How to Automate Your Quoting Process with the Best Quoting Tools

Introduction

Buyers today want responses not in days but in hours or minutes. They don’t like to wait for a person to take days to actually create a quote and physically give it to them. For them, it is a wastage of their valuable time.  

The advent of technology has completely transformed customer expectations. Manual quoting processes cannot live up to the mark and meet the expectations of fast-paced customers. Legacy quoting processes are slow, time-consuming, inaccurate, and prone to errors. For organizations relying on legacy processes, it can be hard to stay competitive and enhance customer experience. In the case of organizations handling complex products, the challenge can be even bigger and harder to overcome.  

Automating quotes can help organizations overcome these challenges. With quoting tools available in the market, organizations can generate sales quotes in minutes with higher accuracy and shorter turnaround time. Adopting a quote tool can help sales teams to focus on higher value tasks that can have a direct impact on enhancing customer experience.  

In this blog, we will discuss what benefits automating quotes provide and how can your organization automate your quoting process using a quoting tool. 

Why automate the quoting process with a quoting tool 

There are several advantages that instant quote software can offer to enterprises, especially those handling complex products. The primary benefits of the tool include: 

• Enhanced effectiveness and efficiency: Automating sales quotes using quoting tools can help enterprises to develop a clear and consistent flow for the quoting process. This established workflow can greatly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the sales team. For example, many steps involved in sales cycle, such as the quote templates, layout, and approval process can be standardized which can help streamline things. 

• Process optimization: The main benefit of adopting a quotation system is the optimization of the quoting process. With quote automation, sales reps can continuously analyze and optimize the quoting process. This helps them to meet the needs of the customers and boost their satisfaction. Some of the critical factors that can be optimized are pricing and discount strategies, value proposition, and timing of sending the quote. 

• Speed and accuracy: Another crucial advantage of a quoting tool is higher speed and accuracy. Adopting the tool can help sales teams achieve the required speed and accuracy in the quoting process. The sales team can generate and deliver quotes in less time and minimize the risk of human errors. 

How to Automate Quoting Process with a quote tool 

Adopting automation is not an easy transition for organizations, especially handling complex products. It is important to plan and strategize the automation process through quote tools to achieve maximum impact on the sales process. Here are the steps that can help you automate quoting process: 

Step 1: Assess Your Business Needs 

The first and the foremost step in the automating process is assessing the needs and requirements of the organization. The factors that should be considered are existing systems, current infrastructure, current and future growth plans, and more. The analysis of these factors ensures that the next steps in the process completely align together and help maximize growth opportunities. It is also suggested to take  

Step 2: Choose the Right Tool 

Once your business needs are identified, it is critical to choose a CPQ quoting tool that aligns with your needs. The tool that you choose for your organization must have the features, specifications, customizability, and integration capabilities that your sales team may need to perform their sales operations. Here are some of the main factors of a quoting too that can help you choose the right one for your organization: 

• Ease of use: The quote tool that your organization is willing to purchase should be user-friendly and intuitive. It would be easier and quicker for the sales team to adopt the system. 

• Customizability: Customizability is an important feature when it comes to choosing a quotation system. The quoting tools should offer higher customizability and personalization to meet the unique needs of your organization. 

• Security and compliance: The quotation system should be secure and compliant with regulations as it has to handle tons of personal and sensitive data of the sales teams. 

• Integration: The quote tool your organization aims to purchase should integrate with other sales tools that your organization uses such CRM tool to create a connected workflow for quotes. 

Step 3: Integrate with Your Existing Systems 

Automation does not start by purchasing a tool and turning it on. The quoting tool your organization has chosen should be integrated into your existing system, so it plays its part in automating processes. The system must be configured locally or cloud-based by the vendors and proper policies related to the usage of the tool must be established. It is important to define process steps, user roles, authority and permission, and other aspects so the quote tool is well integrated into the system and the sales teams can generate maximum benefit from the system.  

Step 4: Train Your Team 

After the system is installed and in place, the sales reps must be trained to use the system and utilize its functions. This training of the team will ensure that the transition from manual quoting process to instant quote tools is smooth and streamlined. The team can minimize the disruptions and downtime caused due to the change in the system. Properly trained sales reps will be able to extract maximum benefits from the quote tool and ensure higher customer satisfaction than before. 

Step 5: Monitor and Optimize 

Once the quote tool is implemented, the sales team can use the tool to write, edit, store, and share the quote instantly. They can use the tool to automate quote writing, manage version updates, automate the approval process and do much more. However, implementing the quotation system requires continuous monitoring and optimization. The performance of the team should be assessed thoroughly and areas for improvement should be identified. 

Performance tracking: Constantly analyze the performance of sales reps based on various metrics, such as quote generation speed, accuracy, conversion rates, and customer response times. 

User feedback: Regularly collect feedback from sales reps to identify areas of concern and challenges. Addressing their concerns can enhance usability and adoption rate. 

What are the Best Quote Tools to Automate Your Quoting Process? 

As we stated the importance of the right tool in 2nd step, we have listed some great quote tools that you can choose to automate your quoting process. These quotes not only automate the quoting process but also bring other benefits to the table. Here is how these tools can help you overcome the challenges of manual quoting: 

Salesforce CPQ: Salesforce CPQ helps businesses looking to modernize and streamline their quoting process. Using the quote tool, businesses can generate quotes accurately and quickly. You can create quotes automatically using preprogrammed set of rules and customized templates. Furthermore, it automatically generates renewal quotes and applies existing contracted terms and conditions to add-ons. Once the quote is created, the quoting tool routes the quote to the correct parties for approval.  

