Can you use ChatGPT for sales proposals?

There’s a simple reason people are losing their minds over ChatGPT. Because it does something they can’t easily do themselves and can’t imagine a machine doing at all, let alone within seconds.

Most people use it for fun stuff: “conversations” with Abraham Lincoln, essays on why the Red Hot Chili Peppers were a more influential band than The Beatles (not true, but ChatGPT was up to answer anyway). But what about work stuff? Can you use ChatGPT for business? Specifically, can you use it to create sales proposals?

The answer is… sort of! There are many elements in a sales proposal–whether you’re creating one “from scratch” or using a template–where you can incorporate content generated by AI like ChatGPT.

You can tell your brand story. You can include blogs that support the need for your products and services. You can create articles on the state of a given industry or market segment that help provide a backstory for your sales pitch.

But until AI can access your product catalogs and pricing sheets (probably not a good idea), tools like ChatGPT can really only provide the ancillary content of a sales proposal.

The good news is that there is a tool that can generate “the meat” of every sales quote you send: configure, price, quote software (CPQ), which we can call the ChatGPT for salespeople.

Here’s why…

You’ll always start with a template

Just like ChatGPT creates a groundwork that people might use to create more actionable content (e.g., you can ask it about selling CRM software, and then repurpose what it generates for your own website or pitches), CPQ gives you the groundwork with professionally designed sales proposal templates.

In most cases, it’s the infrastructure and the window dressing of a proposal: i.e., the basic format and the palette, with the latter being a home for your own brand-building (your colors, your logo, etc.). However, you can tap AI to create content that lives within this infrastructure, to tell a better brand story, for example.

Automatic product and pricing configuration

To be technical about it, it’s not automatic from the administrative side. Product and pricing bundles must be created and uploaded (a service IQX happens to provide with every implementation).

From the salesperson’s side, though, it feels automatic. After they select and customize their template (say, with a paragraph or two about the prospect’s industry… generated by ChatGPT, of course), they simply use their CPQ’s product and pricing configurator to drag and drop quoted items and services into their sales proposal.

This is where AI tools like content-creating chatbots have no play whatsoever. This is about products and about pricing, and it’s highly unlikely any business leader is going to trust AI to set prices anytime soon.

CPQ doesn’t control products and pricing either, of course. It just makes it incredibly easy for reps to access the right configurations for the right customer. And, as importantly, for administrators to centralize, define, and control those configurations.

Where ChatGPT works in the sales process

In our opinion–and through our own use of ChatGPT–we don’t see an exact match between ChatGPT and the entire sales process.

But the keyword there is “entire.”

To create collateral, draft cold call emails, create winning replies to customer inquiries, build a database of answers to commonly asked questions about your products and services (answers that help sell), AI tools like ChatGPT can likely be a tremendous help.

For creating sales proposals from top to bottom, you’ll need more. Fortunately, CPQ from IQX does exactly that: more.

Sales quote software: CRM’s best weapon?

What’s the most powerful tool/feature/WEAPON in a customer relationship management (CRM) system?

Sales leaders probably say it’s the funnel, the ability to forecast overall sales and monitor individual performance.

Operations/information systems staff likely say it’s the seamless integration of data and workflows with other business applications and platforms.

But the main users of CRM solutions–sales representatives–typically tell a different story as their #1 concern is closing sales (ok, collecting the commissions attached to closing sales), and that often makes sales quote software (a.k.a., CPQ) their top tool.

And while we have written a plethora of posts about the standalone benefits of CPQ (configure, price, quote software), today we’re going to focus on the benefits solely as they pertain to CRM, how the strength of quoting software augments the strength of CRM–and vice-versa.

We’ll concentrate on three key areas:

• Product and pricing configuration

• Quote tracking

• CPQ and CRM integration

CRM + CPQ: Easier Product & Pricing Configuration

CRM systems are used to store endless amounts of information: contacts, accounts, marketing “touches,” order history, and more. Although CRM systems do enable storing of product and pricing information, they don’t always make adding that information to a sales quote all that easy.

For example, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales–a leading CRM for which iQuoteXpress offers a single sign-on integration–requires nearly a dozen steps to add a product and pricing to a quote made from an existing opportunity. It’s not CRM’s fault: it was designed to manage customer relationships, not products and pricing.

