Preventing sloppy quotes: how to put your best sales foot forward

Quotes aren’t just an important part of the sales process—they’re also representative of your company. When you put out materials that the public can see, you always want to make sure that those materials are in line with your brand and reflect the high standards that your customers expect from you.

The ability to create timely, error-free, high-quality quotes is essential, so have a system in place that governs the generation and review of quotes. Humans make mistakes—from simple typos to major miscalculations—but you can put processes in place to prevent these types of errors from reaching the public eye.

In our webinar, ConnectWise’s software training consultants Mitchell Rollo and Renee Bergstresser take a deep dive into how you can whip your quote process into shape using the intuitive features in ConnectWise CPQ™ (formerly Sell). Here are the key takeaways from their discussion.

Find the right quote template—and stick to it

What are the most common mistakes you’ve noticed in your quotes? For many companies, errors in pricing are a recurring issue, and typos sneak in more often than they’d like.

Fortunately, many of these errors are avoidable, and there’s a quick fix that can put you on the right path: a good quote template.

In ConnectWise CPQ, you can browse quote templates, then mark your favorites for future use. With template groups that cover specific offerings like ‘hardware and software,’ or specific groups like ‘existing customers,’ it’s easy to find templates that are tailored to your needs. And if you want to encourage your sales team to use one template over another, ConnectWise CPQ allows you to edit the template options that are visible to your sales team, keeping everyone on the same page—and using the same templates.

Product pricing is another area in which quote templates can be helpful. Since the price of a product is usually determined by the type and cost of the product being sold, they tend to vary across the board. And no matter how smart and efficient your team is, you don’t want to rely on their ability to memorize the price of each product when creating quotes. That’s an easy way to invite errors into your sales quotes, while also making your employee’s lives harder.

ConnectWise CPQ includes features that allow you to determine prices automatically based on quote template tabs. That way, you can avoid errors and save time—and your team will thank you.

Get your entire sales team on board

You can have the perfect quote template, but it’s only useful if people actually use it. For maximum quality and efficiency, you need to encourage a shift in behavior—from the use of quote copies to that of quote templates.

With a few adjustments to your security settings, you can nudge members of your team towards the processes that help prevent sloppy quotes. The best way to discourage copying quotes is to disable the ability altogether. With these simple changes, you can make these decisions about how much discretion you leave up to your team, and how much security you maintain over your quotes.

Commit to eliminating errors

Even with optimized processes, mistakes are still bound to happen from time to time. However, with the right tools and tactics, you can reclaim your power over errors and ensure that your review process always weeds out the occasional mistakes that slip through the net into your quotes.

By improving your review process, you can catch and eliminate errors before they make it into your final quote and in front of your customers. In ConnectWise CPQ, you’ll find tools to help you out, allowing you to get more eyes on quotes before they’re finalized and integrating manager approval into the process when necessary.

For some quotes—like ones with particularly high value—you can require manager approval prior to publishing. This feature can be set based on conditions like a quote’s total or gross margin, so you can mandate approval when it’s necessary, without creating bottlenecks when it isn’t.

The product search mapping tool in ConnectWise CPQ can also help to prevent errors in your quotes by stopping products from being added to the wrong tabs. By optimizing the quote process and reducing the number of clicks and the amount of time you need to dedicate to each quote, this feature reduces the risk of slipups—while making the process more efficient.

Don’t let simple human error put a stain on your reputation. Sloppy quotes reflect poorly on your company—but with the right tools and processes in place, they’re incredibly avoidable.