PandaDoc: PandaDoc is amongst the most popular quoting tools available in the market that can help your business automate the quoting process and eliminate all the issues related to manual processes. PandaDoc offers an advanced quotation system, which enables users to predefine quote proposals with different sets of products and even set up recurring payments. You can create customized quotes quickly and send them for approval without manual intervention. You can also streamline the signing process with automated notifications whenever the customer opens and signs the document.  

Bitrix24: Bitrix24 is a CRM solution that offers quoting and invoicing templates to automate the quoting process. It allows users to create templates in different languages that can be configured to create automated quotes. Sales reps just need to select the desired template to have a quote automatically filled in and created. 

Proposify: Proposify offers a quoting tool that helps businesses create digital quotes with dynamic pricing. It offers advanced search, filter, and sorting capabilities as well as supports various pricing models. The quote tool streamlines the quote creation process by automating pricing, product/service details, and formatting. 

HubSpot: HubSpot, a highly popular CRM, offers quote automation functionality with integration with HubSpot CRM. Users can automatically populate sales quotes by pulling in all information tied to the deal record, including contact and product information. Once the quote is created and sent, the software also streamlines e-signature and payment processes by sharing automated payment links. 

Jobber: Jobber as a quote tool allows users to create detailed and visually appealing quotes (with product images). Users get pre-built quote templates, pricing and margin details to be added to the quote. The automation part comes in the approval process where Jobber offers automatic follow-ups on quotes to which customers have failed to reply. The quotation system allows for automated approvals and e-signature capabilities too. 

Cincom CPQ: Cincom CPQ is a comprehensive CPQ tool designed to provide you with full control of your sales processes to maximize your revenue potential. With Cincom’s CPQ quoting tool, your sales teams can solve daunting challenges like slow quoting times, inconsistencies in the quoting process, and manual quote generation by automating the entire process. 

How Cincom CPQ automates the quoting process:  

• Generates accurate and detailed quotes instantly just by selecting products, configurations, and discounts. 

• Automatically pulls the most up-to-date pricing and discount information from internal systems.  

• Applies complex pricing models and configurations consistently across quotes without much manual effort.  

• Adjusts pricing based on pre-set margin requirements. 

• Equips sales teams with all the necessary tools to quickly evaluate customer needs and generate accurate quotes. 

• Streamlines quote approval process through automated workflows based on defined rules and criteria and notifications. 

• Creates an automatic audit trail of all approvals, ensuring compliance and transparency while speeding up the process by eliminating back-and-forth manual communications. 

• Automates configuration processes and applies predefined technical rules to speed up the configuration and quoting process. 

With its ability to automate the quoting process and maximize revenue opportunities, Cincom CPQ ensures your sales cycle is quicker, more efficient, and ultimately more profitable. 

Common Pitfalls to Avoid in Using Quote Tools 

While using a quoting tool can bring a slew of benefits to the organizations and their sales teams, it is important to avoid certain problems that can creep into your system due to mistakes or inaccuracies in implementation. Here are common pitfalls you must avoid while using instant quoting tools. 

1- Choosing a quote tool that doesn’t integrate well with your existing tools can lead to inefficiencies in the quoting process. Instead of automating things, the quote tool working in a silo can increase the manual efforts and lead to more time consumption. 

2- Many organizations tend to overcomplicate the quote process by adding unnecessary rules, conditions, and workflows. This can make the process long and ineffective instead of efficient. 

3- A quotation system can only work effectively if the sales reps understand it completely and use its functionalities to the fullest. Failing to train the sales team properly to use the quoting tool can lead to slower adoption and underutilization. 

4- It is always important to gather customer feedback and ensure that their expectations are met. Using the quoting tool effectively can have a direct impact on customer satisfaction.  

Conclusion 

Success of a modern-day enterprise depends on choosing a quote tool that offers the right mix of functionalities, price, and integration capabilities. Choosing the right quoting tool and following the automation process elaborated above, organizations can overcome challenges of manual processes.  

As organizations automate their quoting process with quoting tools, they can enhance efficiency as well as improve accuracy, consistency, and customer satisfaction. It is essential to choose the right tool that aligns with your needs and preferences and meets the expectations of your sales team. 

Take the first step towards automating your quoting process and streamlining your sales cycle with an advanced quoting tool. Get in touch with our team of experts and automate your quoting process today! 

FAQs 

1- What is a quoting tool or quotation system?

A quoting tool is a software solution that automates the creation and management of sales quotes. 

2- Why should an organization automate their quoting process?

The primary reasons for automating the quoting process are enhanced effectiveness and efficiency of the sales team, quoting process optimization, and increased speed and accuracy in the quote generation process. 

3- How to assess if my organization needs a quoting tool?

Assess your current quoting process and identify pain points based on feedback of sales reps and your customers. You can also analyze metrics such as conversion rate, time to complete the quoting process, error rate and more. 

4- How to choose the right quote tool?

It is important to choose the right quote tool to overcome challenges related to manual processes and boost efficiency. Factors that play a critical role in choosing the right tool are price, functionality, integration capabilities, customizability and customer service.  

5- Which are the popular quotation systems available in the market?

Popular quote tools available in the market are Salesforce CPQ, PandaDoc, Proposify, Jobber, HubSpot and Cincom CPQ quoting tool. 

6- How long does it take to implement a quoting tool?

Implementation time varies based on the complexity of the business and system integrations. Some solutions can be set up in days, while others may take a few weeks or even more than a month to implement. 

7- What are the risks that need to be taken care of while implementing a quote tool?

Common pitfalls that organizations must avoid while implementing an instant quoting tool are – poor integration with existing systems, overcomplicating workflows, improper training of employees, and ignoring customer feedback.