Get quotes to customers faster (and win more work)
When someone asks your business for a quote, how soon does it land in their inbox?
If you spend hours creating a quote, or leave quoting for the end of the day (or days later), by the time you send the quote, you’ve missed the window. The customer’s already contacted someone else. You lose the job before you’ve even started.
The first quote in someone’s inbox usually wins.
If you can turn a quote around in hours instead of days, you win more work. It’s that simple. Quick quotes beat slow ones almost every time.
The costs of slow quoting
- You lose jobs to competitors. A customer rings you for a quote. If you’re still writing it up three days later and they’ve already got another quote, you’ve lost them.
- Quotes stack up. You fall behind on quoting and your team gets stressed. Someone has to drop other work to catch up on the quote backlog. Other jobs slip.
- You look disorganised. A late quote tells a customer you’re too busy, disorganised, or don’t care about their work. That’s not the impression you want to make.
What changes with fast quotation
You win more jobs
If you can get a quote to a customer before anyone else, they’re more likely to book you. A fast response makes your business look professional, and gives customers the impression that you’re ready to get started on the job. Speed is your competitive advantage.
Your team saves time
Less admin means your team has more time to do what they’re good at. A technician creates a quote on site and sends it. That customer’s sorted. They move to the next job. No backlog waiting at the office.
Everyone’s more productive
When quoting is easy, your team does more of it. They’re not frustrated. They’re not juggling spreadsheets and emails. Work moves faster and everyone’s happier.
How to get quotes out faster
Get it right the first time
Ask the customer the right questions upfront. What do they need? What’s their budget? What timeline are they working to? The more you know before you write the quote, the fewer back-and-forths you’ll have. One good conversation beats five emails.
Create a quote template
A template with your logo, terms and conditions, and payment information saves time and cuts down spelling mistakes. All your team needs to do is add the details and pricing and send it. No forgotten payment terms. No inconsistencies between what you quote one customer and what you quote another.
Get organised
If leads are scattered across emails, spreadsheets, and sticky notes, you’ll miss some. Quotes won’t get out, and follow-ups won’t happen. Leads will go cold. Bring everything into one place to stop this from happening. When a customer enquires, it goes into your system. Your team can see it. Assign it to whoever’s handling it. Send the quote and follow up. When you’ve got control of your leads, quoting gets done quickly.
Quote from the field
You’ve just finished a job, and the customer asks if you do maintenance contracts. You say yes, pull out your phone, create a quote right there, and send it before you leave. The customer gets a quote while they’re still thinking about it. That’s how you win work.
Track what’s happening
How many quotes are you sending? How many are getting accepted? How long is the average turnaround time? Where are you losing jobs? Data tells you what’s working and what’s not. If you’re creating quotes fast but they’re getting rejected, the problem’s not speed, it’s the content. If you’re losing jobs to competitors, you need to be faster.
Speed up quoting, win more work, with Eworks
Speed matters because the first quote wins. The customer you lose to a competitor isn’t coming back, but the one who gets your quote in an hour instead of three days is more likely to book you.
The good news is that Eworks makes quoting faster for trades and services. With our quoting and lead management software, you can:
- Manage leads, quotes, jobs, invoices and more in one system
- Create and send quotes from anywhere with our mobile app
- Make sure no important details are missing with templates
- Turn quotes into jobs, ready to be scheduled, once they’re accepted
- See which quotes are winning you work and which aren’t
Want to learn more? Book a demo to see it in action.