Sales quote software, however, makes adding products and pricing to a quote as easy as drag and drop. You have your quote open, you click to add products, and then just drop them in. In most cases, it’s far faster to use CPQ to execute this critical task than CRM.

CRM + CPQ: Sales Quote Tracking

As mentioned, sales forecasting is a primary benefit of every CRM system, tracking prospects into leads, leads into opportunities, opportunities into quotes, and quotes into closed sales.

The challenge for most CRM systems in the preceding sentence is in that last “into,” what happens between creating and sending a quote and closing a sale? Most CRM systems offer rather basic functionality: quote sent, deal won/lost.

But, as any sales rep can tell you, there’s often a whole lot that happens in those few, critical steps. Contacts can change, quotes can be revised, pricing can be tweaked, and on and on and on.

Sales quote software allows for far more detailed tracking of individual quotes, which can play a critical role in getting deals across the finish line. I.e., where CRM offers macro tracking, CPQ offers micro tracking. The devil is the details, and so are the deals.

CRM + CPQ: Total Integration

Central to fully realizing the benefits we’re describing here (as well as the many more offered by CPQ: sales proposal templates, analytics, contact management, centralized administration of pricing and discounts) is a seamless integration of CRM and CPQ.

To ensure adoption across all sales representatives, a single sign-on integration is required. Even though CPQ is a different application from an engineering standpoint, you need your sales reps to essentially experience it as an extension of CRM, a tab within the platform rather than an app outside it.

Total integration also means improved reporting as the data uncovered during the closing process can be more easily captured and shared, which means improved forecasting across the board.

Don’t be mistaken: even without sales quote software, CRM has a lot to offer in terms of helping you create and send quotes. But if you’re serious about closing, you’ll ensure you have the absolute best tool for the job, which means total integration of CPQ and CRM. Because while both systems have much to offer on their own, they are ALWAYS stronger together.

Sales enablement’s #2 tool: quoting software

What defines sales enablement?

To some, it’s mostly a methodology wherein salespeople get the content and training they need to better engage customers.

Our friends at Gartner say that it’s “activities, systems, processes, and information that support and promote knowledge-based sales interactions with clients and prospects.”

We agree with Gartner… mostly. In our experience, the thing that truly defines sales enablement–that makes it effective versus ineffective–is technology. You can have all the activities and methodologies you want, but if there’s no technological “through line,” you have mostly, well, words.

There are myriad technologies that describe themselves as being for sales enablement: content development apps, list building sites, e-signature software… the list is virtually endless. But one sales enablement tool consistently rises to the top and, in most cases, is the platform on to which other sales enablement applications are added: CRM.

Why is CRM the #1 sales enablement tool?

Simply put, it’s the hub (nod to HubSpot on nailing it). It’s the foundation. It’s where every sales prospect lives (or should live), every sales campaign, every sales call, and–finally–every sale.

While CRM doesn’t necessarily automate sales tasks (nurture campaigns and the like being exceptions), it does help expedite many sales workflows and centralize sales data. And it’s that second point that’s a critical component to every sales enablement process: centralized, unified, and widely available sales data is how reps and managers alike verify the efficacy of sales enablement approaches and tools.

But its #1 sales enablement tool status comes from the fact your CRM is where every other sales enablement tool or system connects. While you can run, say, Docusign or a sales quoting solution or content development app outside your CRM, it’s when you run them as part of your CRM that they become part of your entire sales ecosystem and, together, further sales enablement.

We have often thought of CRM as simply the sales enablement tool box. It matters on its own, yes, but it’s what you put into it that matters more. Which brings us to sales enablement’s second most important tool, quoting software, a.k.a., configure, price, quote (CPQ).

Why is quoting software the #2 sales enablement tool?

Have you ever written a sales quote from scratch? Ever populated a spreadsheet or Word doc with products and pricing, then saved as a PDF, then sent via Outlook or Gmail? Time consuming. Sloppy.

Or have you ever used what’s in most CRM systems to create and send a quote? Have you seen what that quote actually looks like on the customer’s end? Have you been able to carefully track its progress from sent to signed? Bland proposal. Vague information.

