Quoting software helps you crunch the numbers, share the relevant details with your client, and make modifications in response to their needs, all using the cloud.
Clear, easy-to-access quotes make a completely different impression from some back-of-the-napkin math with no guarantee or clear process. You inspire confidence when you give the customer concrete answers and assistance in the process of shopping for a service provider.
However, not every quoting software is created equal. Award-winning software products range from software that handles many functions, including quoting, all the way down to tools that are hyper-focused on a particular kind of quote.
READ NEXT: 30 Quick Tips for Accurate Quoting
To find what works best for your company, check out some examples.
Construction is a great example of a specialized industry where quotes and estimates are steeped in industry-specific jargon. Using Esticom is a great way to save time by using a specialized interface that already accounts for many of the trades, from plumbing to HVAC.
Features of their packages include bid management, plan revisions, customer-facing quotes, tech support, and optional implementation training packages.
Their Estimator package costs $139/month per user, and they offer a free 14-day trial.
If you know that a picture or a design element can carry a lot of weight in your industry, you'll want your quoting tool to reflect those values. Better Proposals has crafted thoughtful designs and more than 160 templates that help businesses create proposals that are easy to read and carry a sophisticated look.
Their features include customizable templates, an easy-to-use editor, digital signatures, and the potential for custom domains or whitelisting domains.
To send 10 proposals a month with basic features, plans start at $19/month per user, with a $49/month Enterprise tier containing unlimited proposals and additional features.
RFPs, or requests for proposals, often outline extremely detailed requirements to submit a bid for a project. While some industries focus on building customer-client relationships before the quoting process, the RFP process tends to let the RFP and the resulting proposal do a lot of the work.
Loopio knows that some parts of RFP responses are repetitive, so they offer features like a content library where you can store answers to common questions that don't change, modifying them for a new RFP as needed.
They offer categories and tags to keep you organized and able to respond to more RFPs faster.
Their tiered products—Essentials, Plus, Advanced, and Enterprise—focus on different sizes of companies and complexities of RFPs, but all pricing is available by request.
Accelo recognizes that quoting as a service company can feel tricky, especially if some parts of your process could take more or less time depending on the project. The quoting solution within the Accelo platform helps you create standard and custom pricing for the different elements that arise over and over for your projects.
Accelo's feature-rich quoting option includes a flexible quote creator, detailed options for adding descriptions and other elements of quotes, multi-format options for delivering quotes, fast digital approval options to get your team started, and edit/status tracking for your online-hosted quotes.
Accelo's quoting tool is only one part of our larger system of customized dashboards and tools for productivity and profitability, and our comprehensive system starts with a free trial and then can range between $39 and $79 per user per month.
Quoting is, like so much else in the initial contact with a potential client, part of the process of impressing the client. If the quote process is chaotic, unclear, or untimely, the client may worry that the whole process will be that way.
On the other hand, when they receive a quote that clearly outlines expenses and deliverables, is easy to amend or comment upon, and is accessible in their preferred format, such as a client portal, that quote actually boosts your reputation with the client. So learning how to create a great quote can really be a growth strategy for your company.
At the same time, the quote becomes a guiding document for the entire project. If your quote is accepted, you'll want that document to be detailed enough that you can immediately identify areas where the budget is running out and make adjustments.
Clients love to see a project finish on time and under budget, and the quote helps you deliver that kind of outstanding result.
Where quoting software really shines is in its ability to seamlessly integrate an accepted quote into your project management workflow. After all, you put a lot of work into the proposal stage of the process, and when it's accepted, you don't want to reenter everything into a separate software.
Your quoting software should also allow for a mix of reusable features—for instance, a standard rate for kick-off meetings—and customizable features that allow each client to feel like they're getting your full attention.
Quoting software helps you take all the attention to detail and pride in your work that goes into your service business and apply them to the quoting process. Your customers will get the answers they need along with easy-to-use feedback tools within software like Accelo.
Even more, a good quote editor is flexible, integrated, and ready to help you move forward into the project mode.
Accelo takes quotes and transforms them into trackable projects that can be assigned to your team members and help you achieve high profitability through an understanding of your company's big picture.
Ready to give Accelo a try as your quoting tool of choice? Sign up for a free trial today!
