Quote and proposal preparation
The judgement in a quote sits in a few lines, and the rest is assembly: the enquiry's details, the right prices, the standard terms, the template. This role does the assembly and lists what the enquiry left out, so your estimator, surveyor or director spends their time on the price and the client.
The role in brief
Drafts each quote or proposal from the enquiry, your price list and your template, and lists what is missing for the person who sends it.
Your enquiries mailbox, your price list and wherever your quotes and proposals are written.
The estimator, sales manager or director who owns the price. Every draft goes to them, and nothing is sent until they approve it.
Days from enquiry to draft, drafts sent without rework, and enquiries waiting on information.
Who writes the quotes today
An estimator or a sales administrator writes them, where there is one. In a smaller firm it is a director, after hours. They read the enquiry, go back for what it left out, look up prices or rates, copy the last similar quote and change the details. The enquiries that wait are the awkward ones, and those that arrived in a busy week.
Quotes that go out late
A buyer who has asked three firms compares the replies as they arrive. A quote that waited for the director's free evening lands after the others, and the enquiry itself cost money to win.
The copied quote with last year's price
Most quotes begin as a copy of the last similar one. An old rate, another client's name or a term that no longer applies gets carried across, and the business either honours a price it did not intend or corrects itself in front of the client.
Enquiries that leave half of it out
A request arrives without the drawing revision, the access details or the delivery address. Somebody has to notice, ask, and remember to look for the answer. Until then the quote cannot be priced, and nobody is sure whose turn it is.
How a quote is prepared, step by step
A quote commits the business, so a person sets or confirms the price and sends every one. The gathering, the assembly and the drafting are the agent's, in your own quote and proposal formats.
Enquiry
Reads the enquiry and its attachments, records what is being asked for, and checks it against the details you need before you can price.
Nothing.
Missing details
Sends one message, in wording you approved, asking for everything the enquiry left out, and reminds by email if no answer comes.
Phone calls, site visits and surveys.
Draft
Builds the quote in your template from your price list, rates and standard terms, and marks every line it could not price from them.
Any price, discount or term that is not in your price list.
Check and send
Passes the draft to its owner with the enquiry, the assumptions made and the open points, then records the version that was sent.
The final price, the approval, and the sending of the quote.
Days from enquiry to draft
Counted for every enquiry, from its arrival to a draft ready for checking, with the time spent waiting on the enquirer shown separately. Reviewed with you each month.
Drafts sent without rework
The share of drafts the owner sent as prepared, against those they had to correct, and what was corrected.
Enquiries waiting on information
How many open enquiries cannot be priced yet, what each one is missing and how long it has waited.
Logistics, freight and removals
The written removal quotation drafted from the surveyor's assessment, with the services included, those excluded, the payment terms and the acceptance form.
Manufacturing
A request for quotation read against its drawing, with the material price, a similar part's routing and the last comparable quote pulled for the estimator.
Architects
The fee proposal laid out against the RIBA Plan of Work stages, with the written terms of engagement the ARB expects before work starts.
Questions owners ask
Will it decide what we charge a customer?
No. It applies the prices, rates and rules you give it, and marks whatever falls outside them. Pricing judgement, discounts and what to charge a particular client stay with the person who owns the quote. Where a job needs an estimator's eye, the draft says so and leaves the line open.
Can it send quotes without anyone checking them?
No. A quote commits your business, so every one waits for a named person's approval. What changes is that the draft is ready when they sit down to it, in your template, with the missing details already asked for and the open points listed at the top.
Our quotes need a site visit or a survey first. Does it still help?
Yes, on either side of the visit. Before it, the agent gathers the details the surveyor needs. After it, the agent turns the surveyor's notes into the written quotation in your format. The survey itself, and any phone call to the customer, stay with a person.
What does it need from us to start?
Your price list or rate card, your quote template and standard terms, a set of past quotes, and the list of details you need before you can price. If the prices live in one person's head, writing them down is the first job, settled with you during scoping.