Chances are you’ve done both. And chances are you’ve had some success, too, gotten some deals done. But if you’ve ever used quoting software, chances are you’ve had a TON of success and gotten more deals done.

In fact, one company reports closing rate increases of 36% by using CPQ. THIRTY SIX PERCENT MORE. That’s not for nothing.

But why/how/what does quoting software do that the old methods of spreadsheet and CRM alone don’t? Here are four fast and easy reasons:

Professional sales proposal templates: You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and using quoting software to create your quotes means starting with a killer template that builds your brand and captures eyeballs.

Product and pricing configurator: The engine inside quoting software, where pricing is centrally administered, where bundles/cross-sells/upsells/upgrades are pre-built for reps, where adding the right product configurations and the most competitive prices is as easy as drag and drop.

Granular sales quote tracking: CRM systems typically only let you see what was sent and what was signed (or lost). But CPQ lets you dig deeper, see where quotes may be getting bottlenecked, and make changes during the process.

CRM integration: Finally, CPQ rises to its position as a necessary sales enablement tool by a seamless, single sign-on integration with CRM, making it feel like a feature rather than a separate application, which helps increase adoption across the enterprise.

#1 CRM. #2 CPQ. What’s the number 3 sales enablement resource? Some might look for another app, but for us, it’s always the people. And when you give the people right tools, closing more deals is as easy as 1-2-3.

Tracking quotes = fast-tracking quotes

If you’re a sales rep, you likely know where most of your outstanding sales quotes are.

You may not be tracking quotes from start to finish, but you have a rough idea of what’s waiting to be signed, by whom, and — most importantly to you — what your commission will be once the deal is done.

If you’re a sales manager, you likely know the status of some larger proposals out there, but likely don’t have granular data on each and every one in process.

And why would you? After all, each one only has a direct connection to whether this quarter’s numbers will be hit: what’s the big deal? (That’s sarcasm, of course: hard to convey in the written word.)

Contrary to what most CRM systems would have you believe, there’s a whole lot more to tracking sales quotes than simply sent and signed, than won or lost. There are a multitude of steps along the way that must be monitored and — when necessary — acted on.

The good news is that, like most current business challenges, “there’s an app for that,” and that business application is configure, price, quote (CPQ) software. With CPQ, tracking quotes from start to finish is not only easy: it’s automatic.

If you’re not already using CPQ for sales quote tracking, here are a few good reasons why you should get started doing so, and ASAP.

Not all sales reps are created equally

One of the many things Glengarry Glen Ross taught us is that sales reps come in many flavors: rock stars like Ricky Roma (played by Al Pacino), to bare minimum guys like George Aaronow (Alan Arkin), to schlubs like Shelley Levene (immortalized by Jack Lemmon). These guys basically had to get by on their guts and their wits: not a CRM system or sales quoting app to be had. The schlubs didn’t stand a chance.

But with CPQ software in the mix, you can make most any rep into a Ricky Roma. With sales proposal templates and easy drag-and-drop product and pricing configuration, it lets every rep create a sales proposal — in just a couple of minutes — that’s professional, custom, and compelling. And, as it’s cloud-based, reps can use it from anywhere, ensuring no opportunity is missed.

When it comes to sales quote tracking, CPQ can help a manager identify the Rickys and the Shelleys, and share the tactics used during the signing process that can help the latter become the former. (A manager might also keep a closer eye on the quotes put in by his Shelleys than by his Rickys.)

Missed opportunities, missed revenue

Quotes don’t always come back the same as when they went out. By this, we mean that it’s pretty common to iterate during the quote-signing process. With a CPQ system tracking and monitoring every possible pivot, sales leadership has more immediate and actionable insight into possible opportunities for upsells and upgrades.

For example, a client of ours was recently in the process of selling a CRM solution. The request came back to augment the quote to include a more robust email application in the solution.

Whereas the rep saw an opportunity to do a mere value-add, his manager — tracking the quote through his CPQ’s dashboard — saw a bigger opportunity for a full-featured marketing automation system. An opportunity to add an additional 3% in licensing fees became an opportunity to nearly double the size of the deal.

More data, more deals

Finally, when you move from “sent/signed” to more granular sales quote tracking, you are collecting far more data on the most critical step in any sales cycle.

