The quote spreadsheet
A prospect with three offices wants hosted phones for sixty users, new broadband at two sites, a leased line at the head office and new desk phones throughout. Your sales manager opens the quoting spreadsheet. It has tabs for each supplier's price list, some of them copied in at the start of the year, and formulas that add margin and work out monthly and upfront totals.
The leased line price has to come from the supplier's own quoting tool, because it depends on distance to the exchange. The broadband price depends on what is available at each postcode. The handset prices went up last month but the tab was not updated. The quote goes out, the customer signs, and when provisioning places the orders the real costs are higher than the quote assumed.
Nobody notices the margin has gone until someone looks at the account months later. By then the contract is signed for its full term, and the only honest options are to absorb the difference or reopen a conversation the customer thought was finished.
Why reseller quoting is fiddly
- A single proposal draws on several suppliers, each with its own list, bands and install charges.
- Connectivity prices depend on the address, so they cannot sit in a static list.
- Supplier price changes arrive by email and are applied to the spreadsheet when someone remembers.
- Discounts are negotiated per deal and are not always recorded against the cost that justified them.
- The quote, the contract and the order are three separate documents typed from each other.
Quoting is where your margin is decided, yet it is often the least controlled part of the business.
The cost of a wrong quote
| Error in the quote | What it leads to |
|---|---|
| Out of date supplier cost | Contract signed below planned margin |
| Install charges left off | Absorbed, or an awkward call after signing |
| Connectivity not available at a site | Re-quote and delay |
| Discount given without reference to cost | Loss-making lines on a long term |
| Products retyped from quote to order | Wrong item ordered from the supplier |
A contract is fixed for its term. A mistake on day one is repeated every month until renewal.
The quoting tool we build
- Supplier price lists are loaded into one product catalogue, each item carrying its supplier, cost, install charge and the date the price applies from. New lists are imported from the supplier's file, not retyped.
- For address-based products, the tool calls the supplier's availability and pricing checker where one is offered by API, and records the result and its reference against the quote.
- Your margin rules are applied automatically: minimum margin per product family, handset pricing rules, and any bundles you sell.
- Discounts are allowed within limits set per salesperson. Beyond that, the quote goes to a manager for approval, with the margin impact shown.
- The proposal document is generated from the quote in your own branding, along with the contract schedule.
- When the customer signs, the quote lines become the order lines for provisioning and the service lines for billing, so nothing is typed a second time.
We can build this inside your CRM if it supports custom quoting, such as HubSpot or Salesforce, or as a small separate tool that connects to it.
How quoting feels afterwards
Sales build a multi-site proposal from current prices in one place. They can see the margin as they go and know when they need approval. Provisioning receive an order that matches what was sold. Finance can compare the margin that was quoted with the margin actually billed, and see where they differ.
When a supplier sends a price rise, it is loaded once and every new quote uses it from the right date.
Is your quoting like this?
- Quotes are built in a spreadsheet with a tab per supplier.
- Nobody is sure the price lists in it are current.
- Leased line and broadband prices are copied in from separate supplier tools.
- Signed quotes are retyped into orders and billing.
- You find out about thin margins after the contract is live.