For many businesses, the sales quote is a pivotal part in the process of acquiring clients and converting leads. The quote can be the make-or-break moment in the sales cycle, with well-crafted quotes securing success, while irrelevant and poorly formed ones significantly reduce conversion chances.

As such, many sales agents put a lot of care into producing quotes, ensuring the information is accurate and the presentation is up to par with the value of their products or services. However, creating quotes also comes with various upfront and hidden costs – the former being expenses such as graphic design, the latter taking the form of time.

Lori Feldman, an associate at the CRM Alliance, notes that at her company, creating a quote is a one- or two-minute process. However, when research and tweaks to aesthetics are included, the amount of time spent on a quote jumps significantly. The production of a quote ends up costing $25, and in low-value sales, it ends up costing the company money. On top of that, not every quote turns into a sale in the first place.

While results will change from business to business, inefficient sales quoting can be huge time and resource sinks for sales departments. Moreover, in many of these instances, it's a needless resource drain that could be accomplished much faster by using the right tools and software solutions.

Sales quote software is one such approach that businesses can take to minimize the time and effort spent creating quotes. Solutions such as CallidusCloud's CPQ platform can help companies eliminate product selection and pricing errors, boost sales through collaborative selling, quickly create proposals, shorten sales cycles and increase average quote and order size.

Ultimately, it comes down to using time in the best way possible. Inefficient quoting systems not only cost money to produce, but also consume sales agents' valuable time. This leaves them with less time to pursue prospects and can negatively impact efficiency and the department's bottom line. Sales quote software may not entirely eliminate time spent on creating quotes, but it can help representatives minimize how long they spend on these activities and get back to tasks that truly matter.