Sales are the lifeblood of your organization. But there are a lot of steps involved in the process, and a lot of areas where inefficiencies or mistakes can cost you.
A big area to pay attention to is quotes and their impact on the bottom line. That’s where online quoting software solutions can come in handy.
Below, you’ll learn about online quoting software and what makes it unique compared to other sales and marketing applications, as well as the benefits of implementing it in your organization — and our solution.
What is online quoting software?
Online quoting software, sometimes called sales quote software, is a sales tool that streamlines the sales process by automating the creation and sending of proposals and sales quotes.
These solutions often allow for deep customization so you can offer more accurate quotes in less time. Your organization can’t survive without making sales, and a key component of closing more deals is creating quotes that earn you enough revenue without pricing the prospect out.
At the same time, if creating sales quotes is a manual process, then it takes time away from selling to more prospects.
Any activity that draws your sales reps away from talking to and closing prospects should be minimized, streamlined, and/or automated whenever possible. And creating sales quotes is one of those activities.
The more efficient you can make your entire sales process, the more time your sales reps will have to find more prospects and close those deals. Thus, a quoting tool is a good product to invest in.
Sales quote software vs. CRM: what’s the difference?
Sales quote software and CRM software are similar in that you use both to keep in contact with clients.
However, they serve different purposes.
CRM software stores information about customers and prospects with the primary aim of growing relationships with these people and generating more leads. These tools make it easy to follow up with leads and move them closer to another closed deal.
This is where online quoting programs come in. They help you build an accurate, professional-looking quote once your customer is ready to buy.
CRMs and quoting tools work in tandem. CRMs help you sell the customer initially, personalize your marketing, and offer excellent post-sales service. Meanwhile, the quoting solution ensures you get paid the right amount each time one of those sales happens.
What can sales quote software do for your organization?
Quoting programs are closer to the sale than most other business solutions.
Consequently, these products offer numerous benefits to organizations, despite the narrower focus on creating quotes.
Here are some advantages quoting software will offer you.
Close more deals
It’s simple — the less time sales reps spend on anything that isn’t talking to prospects and customers, the more time they have to find and close deals.
Quoting programs handle one of the more critical aspects of the sales process since you can’t close a sale without giving your prospect a quote. To speed things along further, you may want to centralize all sales material and share files alongside your quoting app.
That’s precisely what you can do in this Supporting Sales Materials template:
Increase sales efficiency
The time savings don’t just result in more total deals closed. They also allow your sales team to close each deal faster, increasing your sales efficiency and shortening your sales cycle.
A shorter sales cycle offers a few benefits on its own. For one, each deal pays you in less time, growing revenue faster and boosting cash flows.
Plus, there are fewer opportunities for something to go wrong.
A longer sales cycle creates more opportunities for a sales rep to accidentally harm a relationship or a competitor to swoop in and steal a potential customer. Quoting software goes a long way in minimizing sales cycle length, which can come in handy if you sell high-ticket, complex products — such as in B2B software — that traditionally require a fair bit of time for each quote.
You may be able to generate additional revenue and profit without an increase in prices.
Reduce errors
Errors in the quoting process pose a few threats.
First of all, they waste time if your sales team catches them early. A sales rep then has to revise the quote, which may irritate the prospect a little bit if they didn’t notice it before sending it out.
Any friction during the sales process increases the chance you lose the sale altogether, especially when selling complex products. If you don’t catch the errors, things get a bit awkward later, especially if you undercharge.
You’ll have to pursue the correct amount of payment, which isn’t exactly healthy for the relationship with the prospect.
Or you have to take a loss, which hurts your bottom line and could even risk your company, if it’s a big enough deal.
If it turns out you overcharged your client or customer, they may not be happy with that either. Even if they get their money back, you’re harming their profit and cash flows, and your reputation.
No matter — sales quote software cuts down on the chance of error by pulling as much information as possible from customer records stored in your CRM. Depending on which solution you pick, it can facilitate accurate pricing calculations and more.
Enhance collaboration within and outside of the sales team
Some quoting applications come with additional collaboration features, especially for helping sales and marketing work together.
Of course, a Work OS lets everyone in the organization work within one online workspace, simplifying collaboration across functions.
On monday.com, you can create a sales CRM and use it alongside your quoting tools to build that bridge between sales and marketing.
This CRM template is an excellent place to start:
Improve forecast accuracy
Another feature that some quoting solutions have is reporting and analytics, which are helpful in improving sales management.
You can generate reports regarding which sales reps are closing which deals, how much you’re earning on your quotes, project schedules, and so on.
But one of the most important sales reports you’ll need is a sales forecast.
These help you allocate resources properly, make hiring decisions, plot future company growth, and play a crucial role for startups seeking investment.
Quoting software helps make sure your sales forecast is as accurate as possible. You can create reports that show trends in your past quotes — such as price, the number of deals done, and so on — that are helpful in predicting the future.Build custom quotes and automate your sales process in a Work OS
Thanks to the quote app inside the monday.com platform, your reps can build sales quotes in seconds without leaving their digital workspace.
And it’s simple to set up.
First, add the app to your workflow by clicking any board item, then selecting “add view” and choosing the Bill.it app.
Alternatively, users of the CRM or Contacts templates should have it built into their board right away.
You can then begin using this tool to create your quote using the template provided by filling in the fields.
As you can see, you can add extensive information about the prospect and your company, and you can stick your company logo in there for branding purposes.
Simply fill in all the details and share your quote with your prospect by either downloading and sending it to them or sharing a link with them.
Of course, there’s no need to fill out each quote from scratch.
By linking your monday.com CRM board to your sales pipeline board — where this quoting app works best — you can have it prefill most of the quote’s fields. This will save you some time and cut down on potential mistakes in each quote.
Provide better quotes and close more deals in less time
Today, software makes it possible to streamline nearly every business process. However, a sales quote sits high on the priority list for companies looking to invest in tech since quoting is directly involved in the sale. Speed up the sales process, and you close more deals.
With the power of a Work OS like monday.com at your disposal, your sales process can live alongside every workflow. No more flipping between different applications.
Try monday.com today and see how easy it is to manage your entire sales process, including building quotes.
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