The effect of a fast quotation
04 May 2012
You appreciate being able to complete a quotation easily and your customer also appreciates receiving your quotation promptly. But is there a link between your reaction speed and your chances of success?
No price, no decision
Quotations are often a vital step between initial contact and an order – for the simple reason that most people will not buy a product before they know the price. This presents no problem at all in the case of a standard item. In shops the price is simply stated on a tag. The price is also often stated with the product in the case of online shops. If you want to sell a custom product, however, it is not possible to provide your customer with a price immediately. You first need to find out your customer’s specifications so that you can use these as a basis for determining a price. And that takes time. How important is your reaction speed – your response with a substantiated price – to your customer?
Reaction speed
Your reaction speed may be more important than you think. By responding quickly, you also give your customer the opportunity to make a quick decision. The slower you are to react, the more time you give your customer to look around for other suppliers or postpone the purchase. But what does a quick quotation cycle time mean in concrete terms?
An example
DVC produces promotional materials, including custom-made flags. All kinds of factors, such as material, dimensions, type of fastening, printing and the quantity, determine the price of the flag. The flags are sold by DVC itself, but also via dealers in the Netherlands and abroad. Before DVC worked with a Guided Selling system, its front office spoke to the customer on the telephone. The details for drawing up a quotation were noted down on a piece of paper and the back office ultimately drew up the quotation, after which there was another check to eliminate possible errors.
20% more orders
Since DVC has been working with a Guided Selling system, employees in the sales office have even been able to generate the quotation with the customer while on the telephone. The sales office employee asks the customer the necessary questions and, after finishing the conversation, can immediately send a quotation by e-mail. Quotations no longer need to be checked, as they are error-free from the start. This has led to a great deal of time being saved: the quotation cycle time has been reduced from 3 days to 3 minutes. DVC’s dealers are now also able to calculate their own quotations without having to get in touch with DVC's sales office. All this time that has been saved has resulted in the number of orders rising by 20%. Evidence enough to suggest that quotation cycle time is very important when it comes to a quotation’s chance of success.
For more information read DVC’s story here or watch the video here.
Marijn Schouten is Director Business Development at Sofon - supplier of sales support software. As Marijn has a lot of contact with clients, he 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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