A better way to write and deliver sales quotes

If your business writes quotes and proposals in a Word Processor or Spreadsheet and then delivers them via an email, please consider an alternative. First Direct orders a tool for writing quotes that can be delivered via a web portal. Consider the reasons and benefits of doing quotes the following the QuoteWerks way:

Preparing Quotes – Quote writing software is an attractive alternative to Excel and Word. With QuoteWerks every industry can create detailed quotes and proposals with speed and efficiency, leading to better response time and and more sales.

QuoteWerks software has many advantages over those tried and true tools. Consider key benefits of using QuoteWerks to prepare quotes:

Use you CRM or PSA – no more duplicate manual entry.
Automatic Pipeline and Follow-up Features – The act of preparing and saving a quote is integrated with your CRM forecasting/opportunity management and sales follow-up features.
Search the Data – Link to products and services, import new ones, copy and paste items from outside sources.
Create Kits & Bundles – Group items that are commonly sold together. Items can be grouped on the fly.
Dive into Details Products – can include pictures, spreadsheets, URL information, descriptions and more.
Auto-populate Essentials Required items, such as labor, are automatically added to quotes. Hide line-items as desired.
Reduce Training Costs – A configurator presents the sales rep with a list of products to choose from step-by-step.
Set Pricing – For each product, see what you’ve previously charged and adjust quote margins overall or by line item.
Eliminate Mistakes – Before a quote is sent to a customer, QuoteWerks facilitates peer reviews and quote approvals from sales managers and executives ensuring there are no mistakes and the quote is within margin.
Professional Appearance – Select your branded template and determine how you’d like to present your quote to the customer. Include additional documentation such as spec sheets, literature, cover pages, contracts and more.
Submit order to Accounting – After a customer accepts, QuoteWerks converts the quote into an order, places the order with distributors, creates a PO and sends the order to your accounting software.
There are numerous other features in QuoteWerks best-of-breed quoting writing software.

Deliver Quotes in a Portal:

Electronically deliver interactive quotes via optional QuoteValet cloud service. QuoteValet is subscription based solution that can be added to your QuoteWerks system.

QuoteValet is a modern quote deliver method. Rather than attaching a PDF file to the quote and emailing it to your customer (where spam filters strip it out), QuoteValet will create a company branded, specialized, quote delivery web-page to your customer.

Notifications – Know when your customer has received the quote. You will know when they have viewed the quote and how often they review the quote. QuoteValet notifies you the first time the customer looks at the quote and each additional time they look at it. Knowing this you can call the customer while they are looking at your proposal, the moment they are most interested in your proposal. You will get notified on all quote activity by email and through your QuoteValet Dashboard. Strike while the iron is hot!
Your customer will be able to change quote options dynamically and ask you questions through the customized quote page — keeping all communication together. Most importantly, they will be able to electronically accept and sign the quote!
QuoteValet will even collect and process payment for an order from your customer and directly deposit into your checking account. These payments can be synchronized with QuickBooks accounting software. By utilizing Payment Options, you can simplify how customers can pay you and offer a variety of payment options.
Shorten the Quote-to-Cash Cycle with Electronic Signing – Get customer signatures electronically – no more asking the customer to print out the PDF, sign it, and then scan and email it back to you. You are asking a lot of your customer. Capture your customers’ signature graphical or text based signature. Customers can view and accept your quotes from anywhere including their mobile devices.
Stop the Back and Forth – How often have you delivered a quote, only to have the prospect say “can you add option X and resend me the quote?”. It adds a lot more work and delays the sales process. With QuoteValet you can include all the options up front and the prospect can choose the options they want and the quote will automatically recalculate.
Collect Credit Card / ACH Payments from Customers – With QuoteValet you can collect deposits, progress payments, balances or the full amount of the quote. You can even export payments to QuickBooks. QuoteValet supports over 80 gateways including QuickBooks Merchant Services, Authorize.net, ConnectBooster/BNG, and PayPal. Customers can also elect to pay by different lease options, or by entering in their ACH checking information into the QuoteValet Payment page.
Collaborate with Your Customer – Interactively refine the elements in your quote with your customer through QuoteValet’s collaboration features using QuoteValet’s integrated comment and synopsis features. All of your customers questions and your answers will be recorded on the quote keeping all communication together in one location that can be easily referenced at any time by both your salesrep and your customer. With the notication features, your entire team can be notified of these customer questions and sales rep responses.
Keep Your Team in the Loop When quotes are viewed, accepted, and when payment is made, QuoteValet keeps your entire team in the loop from sales reps to sales managers to accounting and operational teams to ensure no steps are forgotten ensuring a positive customer experience.
Share Files with your Customer Your customers can upload files to complete the sale! Upload POs, SOWs, artwork, photos, signed contracts, and much more directly from your QuoteValet documents! When files are uploaded you are notified by email, keeping you in the loop and keeping the ordering process moving along efficiently until completion.
A Free Assistant – In QuoteValet, auto-reminders can be set to automatically remind a prospect that they have not viewed your quote and that it is still waiting for their review. When a quote is about to expire, QuoteValet can automatically notify your prospect that the quote is about to expire so they can view it and move forward. When a prospect views an expired quote, it automatically notifies the sales rep so they can reach out to them and send them an updated quote. You will even receive SMS text notifications on your phone when large quotes are accepted so you can give them special, immediate attention.
Approval and Peer Review – Managers can use QuoteValet to approve quotes before they are submitted to the customer while out of the office through their web browser or mobile phone. Peers can submit valuable peer review feedback while out of the office through their web browser. In QuoteWerks, you can set approval requirements for your sales reps that require them to obtain approval before a quote can be sent.
Include Videos -YouTube videos are supported for QuoteValet documents and individual line items. Share single or multiple videos on a document to help explain the line items in the document, introduce new offerings, or simply provide more information about your company.