Multiply Your Sales With The Power Of Automated Quoting
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You’ve worked hard, and now the fruits of your labor are near. You are this close to sealing a major deal – but in a cruel twist of fate, you lose it. Not because you weren’t good at persuasion or your product wasn’t the best, but simply because your quoting process took too long.
Frustrating isn’t it? In today’s “everything instant” hyper-competitive market, the difference between winning and losing boils down to how swiftly you can deliver your quotes. You have to keep up with your buyers’ faster demands and desire for personalized responses - both of which manual quoting just can’t handle.
The fix? Automated quoting. Fast, reliable and accurate, real-time quote generation can help your business eradicate bottlenecks and human errors while boosting turnaround time dramatically.
However, speed is not the only benefit of automated quoting. Being able to effortlessly scale your business while enabling your sales reps to forge strong, lasting customer relationships can help manufacturers and service providers like you reclaim their #1 spot.
Let’s explore how and why automated quoting is the transformative agent your sales process needs.
Understanding Automated Quoting
Automated quoting might seem like a modern process but its roots go way back to the 1980s, when first product configurators came into development. They laid the groundwork for the earliest CPQ software, which invariably formed the foundation for automated quoting.
CPQ, as you know, is short for Configure, Price and Quote. That said, let us break down the concept of automated quoting for you.
What is Automated Quoting?
Utilizing sophisticated software, automated quoting simplifies your sales process. From instantly generating to managing and delivering price quotes - it does it all accurately and in-real time. Its tailored price quotes use pre-defined logic, customer data and product configurations to come up with an error-free document in a matter of minutes.
Fast and reliable, the core components of automated quoting include product catalogs, pricing engines, and customization tools. Plus, they easily integrate with your existing platforms such as ERP and CRM, which allows them to access and collate critical data such as inventory levels, customer profiles, and production costs.
The result? Quotes that are fast and in perfect alignment with your business’s operational capabilities.
The Role of CPQ in Sales Automation
Quoting is a part - an integral part - of a typical CPQ software. In fact, a well-designed CPQ system allows you to automate the quoting process so your sales team can direct their energies to more strategic tasks.
If you arm yourself with the right software, your sales team can quickly configure products as per customer preferences, apply accurate pricing and generate a polished quote that leaves little room for confusion and practically no scope for errors.
If your business is all about complex or customizable offerings, CPQ can help you modernize the quoting process by automating rules-based configurations and pricing logic so speedy approvals become the norm.
Manual Quoting vs. Automated Quoting
Outmoded and inefficient, manual quoting just doesn’t offer the same finesse and efficiency that automated quoting does. We stacked the two against each other below.
Key Benefits Of Implementing Automated Quoting
Opting for this strategic shift can entirely redefine how your sales team functions. Expect faster closing times and stronger customer trust among these other benefits:
1. Accelerated sales cycle
Back-and-forth approvals and data entry are those problematic parts of manual quoting that can delay the deal progress. To escape the slow clutches, automated quoting is essential. By considerably slashing down response times with instant quote generation, it will help your sales team close deals sooner.
Using preset templates and logic, automated quoting can eliminate bottlenecks in the quote-to-cash cycle while enabling your sales team to swiftly respond to all related customer queries. Trust automation to shave hours, sometimes even days from the entire quote turnaround process.
2. Enhanced quote accuracy
When you take manual effort out of quoting, you invariably take out the errors too. Whether it’s pricing, product configurations or discounts - human errors in any of these can prove to be expensive for your business.
Automate the whole process, and you don’t have to worry about inconsistencies. By pulling real-time data from other modules, automated quoting can apply predefined business rules so you get error-free quotes that reflect current pricing and approved discount thresholds.
3. Improved customer experience
The only way to avoid having a disgruntled customer on your hands is to instantly resolve all of their queries with the utmost professionalism - a department where automated quoting helps by delivering polished quotes in a timely manner. This is key to building long-term trust and loyalty.
4. Scalability and efficiency
Your growing business cannot and must not depend on manual quoting practices. It will quickly become a liability. Instead, automate your quoting so you can smoothly handle complex configurations and increasing volumes without burning out your team.
The resulting reduction in manual input will ensure your sales team will have enough time to direct their efforts towards building unshakeable customer relationships - which is what your business needs to thrive in the long run. Scalable automation is the way to go for growing businesses that do not want to compromise on their service quality and accuracy.
Steps to Implement Automated Quoting in Your Sales Process
The transition from a manual to an automated quoting sales process is a strategic move that’s bound to succeed if it’s backed by thoughtful planning. If you are wondering where to begin, take the step-by-step approach we have outlined below.
Step 1: Assess your current quoting process
Your existing process might be riddled with gaps and issues, which will become clearer upon a closer look. Analyze it thoroughly to identify approval bottlenecks, common delays, manual errors and customer complaints concerning quote submissions. Recognizing problem areas will help you direct automation endeavours towards areas that need the most improvement.
Step 2: Define requirements and objectives
While a sales quoting tool serves a specific set of purposes, you need to clearly define what your business needs from it. Perhaps it needs to be connected to your ERP, CRM, or inventory systems? Maybe dynamic pricing and document customizations are must-haves for you? Whatever your use case may be, it is critical to align your quoting tool objectives with your overarching business goals.
Step 3: Choose the right quoting tool
Choosing the right quoting tool isn’t as easy as picking out a dish from a menu. It requires more careful planning and research. Especially when you know that different quoting tools will have different feature sets and functions.
