How to generate IT and managed services quotes in minutes

Being as efficient as possible is more important than ever, especially with many businesses having to do more with less. This can be especially true for sales teams, who feel they spend too much time not selling. If you want to drive growth for your managed service provider (MSP) business, it is important to explore and implement ways to ease manual tasks and empower your team to sell even more! 

One essential tool in any MSP’s growth toolbox is sales is the ability to generate managed services quotes for new and existing customers quickly. Manually developing quotes can often be time-consuming, especially considering the extra effort it takes to double-check for accuracy and make the offer look enticing and professional.  

Let’s walk through what it takes to generate managed services quotes in minutes, not hours. 

Set up templates

The time of labor-intensive Excel-based quotes is over. Choose a quote management software that includes templates that can be reused across clients and prospects. Ideally, these templates allow for customization, such as your logo and other branding elements. These details can make quotes stand out and look professional and save time and effort for your sales team.  

Good sales software will also allow you to automate elements such as pricing discounts—so your business’ margins stay healthy and consistent, and they can ensure that quotes follow your business rules. 

Templates are the building blocks for generating future quotes and invoices. Start by creating templates that work for your specific business, the types of clients you serve, and the appropriate procurement and payment processes. 

Integrate with apps

No matter your customer relationship management (CRM) vendor, a good quoting platform will integrate easily with your favorite software tools. It should be able to pull customer data from the CRM to populate quotes, fill in standard details (e.g., address, email), and customize information relevant to each account. The type of integration also lets your sales team see what’s going on with each potential customer, including when they opened quotes and interacted with them. 

Once you have a template you like, hook up your quoting tool to your CRM and import the data you need. The right sales tool will also streamline your product sourcing by making it easy to compare pricing between distributors, import quotes from vendors, and pull product details from your professional services automation (PSA) tool. When everything is integrated and streamlined, you’re ready to start sending quotes easily and quickly. 

Automate as much as possible

How many hours a week do you spend following up with clients on quotes? What about renewals for contracts or warranties?  

Automation is the answer to saving your sales team time so they can close more deals and find new ones. Once you’ve sent out a quote, set up automatic reminders to gently nudge prospects or clients until they complete their action item. An automatic internal gentle nudge can also help your sales team follow up, which may ultimately improve your sales cycle length. 

Some quotes need extra approval, and your quoting tool can help you identify quotes that stray from your business practice or otherwise need review. Identifying these before proposals are sent saves time, but it also saves the embarrassment that may come with having to correct and resent inaccurate quotes.

Making signing and starting a breeze

Once a client is interested in working with your MSP, you want starting their project to be as easy and pain-free as possible. The right sales tool will allow clients to sign the agreement and kick off procurement automatically. You spend less time on back and forth, the work gets started faster, and everyone is happier. 

Quoting better and faster

With better sales software, MSPs can save time and deliver automated, professional quotes. Our Total Economic Impact™ of the ConnectWise Platform report found that ConnectWise CPQ™ (formerly Sell) software saves companies two hours per quote. That’s two whole hours back for other business-critical functions, including customer work, new business pitches, and more.  

ConnectWise CPQ™ has all of the capabilities mentioned above and more. With ConnectWise CPQ™, you create templates that look great, integrate with your favorite CRM tools, communicate information back to sales, and start work ASAP after a customer signs on the dotted line. 

In the words of Chad Paalman, the CEO NuWave Technology Partners:  

“ConnectWise CPQ™ has been a game-changer for us. I’m almost embarrassed to talk about how we did it before ConnectWise CPQ™. It has allowed us to automate so many functions within the quoting, the pricing, and the sale of the things we offer to our clients.” 

Sales are the lifeblood of any business, including MSPs. Regardless of size or focus, a sales tool that generates dynamic quotes, integrates seamlessly with a CRM, reduces the amount of siloed information, and makes starting work a snap is critical to saving time and doing more. And you can quote us on that!