up costing your business a lot of cold, hard cash.
Missed Upsell Opportunities
Sometimes, upselling products can feel awkward. Or, your sales employee may simply forget about an option that’s available. When you don’t try to upsell regularly, helpful options that customers might actually want to use don’t get brought up. This problem can lead to customer dissatisfaction, particularly if an add-on costs more after the initial purchase.
Slow Quote Response Times
When a client needs a quote, they need it as soon as possible. But getting it to them can be hard, especially with how busy your sales team is. Quotes can slip through the cracks, and follow-up emails may not go out as soon as they should. These issues can lead to the loss of important leads and result in lower conversion rates overall.
How AI Can Be Integrated Into Quoting Software
Using AI in quoting software is a top solution because it helps automate daily processes and workflows. Depending on the tool, it may integrate with calendars or email servers, process new leads, and help keep you on track with response times or quote building. AI quoting tools take at least some of the stress off your team’s shoulders, helping them stay organized while also leading to higher conversion rates and improved return on investment (ROI).
5 Benefits of Using a Quoting Tool
The benefits of quoting tools are vast and varied, depending on how they’re used. Quoting tools can:
Save Time
Quoting software improves your sales team’s productivity by automating much of the sales quotation process. This software may provide proposal templates to your sales reps, help create professional quotes, and track quotes that have been made already. The best quoting products keep your team organized and streamline the sales process.
Improve Accuracy
Good quoting software has pricing rules and discount management built in to automatically calculate discounts to reduce mathematical errors.
Additionally, sales quoting software keeps track of quoting analytics, letting you know sales trends, conversion rates, and other information that will help you improve your sales strategy.
Increase Efficiency
Workflow automation with quoting tools smooths out the quote process, automating tasks and guiding your team through the quote process for faster turnaround times. In terms of efficiency, good quoting software will provide exactly the right information (in product catalogs, automatic suggestions, and other forms) to give your sales team what they need to seal the deal.
Better Customer Service
A quicker turnaround is better for everyone. And, when customers have questions, a rapid response is vital.
Analytics-driven upselling based on customer data can automatically suggest relevant services or products your client may want to try. It will also keep track of where your customer is in the pipeline so your team can respond quickly and eliminate frustration.
Improve Data Management
Nothing is more of a struggle than having a disorganized product catalog (or one that’s out of date). With quoting management software, your products and services are kept organized, easily accessible, and ready for each new quote.
11 Best Quoting Software Tools of 2024
All kinds of quoting software are on the market today. Some of the top tools to look into in 2024 include:
Jobber
Jobber is an app that focuses on supporting home service businesses. It says it saves an average of seven hours of work each week and currently has over 200,000 users. It has quote, invoice, and workflow tools. With Jobber, the claim is that you can get paid up to four times faster by using the tool’s credit card processing feature.
Streamline your work with Jobber for free during the trial, but then you’ll need to get a sales quote for the monthly cost.
Quotient
As the name suggests, Quotient is quoting software that helps you build quotes and proposals. It has features such as one-click responses, templates, follow-ups, and an easy-to-use dashboard for $20 a month for each user. Take advantage of the 30-day free trial to test it out.
Nusii
With professional portrait templates, quote tracking, analytics, a notification system, and more, Nusii is helpful online quoting software for fast-paced businesses. It starts at $29 a month for each user, but you get a 15-day free trial.
Scoro
Scoro helps you manage finances, projects, resources, and more. It has collaborative tools, project management tools, forecasting, and other features to help you make the most of your daily tasks. Scoro starts at $26 per month for each user.
Qwilr
Qwilr streamlines operations with simple-to-use PDF proposals, presentations, and quotes you can use to convert leads to sales. Some of the top features include free access to stock videos and images, analytics, e-signature functionality, and custom web pages instead of documents. Try it for $30 days, and then it’s $22 per user/month.
DocSend
DocSend is content management software and a tracking solution all in one. It has features such as document control, custom branding, and manager insights to keep you up to date on where your customer is on the sales journey. It starts at $10 per user/month.
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 offers CRM and project management along with easy quote and invoicing tools. Features such as email notifications, calendar sharing, and workflow and task reporting make this a keen piece of software. Bitrix24 offers multiple plans ranging from free to $399 for enterprise support.
Loopio
With proposal and knowledge management built into its programming, Loopio is an excellent tool for more than just sales teams. It also helps subject-matter experts, marketing personnel, proposal teams, and others as they work together to achieve client goals. Popular features include single sign-on, collaborative tools, and library and response templates. For pricing, reach out to Loopio.
PandaDoc
PandaDoc automates the sales process to improve close rates and sales cycle efficiency. It takes just a few minutes to create custom-made proposals, which is perfect for companies that usually create custom offers. It has features including custom branding, integrations with popular CRM tools, and auto reminders to keep you on task. Even better, it starts at $19 a month per user.
Bidsketch
If you’re a consultant, freelancer, or run an agency, you know the importance of creating professional, custom proposals to win bids. With Bidsketch, you can take advantage of features such as domain customization, centralized client information, and optional upselling at a starting price of $29 per user/month.
Podium’s AI Employee: Jerry
With Podium’s AI Employee, Jerry, you can get up to 30% more done in your sleep. That’s right, Jerry is your all-in-one AI Employee who can help you sell, schedule, and communicate with your customers at all hours of the day (or night). Even better, Jerry sounds like you, so your leads and clients feel like they’re speaking to a human, not artificial intelligence.
No matter what you need to automate, whether it’s customer service or streamlining scheduling, Podium can help. Top features include sending marketing texts in bulk, sending review invites to help build your online reputation, and AI-powered summaries that keep track of conversations and customer profiles. Check out a demo of Podium today!
