5 challenges in the sales and quotation process
15 July 2011
Will it be your score, or your competitor’s?
Many companies have trouble making their sales and quotation process quick and easy. Even though this is of crucial importance! The faster your client receives a quotation of good quality, the higher your chance of scoring and beating your competitors will be.
Taking advantage of the moment
The moment a potential customer requests a quotation from your company, he needs your product. The best thing is to make sure a good quotation is sent out as rapidly as possible. In this way, you will take best advantage of the moment! But that’s more easily said than done. In practise, a few days can easily go by between the request and completing the quotation in question. There are a number of bottlenecks that can be identified concerning quality and speed.
Speed
Speed in the process is limited because you will usually be dependent on one or more colleagues with product knowledge. They all have their own schedules. Processing your quotation will not always be their highest priority. And it will cost them a substantial amount of time to input their knowledge into the quotation. But there’s no time. And I’m talking only about the time your colleagues need when they’re in the same building or country. If you are dependent on colleagues abroad, time differences will definitely not increase the chance of speedy handling of quotations.
Quality
Mistakes are made because agreements and changes are not always well-documented. An old quotation is often unearthed from the files as the basis of a new quotation. By using copy and paste, a new quotation is put together. With all the consequences this may have. Are you sure you changed everything, leaving no trace of the ‘old’ customer? The old name might still turn up somewhere. And that’s the least that can happen. What if you put part of your product into the quotation, but leave in a cheaper price… That can cost you money!
Guided Selling
All these things can be avoided using a process called Guided Selling. In the weeks ahead, I will be giving you 5 tips to improve and speed up your sales and quotation process. I’ll give you a sneak preview. In the weeks ahead I’ll be discussing:
- Shorter (communication) lines between departments
- Recording and sharing knowledge
- Copy and paste: past tense!
- Good content in quotations
- Worldwide or local? Time differences no longer a barrier
Are you ready to discover if your sales and quotation process can be improved? Can you handle the challenge?
Judith Steinmeier is Communication Manager at Sofon - supplier of sales support software. As Judith has a lot of contact with clients, she has a clear insight into how companies that deliver customer-specific products and services can realize improvements within their sales and quotation process.
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