Stop quoting everything that moves

Your sales team is busy.

Enquiries comes in. Quotes go out. Everyone has plenty to do.

But how much of that quoting is actually turning into profitable work?

And how much is keeping your team busy chasing opportunities they know very little about?

It’s easy to fall into the habit.

A customer asks for a price. We prepare a quote.

It feels responsive. It feels helpful. And it gives us another opportunity to put in the pipeline.

But before anyone starts working out the numbers, there is a conversation that needs to happen.

A request for a quote only tells you so much

Someone asking for a price could be ready to buy.

They could also be putting together next year’s budget. Comparing options. Checking their current supplier. Or trying to work out whether the idea is affordable in the first place.

All perfectly reasonable things for a customer to do.

But they don’t all need the same response.

And they certainly don’t all need hours of your team’s time preparing a detailed proposal.

The trouble starts when every enquiry goes straight into the quoting queue.

No questions. No qualification. Just get a price out and hope something comes of it.

Every quote costs you something

Even when the customer gets it for free.

Someone has to understand the requirements. Check costs. Talk to suppliers. Work out the scope. Prepare the document.

Then someone has to follow it up.

And while they are doing all that, what else could they be doing?

• Helping a customer make a decision.
• Progressing a better opportunity.
• Talking to an existing client about their next project.

That is the cost worth thinking about.

Your team only has so many hours. Where those hours go matters.

Have the conversation first

Qualification doesn’t need to be complicated.

It starts with being curious enough to understand what is going on.

Before preparing a detailed quote, your team should be able to answer a few basic questions:

• What is the customer trying to achieve?
• Why are they looking at this now?
• What matters most to them when choosing a solution?
• Have they considered what they might need to spend?
• When are they hoping to make a decision?
• Who else needs to be involved?
• What will happen once they receive our quote?

You don’t need to fire these off like an interrogation.

Have a normal conversation.

“Happy to help. Before we put this together, can I ask a couple of questions, so we recommend the right option?”

That is a pretty reasonable place to start.

And the answers help the customer as much as they help you.

Sometimes a ballpark is more useful

Imagine someone asks for a detailed quote on a piece of equipment.

After a short conversation, you find out they are exploring an idea. They haven’t decided on the specification. And they have no idea what it might cost.

A detailed quote would involve a fair bit of guesswork.

An indicative price range, with the assumptions clearly explained, could give them exactly what they need.

They can decide whether the project is worth exploring.

You can agree on what needs to happen before preparing a firm quote.

Both sides can move forward with a clearer understanding.

Make the next step part of the quote

Before you send it, ask how the customer plans to assess it.

• Will they need you to talk them through the recommendation?
• Does someone else need to review it?
• Is there a project meeting coming up?

Agree on a sensible time to reconnect.

Otherwise, it is very easy to end up sending the same follow-up email a week later.

“Just checking you received our quote.”

Ideally, you should already know what happens next.

Give your team a consistent approach

Decide what information is needed before a detailed quote is prepared.

Be clear about when an indicative price is enough.

And make it easy to record opportunities that need more time or information.

A customer who is six months away from buying can still be a good prospect. Keep in touch. Help them prepare.

Equally, if the work doesn’t suit your business, be honest about that early.

You save everyone time.

Then look at what you measure.

Quote volume tells you how much quoting your team is doing.

You also need to know what converts. What produces worthwhile work. And where estimating time is being swallowed up.

Start with your last ten quotes.

• How well did you understand each opportunity before preparing it?
• What happened afterwards?
• And knowing what you know now, would you spend the same amount of time on it again?