Smart quoting will take solution sales to a new decade, to the requirement level of the 2020s digital work. Utilizing intelligent sales applications enables more accurate needs mapping and easy bidding for B2B solution sales as well.
Companies today want to get rid of manual work steps and create different processes that are smooth, automated, and as intelligent as possible. Why not also in B2B solution sales and quote management?
Smartness or better said Intelligence in sales processes and quoting can mean several things. Increasing the intelligence of quoting does not necessarily mean automated quoting. Fully automated intelligent processes always run the risk of not being able to define rules that apply to all situations, or implementing these intelligent processes will incur more costs than bringing actual business benefits to the company.
Intelligent quoting is more about facilitating solution selection and having smart quoting processes. Smart quoting simplifies the sales work and speeds up quotation preparation in general. Even today, companies’ sales processes are often:
- Too manual and take the sales focus from the customer to preparing and producing the quotation material.
- Undefined processes, in which case the choice of solution can lead to sub-optimal results from the perspective of both the customer and the supplier.
- Time-consuming and resource-intensive work, which requires a lot of skills and people to be involved in the sales project.
With a smart sales applications, the time spent on a single offer can be significantly reduced. At its best, our customers have seen a reduction in time use of up to 80%.
What exactly is intelligence in quoting?
Smart quoting can mean many things. Klaro’s view is that your smart quoting process includes at least the following:
- systematic identification of needs, ie sizing.
- guided solution selection for the end user
- a tool capable of producing the best prices and delivery terms on offer.
- a consistent approach to the entire bidding process throughout the organization.
- new tools for bid management and content analysis.
In the intelligent solution selection, you select products for the customer based on their dimensioned needs in the quotation tool. By using smart sizing at the same time, you develop solution sales to a new level, where the customer’s needs can be defined more and more precisely. On the basis of dimensioning, quotes are based more clearly on facts, and won and lost bids can be analyzed more accurately and with higher quality. In practice, therefore, you respond to the needs of your customers more accurately, more easily and faster.
Speeding up sales work comes from the fact that time is actually spent figuring out needs with the customer. Of course, the solution selection can also be digitized by publishing the service channel to the customer. Ease comes from a systematic process for which solutions to problems have been considered in the application. When you systematize your understanding of customer needs, you are sure to gather all the necessary information about your customers ’needs and make them co-ordinated. You will certainly have a better understanding of what your customers want and what are the right solution for those needs.
Better fit to the customer’s need will certainly increase the likelihood of a trade transaction. And because not all competitors use modern bid management tools, a smart bidding tool will improve a company’s competitiveness. The content and technical quality of the offers will certainly increase, which will lead to a more satisfied customer. You are sure to offer the right things, thus reducing the risk of losing the trade. In addition, the details of the offer are certainly correct.
You can also document and collect needs in a single database. You can apply the database created by the quoting tool to a more detailed analysis of winning and losing quotes.
What are the tangible benefits of a smart quoting tool?
Based on Klaro’s vision, you will benefit from using the intelligent bid management tool in at least the following ways:
- easy and fast quoting, from mapping the solution to contract negotiations.
- the chosen solution better fits the needs of the customer, thus increasing the probability of winning.
- pricing is optimal for both the selling and buying company. You will earn more money and your customer will be more satisfied!
- fewer errors in quotes, resulting in smoother quotations and better customer experience.
Find out more about our solutions to support smart quoting: https://www.klarocpq.fi/en/make-quoting-more-agile/
Contact us and book an appointment! At the meeting, we will tell you more about your company’s opportunities to develop quoting processes: https://www.klarocpq.fi/en/make-quoting-more-agile/#content-bottom