Quickly preparing a proposal for a client is not only a great convenience for both parties, but most importantly, it reduces costs for your company. After all, the person in charge will not have to spend so much time on one client, but will already take care of the next tasks. Therefore, find out how to reduce the time needed to prepare a commercial offer.
| Why should you price a commercial offer faster?
Firstly, every additional day you have to spend preparing an offer is a significant cost for your company. That’s why it’s crucial that you speed up the process, which will save you money and human resources. In addition, it increases the chances of gaining a new customer, who will be more satisfied with a quick response – before your competitors do, or the recipient simply has time to change his or her mind.
Wondering what costs you are incurring as a result of the lengthening process of creating a commercial offer? It may have to do with:
- the time you have to invest in maintaining the relationship between the vendor, the client, and the specialist responsible for creating the quote,
- the amount of work put in by the specialist,
- the significant increase in risk associated with the possibility of a potential client losing interest.
| How to get the information necessary for the valuation?
Systematizing the work and creating certain patterns of behavior are the best ways to speed up work on the valuation of a commercial offer. Especially since you actually need the same or very similar information every time. Therefore, make sure that the specialist in charge of the valuation always receives the necessary data. Usually, it is the salespeople who are responsible for this, so it is necessary to have a ready-made scenario that can be filled in already during the conversation with the potential customer. Such systematization will make the salesmen know what questions to ask so that later the quote can be created in the shortest possible time.
You can use various tools to make the work of salespeople and valuation specialists easier. First and foremost, checklists will come in handy, as they reduce the risk of overlooking an important issue during a conversation with a client.
| How to create a quote faster?
While it is very indispensable to reduce the time it takes to create a quotation, at the same time you must not let the quality of the document, which will then be handed over to a potential client, be compromised. You simply have to remember that creating a quote is a process that you can optimize and shorten, but you can’t completely automate it. Instead, all you need is a system tailored to your industry, offerings, and experience with previous customers. Therefore, start by differentiating between the time it takes for an estimate and the time it takes to create it. Next, it is essential to establish some facts:
- whether in a particular case it is possible to create a quote for an offer, if not, then automatically offer supporting services such as an audit;
- whether the valuation specialist should attend the meeting with the client, if so, you will certainly save a few or even several days needed to get specific data;
- whether the salesman knows what information he should collect from the potential client; if not, prepare tools, e.g., a checklist or brief that clarifies all issues;
- whether the specialist in charge of the quotation has the time to prepare it, if not, you need to optimize his working time to make it more tailored to the company’s needs;
- whether the employee in charge of the quotation knows the importance of working quickly, efficiently, and without errors; if he doesn’t, then you should provide him with specific data that will show how important time is when acquiring lucrative orders.
| What influences the longer time to prepare a valuation?
Already during the first discussions with the client, you can very often predict how long the valuation process will take. In such a situation, it is worth inviting a specialist to the meeting – especially when a long and really detailed conversation is to take place. This will allow the valuation employee to personally get to know and understand the needs of the potential client, and, above all, to ask questions that will then facilitate the presentation of the valuation. In the case of such prestigious and less standard collaborations, an hour-long conversation can effectively save up to a dozen days needed to exchange messages, questions, and answers.
Sometimes the extended time required for a quote also has to do with an inadequate system of work inside the company. In that case, blocks of time that are designated and dedicated just for working on the quote are helpful. Therefore, already determine in advance how many hours per week an employee is to devote to this type of task.
Reserving blocks just for this purpose will make completing the quotation much easier, faster and, above all, you will eliminate the problem of constantly postponing this duty to a later date. At the very beginning, blocks of 2-4 hours per week will suffice. Then gradually modify this plan depending on the needs of the company, the season, and interest from customers.
| Is it always possible to create a quote for a commercial offer?
Sometimes sticking to rigid rules is not possible, because the client expects a more individual approach or customized products or services. Besides, there are also customers who don’t quite know what they require. Then it is virtually impossible to make a quote for a commercial offer. Then your most important task is to help and advise, and by doing so you will support the potential customer in specifying exactly what he requires. Precisely because of such an audience, many companies expand their offerings with supporting services such as business analysis, target group requires research, paid audits, and workshops.
In this way, you will make it easier for customers to choose the right offer because you will provide them with many more options. This way you won’t lose potential customers but will allow them to decide on a different path of cooperation.
