Streamline Your Quoting Process to Jumpstart Your Revenue Cycle

Your service business is already creating and sending quotes to prospective clients, and you’ve likely even seen some success from the quotes you’ve presented. Still, as your business grows this quoting process may need to be reevaluated and perfected in order to create more professional quotes for your business. 

Quotes are one of the first impressions your business makes on a prospect, and while a great quote can encourage a quick and easy sales process, a quote lacking critical details or containing inaccuracies could be the reason a prospect looks elsewhere. 

Because these documents can set the tone for your business, its future client relationships and its profit potential, it’s important to make sure your quoting process is as efficient and effective as possible.

To help you do that, we’re sharing the following:

• What is a quote and what important details should be included
• How quotes impact the quote-to-cash process for your business
• The issues service businesses face during the quoting process 
• How quoting software can offer solutions to these quoting problems  

What Is a Quote?

Quotes are formal documents that detail the goods or services you’re offering along with the pricing for that work. The document outlines your work so your prospect or client knows the services you will provide, how long it will take and the cost of your services.

Your quote sets clear expectations in a concise, professional document, providing all the information needed for the client’s decision-makers to make an informed decision about working with your business.

At a minimum, your quote should include the following:

1. Your company’s information. Include your business name, contact information, the project manager assigned to the project and any other related information.
2. Your client’s information. Their business name and contact information and the name and contact information of the client’s main contact person who will be receiving the quote.
3. Project details. List the name of the project (ex: “Website build”), milestones, project timeline, estimated number of hours needed to complete the project, the billing rate(s) for the project, estimated cost of materials, licenses and other related items.
4. Terms and conditions. Include payment terms and discounts, the length of time the quote price remains in effect and other important legal and financial details.
5. Total project estimate. Conclude your quote with the total estimated price of the project, including billable time and materials, licenses and other products and services provided.

In addition to this critical information, your quote should also look professional and consistent with your brand. Make sure to include your company logo and other aspects that help align the quote with your brand identity. When you use a unique quote template you can better distinguish your company from your competition — a step that’s incredibly important as clients are still evaluating your business. 

What Is the Quote-to-Cash Process? 

The quote-to-cash process spans your entire sales process for your organization. Starting with quote configuration and customer approval and leading to fulfilling your service agreement and invoicing your client and receiving payment, this process encompasses all aspects of your service business and can easily become a complex process.

TIP: To simplify this process, many service businesses find digital tools that can support a more efficient quote-to-cash workflow — saving your team important billable hours and creating a more consistent sales process for your clients.   

When you see your quote-to-cash process in its entirety it’s easy to see that the quality of your quotes can directly affect your revenue and profitability. Take the time now to evaluate your quotes, what you’re doing well and what common problems may be impacting your quote-to-cash process.

What Are Common Problems During the Quoting Process? 

The quoting process can be fraught with issues and without taking steps to mitigate those errors they could be preventing you from filling your pipeline and growing your business. Let’s take a look at some of the most common quoting issues facing professional services businesses. 

1. Billable time wasted with manual quote creation. Every quote your business creates requires adjustments and details specific to your prospect or client and their individual project needs. That time adds up when your team is creating quotes manually and those hours could likely be better spent on billable client work.
2. Client confusion about quoted products and services. When quotes are not clear, don’t include enough detail or when mistakes are made during quote creation, clients can find it challenging to understand what they are agreeing to — leading to a less efficient sales process.
3. Late or incomplete payments due to inaccuracies. If your quotes include pricing inaccuracies those can carry over to your billing process. Even worse, when there is confusion about pricing your clients could lose trust and you could lose out on potential revenue if you have to correct a mistake after the fact.  

Quotes are the beginning step of your revenue cycle. Streamlining your quoting process is a proven way to reduce time waste, create more accurate business records and improve professionalism in the eyes of your clients.

How Can Improving Your Quotes Impacts Your Profits? 

Creating quotes for your business is more than just a way to keep your pipeline filled, it is the start of your revenue cycle and one of the first impressions you make on a prospective client. Improving your quoting process can help solidify your brand, build professionalism and create a more solid foundation for your client journey beyond your sales pipeline.

Developing a professional quote is the start of a successful quote-to-cash cycle, keeps your business profitable and delivers a better customer experience. But many companies still rely on manual quoting systems that waste valuable time and can be highly inaccurate.

A study by McKinsey & Company shared that subscription-based service businesses that optimized their quote-to-cash processes had greater success in adding new accounts, growing existing accounts and reducing customer churn — resulting in a growth rate four times higher than other similar businesses.

Quoting is the start of your quote-to-cash process and it will have a direct impact on your revenue and profits. You can optimize the process by implementing digital tools that can help you more efficient workflows and demonstrate your value to your clients 

What Are the Benefits of Quoting Software?

When you’re first starting out, a simple quote template may be all your team needs to support a successful sales process, but as your business grows so does the effort it takes to balance attracting new clients with your existing client work. 

Manually creating quotes may work if you’re offering a physical product or a standard service, but in the professional services industry, you’ll likely need to customize every quote to a specific client or client project. 

Introducing quoting software can bring automation to your quoting process and reduce the time and effort needed to create professional, consistent quotes for your clients. In addition to resolving some of the common quoting issues we share above, using quoting software can also provide some additional benefits to your service business.

1. More consistent branding with custom templates. Building a consistent brand is an important step for any business looking to establish credibility and visibility in a competitive market. Custom quote templates can help support this brand identity with the added benefit of quick and easy quote creation.
2. More accurate client records. Your client quotes become valuable records once you’ve entered a working partnership with said client. Having a centralized place to store this data is a great resource and its even more valuable when you choose a quoting software solution that can connect to other aspects of your client work, keeping it all together in one centralized location. 
3. Improved forecasting for your business’s potential profit. In addition to better looking, more accurate quotes, quote software can bring additional benefits of quote management. With better data collection and reporting available through some quoting software options, your team can get a clearer picture of sales pipeline value and forecast how sales may impact your profits.

While some businesses may get by with the addition of a simple quoting software, most professional services businesses benefit from connecting their quotes to the other aspects of their client journey through a more robust client work management system. 

A platform like Accelo connects your sales and quoting, project management, tickets, retainers and billing to streamline your client work and collect your business data in one centralized tool. With the ability to build custom quote templates and unique features like the quote-to-project conversion that converts approved quotes to projects in just one click, Accelo streamlines your entire quote-to-cash process in one platform.

Quote Automation Made Easy with Accelo

Automating your quoting process is the best way to ensure that you consistently create and share professional and accurate quotes with your prospects and clients. From custom templates to better client records, quoting software will save your team time, improve accuracy and help you stay informed about the profit potential of new client work.

Advanced quoting software like Accelo allows users to easily create new branded quote templates with the flexibility your client work requires, share new quotes with internal stakeholders for review and forecast the potential revenue of your sales pipeline. 

Interested in seeing how you can transform your quoting process? Request a demo to see how you can create better quotes for your prospects and clients using our end-to-end client work management system.