Knowing when to ping a client, when to upsell/upgrade, when a manager should get involved to unclog bottlenecks: these kinds of actions are only made possible if you have the data. It’s this kind of information — and the ability to quickly respond to it — that takes an organization from simply tracking quotes to fast-tracking quotes.

Leveling the playing field… driving more deals… getting more actionable insights. Using CPQ  to track quotes makes it all possible.

Does CRM have quoting software? (And, if so, is it any good?)

Account management. Lead nurture. Sales forecasting. Quote making. Beet farming. There are things CRM software does well (accounts, leads, forecasting), things it does so-so (quote making), and things it doesn’t do at all (beet farming… and, in some CRMs, also quote making).

It’s not CRM’s fault that people try to use it for, well, everything. The solution is invariably the one sales and marketing people are most familiar with and therefore the one they use to solve most every business challenge. It’s the hammer that makes every problem look like a nail.

The fact is that not every problem is a nail. And when it comes to creating, delivering, and tracking sales quotes, most CRM systems simply don’t have what it takes.

Making a convincing, customized, professional sales proposal takes more than what’s typically built-in to a CRM system. It takes a specialized solution. It takes quoting software (a.k.a., configure, price, quote, or CPQ). And here’s why.

Professionally designed sales proposal templates

Your CRM system doesn’t have them. Most CRMs have a few checkboxes and fields into which you manually enter products and pricing, and then… that’s it.

But your sales proposal is where the rubber hits the road! In many cases, it’s where your company is introduced to the decision makers and stakeholders, and also introduced alongside other competitive quotes. It has to look better than good: it has to stand apart from the crowd.

This may seem like a specious argument because, to use a cliche, “you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.” But guess what? EVERYONE judges a book by its cover. The cliche that matters here is “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

If you’re using quoting software, you’ll benefit from an eye-catching sales proposal template that sets you apart and sells you well. But if you’re only using what “comes with” your CRM system, your quote will often look like… well… crap.

Dynamic product and pricing configuration engine

Using a CRM to insert products and pricing into sales quotes is often a manual labor intensive task. In many cases, too (especially with on-premises CRM systems), the products and pricing may not always be up-to-date as they may be stored separately on spreadsheets in local machines.

With quoting software, however, product and pricing configuration is centralized and streamlined. A rep doesn’t need to check the latest pricing sheets or other documents: it’s all baked into their CPQ system. They simply select a proposal template, and drag and drop the latest configs in there.

Additionally, this centrally administered engine empowers sales leaders to control pricing and discount structures remotely, and grant different levels of permission to different reps. E.g., a rep with 20 years of experience may get to set his/her own discounts, whereas a newbie can’t.

Advanced, granular quote tracking tools

If you have used your CRM solution to create and send quotes, you have probably seen that tracking is often reduced to a couple of key metrics: quote sent/not sent and deal won/lost.

The fact of the matter is that there are often countless events in between sent and won/lost that should be captured and analyzed. Adjustments to quotes, inquiries and replies, addendums, and more. If you’re not tracking these metrics in your “quote signing process,” you’re missing a big part of the picture.

Quoting software gives you this granular proposal tracking data; CRM typically does not.

CRM/CPQ integration

If you’ve read this far, 1) thank you and 2) don’t throw out your CRM system and replace it with quoting software. In our experience, they go together like a screwdriver and a toolbox. Your CRM is that toolbox, containing custom apps and solutions for specific tasks: revenue recognition, lead nurture, and, of course, creating/sending/tracking sales quotes.

While it can be used standalone, our opinion is that CPQ is even stronger when integrated with CRM systems. Ideally, integrated as a single sign-on solution that makes it “feel” as if it’s a feature in the CRM rather than an extension. That way your reps who see every problem as a nail will have access to a screwdriver when they need it – even if they think they’re still only using a hammer.

The perfect RFP response is less than a minute away

For most successful salespeople, an RFP hitting the inbox is the equivalent of a starting gun at a track meet. Annnnddddd… THEY’RE OFF!!

Also for most successful salespeople, when an RFP arrives, they don’t ponder, “Hmmmm. How should I reply to this?” They already have a plan in place for the perfect response, and it’s connected to a few basics: knowing the brand(s), using “customer-facing” language, and having the right technology.

