6 Tips to Improve your B2B Sales Quoting

Creating sales quotes/proposals for B2B customers is an unavoidable part in VAR business. As a value-added reseller (VAR), if you want to improve your sales, you have to focus on improving your quoting process.

The following are some helpful tips that can take your quoting process to the next level:

1. It's all about the Customer

Have a clear understanding of what exactly your B2B customer wants before generating a quote. Half-baked knowledge about your customer needs means the quotation will have to go through several changes before it is finally accepted. If you want your quote to be accepted in the first attempt itself, you must know what your customers are looking for.

Keep in mind that B2B sales quoting is all about generating quotes based on the unique requirements of your customers.

2. Avoid Information Overload

There is no doubt that upselling/cross-selling is an excellent marketing strategy to boost sales. However, frequently upselling/cross-selling is not a good option and can backfire. This is one of the biggest mistakes sales reps commit in an attempt to increase sales.

Also, the upsell/cross-sell products you display on your quote must be tightly related to your original products. It shouldn't dilute the value of the original product.

Be it upselling or cross-selling, it needs to be implemented in moderation while creating quotes. When it comes to improving your quoting process, upselling/cross-selling is a balancing act. Avoid pushing too hard as it can kill conversions.

3. Generate Attractive Quotes

To improve your B2B sales quoting, you need to present your quotes properly. Poorly-designed quotes are a put-off. You can put a very good impression on your customers by submitting well-designed quotes.

For instance, your quotes should also include images of the products that are being quoted. If possible include relevant videos to increase your chances of closing the sale.

4. Automate Quoting

As a value-added reseller (VAR), if you are still dependent on manual quoting, expect slow conversions.

Employing manual methods of quoting is one of the top reasons behind slow quoting. Although manual quoting can help to create simple quotes quickly, it can become a tedious process when you are handling complex quotes.

You can improve and accelerate your quoting process by investing in the right technology. To be precise, using a quoting software for VARs is the key to speed up your quoting and subsequently your sales process. Complex quoting activity is no longer tedious when you incorporate a sales quoting software into your business.

A CPQ solution will automate your quoting process, allow you to create complex quotes in minutes, and accelerate your sales cycle. This is evident from recent research that has shown that organizations that use CPQ software experience a 28% shorter sales cycle.

5. Provide an eSignature Option

Want to improve your quoting process and close deals faster? Well, then make it convenient for your B2B customers to accept a quote. Faxing the document to your customers to get quote-approval signatures, is a lengthy process. Instead, why not provide an e-signature option that enables your customer to approve the quote once it has been accepted?

The sales quoting software you choose should have a built-in e-signature feature that provides an easy way for your customers to electronically sign the document. This eliminates the need for faxing/scanning and speeds up the approval process.

6. Integrated with Payment Gateways

Many times, business organizations receive payment days after the quote has been accepted. To avoid delay in payments, allow your B2B customers to make payments online.

Want to get paid faster after the quote/proposal has been accepted? If yes, integrate your online proposal software with a payment gateway like PayPal that will enable your customers to pay via credit card. Integration with payment gateways has shown to increase the quote-to-sales ratio.

Slow quoting/proposal is a killer that can affect your bottom line. So ditch manual quoting and embrace automation by adopting an appropriate proposal quoting software.