If you want to make the right choice, you will have to evaluate available solutions based on their industry fit, ease of use, scalability and compatibility with your existing tech stack. That means eliminating any option that doesn’t tick all the right boxes - even if it seems affordable at face value.
Step 4: Integrate it with your existing systems
You want a quoting tool that fits in like a glove with your current tech stack. Combined with your CRM, inventory, accounting and other tools, your quoting system should work like a well-oiled machine that gets the job done with minimal interference. It should be able to pull data from all of these systems to deliver accurate quotes in a timely manner without duplication or misaligned processes throughout the sales cycle.
Step 5: Train your sales team
Hands-on training sessions with the new quoting system will help your team understand how the new system works and how they can use it effectively. Select a champion on your sales team who can guide everybody else and encourage ground-level adoption so your business can unlock the full benefits of automated quoting.
Step 6: Monitor and optimize your workflow
After successful implementation and adoption of your quoting system, make sure to consistently track the KPIs you’ve set for it such as win rates, accuracy and quote turnaround times. This data will help you fine-tune your workflows so you can achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency and growth.
Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Automated quoting is a major boon for any business offering configurable products and services. However, the road to implementation is not easy. Common challenges can seem like insurmountable hurdles. But understanding them beforehand can help you develop an action plan that works.
Here are the major challenges to automated quoting and how you can overcome them for a smooth rollout.
1. Resistance to Change
It’s highly likely that your sales team might find using old manual methods to be comfortable and convenient. You can expect hesitation from them when it comes to adopting your new automated quoting system.
The best way to approach this scenario is to involve your sales reps early on - preferably in the development and decision-making stage of the process. Showing them how automation can reduce admin tasks and free their time up for more valuable work can encourage adoption.
2. Integration Complexities
All the tools in your tech stack - from ERP to CRM to accounting - can be technically difficult to connect with your brand new automated quoting system. However, you can avoid disruptions and downtime by opting for a tool that offers proven integration capabilities along with robust API support.
3. Data Accuracy and Management
The success of automated quoting depends on data hygiene. Inconsistent or duplicate data can adversely impact its performance. Therefore, it’s critical to clean up all your data - particularly information related to customer, product and pricing.
Ensure all the data you use is consistent and up-to-date across all platforms. Having data governance protocols in place combined with regular audits will help you maintain integrity. Remember, accurate data = accurate quotes. Without it, quoting is just fast, not reliable.
Real-World Impact: How Custom Quotation Software Changed The Game For This Control Panel Manufacturer
For manufacturers of custom products, an efficient quoting system can change the game. Extensive product lines with complex configurations can lead to a drawn-out quoting process that’s unnecessarily complicated and serves no one.
In such cases, not only is it a hassle for the sales team to come up with a manual quote plan, the time taken leads to delay in quote delivery, which can lead to a frustrated customer. That was exactly the case with one of our clients - a leading custom electrical control panel manufacturer in Canada.
So we stepped up and fixed their issue with our custom quotation system with a specific focus on Bill of Materials (BOM) generation. The implementation of our software led to a significant reduction in BOM errors while tremendously improving quote turnover time.
Read the full success story here →
Why Choose Vestra Inet’s Custom Quotation Software?
At Vestra Inet, we design purpose-driven systems that align with your unique sales process, operational workflows and pricing models. Our system can easily adapt to your business - irrespective of whether it follows complex approval chains or sells highly configurable products.
Seamlessly syncing with your pre-existing CRM, accounting and inventory platforms, our quoting software eliminates data silos, thus ensuring speedy and accurate quote generation. In fact, what your team gets is a unified, real-time quoting environment that doesn’t disrupt what already works.
The partnership approach we take is one of the reasons why over 500 clients have chosen us so far. From onboarding to post-deployment, we offer each of our clients with dedicated, personalized support.
Continuous system refinements are part of the process through which we ensure your quotation solution evolves to meet your business’s growing demands.
Explore how our custom-built quotation system can revolutionize your sales process →
Conclusion
Automated quoiting isn’t a fancy add-on. It’s a system that keeps your business relevant and thriving in today’s ultra-competitive landscape. From accelerating sales cycle to enhancing customer experience with instant and accurate quote generation - this system can enable scalable growth for your business.
But the key to deriving its amazing benefits lies in choosing the right custom quoting solution for your business. Vestra Inet’s advanced software can replace manual bottlenecks with streamlined automation so your sales team can focus on building customer relationships and closing deals. Contact us to break free from a slow and inefficient quoting process.
FAQs
1. Define automated quoting.
Automated quoting involves the use of software for the generation of quick and accurate sales quotes that are free of manual effort and error.
2. How does automated quoting contribute to improved sales efficiency?
By speeding up the entire quote generation process so your sales team can swiftly respond to customer inquiries and close potential deals as soon as possible.
3. Is it possible to connect a new automated quoting system with an existing CRM system?
Yes. They can also be synced seamlessly with accounting and inventory systems among others.
4. Should small businesses get an automated quoting tool?
Absolutely. Small businesses can reap the same benefits from automated quoting as larger businesses do, including the flexibility to scale up.
5. What are the critical features of an automated quoting system?
Customization options, flexibility and scalability, ease of use, integration capabilities and continued provider support are some of the must-have features of a good quoting tool.
Author Bio
Andrey Wool
Helming the operations at Vestra Inet, Andrey has over 20 years of leadership experience in the ERP industry. Having successfully launched 550+ software projects across a diverse set of industries, Andrey continues to transform the way businesses function with pioneering custom software solutions. His in-depth knowledge of sectors such as manufacturing and distribution has helped him curate actionable solutions that eliminate bottlenecks and pave the way for sustainable growth.