The perfect RFP response is always “on-brand”

What does it mean to be “on-brand?” Most companies have positioning statements, vision statements, a set of keywords they focus on, a color palette, a logo, and that’s it: that’s the brand.

When you’re competing for an RFP, though, your brand has to be about more than just a fancy logo. It has to be about the benefits you deliver your customers. I.e., it’s not the look and feel of your brand–it’s the value.

Throughout every step in replying to any RFP, be sure and stay on-brand by communicating that value. If your brand is about, say, exceptional customer service, ensure you reference it in each applicable line-item in the RFP response.

For example, the customer is a hotel seeking equipment for a new fitness center. Your on-brand response would, of course, include the equipment, but also the fact that your people have the expertise to install, customize, and address any and all supporting questions. Put your customer service skills front and center wherever you can. It both builds your brand and separates you from the competition.

The perfect RFP response speaks to the client

Yes, it’s about the right products and services. Yes, it’s about the right pricing. Yes, it’s about a speedy but professional reply. But the perfect RFP response is as much about the language as it is about anything else.

Long gone are the early dot.com days when you could bowl over prospects with a word salad like “ vertically integrated vortals disintermediate competitive synergies.” Such pitches were deviously designed to bewilder and make a prospect think, “Wow… I have no idea what that means, but it sounds impressive so it must be good… I think…”

The language in your RFP response should be succinct. E.g., don’t say “utilize” when “use” will do. And it should be benefit-focused rather than feature-focused. The old adage “features tell; benefits sell” is firmly in place at the RFP stage of any sale.

The perfect RFP response is built with CPQ

Last but in no way least is the way you create, deliver, and track your RFP response, and there’s no better application than configure, price, quote (CPQ).

With professionally designed proposal templates, a drag-and-drop (and centrally administered!) product and pricing configuration engine, a host of sales quote tracking tools, and seamless integration with CRM (customer relationship management) systems, CPQ has every RFP response tool baked in.

Not only does CPQ enable any sales rep–regardless of experience level–create a pro quote in minutes, but it also provides critical insights on what products/services are selling best and which reps are performing best.

Integrated with your CRM solution, CPQ helps present an even clearer picture of the customer lifecycle, delivering business-critical data from the most business-critical process: the RFP response, when a deal is closed and a prospect becomes a client.

For more information on creating the perfect RFP response, download our whitepaper, or contact us.

Quote software benefits, modular housing trends: One and the same!

Flexibility. Customization. Cost savings. Convenience. Efficiency. These are some of the trends happening in the modular housing space. They are also some of the benefits derived from using quote software in the modular housing business.

Most companies (and, by extension, their blog writers) wouldn’t make this connection, but iQuoteXpress (IQX) has deep ties into the modular housing industry, providing some of its biggest players with sales quoting software that has helped them close more sales more quickly.

Here’s a little side-by-side of what our friends in modular housing mean by flexibility, customization, cost savings, convenience, and efficiency and how those are also benefits realized through quoting software.

Flexibility

In modular housing, flexibility typically connects to modification of a modular home, such as adding a new kitchen, new appliances, etc., which can be done rather easily and without the huge expense connected to “stick-built” homes.

With IQX, flexibility is in usage: you can use the software as a standalone solution or integrate with your CRM or ERP system. Additionally, as it’s cloud-based, it’s flexible enough to be used from anywhere.

Customization

Modular homes provide a wide array of customization options prior to the build. Most manufacturers offer the choice to rearrange room layouts, upgrade building materials, go green, and much more.

Included with quoting software, you’ll usually find a series of sales proposal templates that you can easily customize to match both your brand and your prospects. Additionally, you can customize the interface to match how you and your sales team work.

Cost savings

Cost savings are often the first thing people think of when they consider a modular house, and it’s true. Running anywhere from 10% to 40% less than stick-built, modular homes are surefire cost-savers.

As far as sales proposal automation software like IQX goes, we can’t speak for other providers. But we know that our customers typically enjoy time and cost savings in the creation, delivery, and tracking of sales quotes in the neighborhood of 50% - 70%.

Additionally, compared to other providers, IQX quote software delivers massive savings up front. Whereas some providers require clients to buy 10 or even 20 seat minimums, IQX is available for as little as $39 per seat. Surefire savings all around.

Convenience

In modular housing, convenience often applies to how just about everything you require is included. Rather than having to go through one contractor for plumbing, another for wiring, still another for painting, etc., etc., etc., you enjoy the convenience of having all you need built right in.

We hit upon quote software being cloud-based as one driver for flexibility, and the same goes here: sales reps can conveniently create and send quotes from anywhere with a web connection. As importantly, sales leaders can track and manage quotes from anywhere, too. No more “waiting until tomorrow” to get a stuck quote moving forward. A manager can jump in and help out from anywhere and on-the-fly.

Efficiency

Finally, the bedrock benefit of efficiency. The efficiency of building a modular home is one thing (faster, always, than stick-built, and time = money). But there’s also energy efficiency to consider, and today’s modular homes are (for the most part) being designed with energy efficiency as the foundation: improved insulation, water-saving fixtures, and more. 

In quote software, efficiency is also a key driver for users. The time it would take to create a quote from scratch can be reduced exponentially. What once took hours now takes minutes. And in sales–in modular housing sales, specifically–getting a quote into the right hands quickly is a cornerstone of closing the deal.

Want to make your modular housing business practices more flexible and efficient? Contact us for a demonstration of IQX. 

What CPQ means, how it works, and how it works for you

The way most every website out there details the meaning of CPQ (configure, price, quote) is about the same: it’s software that helps sales people make sales quotes for complex and/or configurable products and services.

YAWN.

Here at IQX, we rarely explain it that way, because it’s not about that dry definition: it’s about the business benefits CPQ delivers. The benefits CPQ delivers to businesses–from mom & pop shops, to SMBs, to enterprise–create a far more interesting way to define the solution.

For us and our clients, the true meaning of CPQ is tied to the distinct business benefits of improved efficiency, flexibility, and scalability.

We know: you’ve heard most of these words used so many times in B2B sales and solutions that they may have lost their meaning. But here is exactly how we define these benefits as they’re connected to CPQ.

The meaning of efficiency connected to CPQ

Most of our clients say that they reduce the time it takes to create and send a professional sales proposal by 50% or more. FIFTY PERCENT. Any efficiency increases are welcome in the sales process, but 50%? That means additional hours every day that a rep can spend working new leads, doing demos, upselling existing customers and more.

Additionally, there’s a more esoteric definition of efficiency at play here. And it’s understood through the sheen of professionalism in each quote.

By using a series of professionally designed proposal templates, your sales quotes look cleaner and leaner, and demonstrate to a prospect that you’re running a tight ship, where everything is in its place and clarity and consistency reign, where efficiency is simply the daily course of action.

The meaning of flexibility connected to CPQ

Like most CPQ solutions, IQX is cloud-based, which provides extensive flexibility in where and when your team can do its job. All the standard “cloud benefits” apply: easy integrations; simplified, predictable costs; remote access; improved security; etc.

With IQX, however, there’s a slightly different meaning of flexibility connected to our solution as we have clients using it standalone (an app on a phone!), as part of a larger CRM and/or ERP platform, and even as a mini-CRM in itself.

Current CPQ-CRM integrations include single sign-on for both Zoho CRM (and Zoho Books), and Microsoft Dynamics, with most every other integration (Salesforce, Oracle, HubSpot, and more) available as well.

Additionally, some of our smaller clients (e.g., with two or three sales reps) lean on IQX as a de facto CRM as it can store critical account and contact information alongside every product and pricing configuration, every sales proposal, and every sliver of sales and proposal tracking analytics.

Meeting each client where they are is what we’re all about, and flexibility is central.

The meaning of scalability connected to CPQ

This is where the competition doesn’t stand a chance against IQX. Whereas most other companies in the space force a customer to license a minimum of 10 or sometimes 20 seats, IQX allows clients to start with as few as ONE (and for as little as $39 a seat: check out CPQ pricing here). 

The meaning of scalability goes in two directions. Typically, it’s all about growth: “you can easily add seats (scale) as your business grows!” Yes, you can. But for some companies, scalability starts before the minimum 10 or 20 seats. They may be scaling from 3 seats to 5 seats.

Unlike some other providers, IQX doesn’t put a limit on where your own “scalability journey” begins. Like most other providers, we also don’t limit where it ends either.

We have watched clients double their licenses in just a few months. Why? Probably due to the increases in efficiency and improved flexibility outlined above. The meaning of these words and the benefits they deliver, the meaning of CPQ and the benefits it delivers… it’s all connected, and that’s a very good thing indeed.

Quoting software instead of quitting software

Don’t give up. There’s hope. We know that a new solution can be a pain in the a** to figure out, let alone use to its fullest extent. And sometimes you just feel like quitting. But with iQuoteXpress (IQX), you have a quoting software that’s so easy to use, it’s almost… dare we say… fun?

With an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface, a seasoned sales professional instantly becomes a seasoned proposal creator.

The interface is intentionally colorful and engaging as, in many cases, it’s replacing spreadsheets as a means for building quotes. And we want every IQX user to know they’re miles away from Excel when they’re using IQX.

Even if you’re not using IQX (not sure why you’re here if you’re not, but…), you’ll want to look for the following functionality and feature sets in your quoting software…

• Custom and customizable proposal templates

• Easy to use product and pricing configuration engine

• Actionable reporting on sales quote progress

• Centralized administration of pricing and discount structures

• Seamless integration with CRM systems

• VALUE

And here’s why…

Custom and customizable proposal templates

Why start from scratch with each sales quote? Quoting software should come pre-loaded with dozens of templates to make building a professional looking proposal a snap, something literally done in just a few minutes.

Your templates should be easy to customize, too: add a prospect’s logo, change-up the color scheme or font, add infographics and other value-adds that help better sell your products and services.

Easy to use product and pricing configuration engine

Drag and drop is the name of the game. Choose a template and then simply populate it with the product and pricing configurations that make the best fit.

The challenge can sometimes be creating or uploading those configurations, but not with IQX. As part of every engagement, we help clients build configurations and populate their instance with them. Yes, it’s because we care… care about clients being able to use IQX immediately rather than spend time getting configs loaded.

Actionable reporting on sales quote progress

Analytics is the heart of every business process. For truly accurate sales forecasting, you need analytics to extend to the individual quote level, and IQX provides that as well. CRM systems, for example, typically don’t get into individual quote metrics beyond “sent” and “signed.” But IQX gives you the granular proposal tracking data–in a colorful dashboard–to understand and fuel each quote's progress.

Centralized administration of pricing and discount structures

Part of the product and pricing configuration engine is the administration of products and pricing. IQX can help ensure all reps are working off pricing specific to their geo, their lines-of-business, and experience.

You can control discount structures as well through your quoting software, empowering your more seasoned reps with more latitude, and putting up some guardrails around your rookies.

Seamless integration with CRM systems

Through an API, most any business app can be integrated with most any other one. But when you add IQX to leading CRMs such as Dynamics and Zoho, you enjoy single sign-on functionality that essentially embeds the sales proposal tools into the CRM system your reps use every day all day.

Keeping all your tools in the same tool box just makes sense. But it’s also important to make dollars, which is where our next point comes in…

VALUE

Value isn’t just what you pay up-front (your per-seat costs… though starting at just $39 a seat, it’s hard to beat IQX). It’s about TOC, total cost of ownership, and ROI, return on investment.

One way IQX delivers a lower TOC is through unlimited, free support, something very few companies provide in the quoting software industry. And it delivers ROI by 1) reducing the time it takes to create and send sales proposals by as much as 70% and 2) helping increase close rates by as much as 24%.

So if you’re ready to quit software (“Not another app! Please! My phone is full!”), we ask that you get quoting software before you do… and make it iQuoteXpress.

Selling fitness equipment with quoting software: a weight is lifted!

If you think selling fitness equipment is easy, you may be a dumbbell. It’s a hyper-competitive space, and it ain’t just gyms: hotels, hospitals, community centers, wellness retreats, physical therapy clinics, sports team club houses… behind the doors of every major facility, you’re sure to find ellipticals, rowers, weight benches, medicine balls, and more.

The (plain? ugly?) truth of the matter is that many – but certainly not all – of the people managing these facilities don’t know or care too much about what brands or kinds of stuff they have in there, which makes fitness equipment practically into a commodity. And when you’re selling commodities, the early bird almost always gets the worm.

Which is where quoting software makes all the difference for salespeople in this dog-eat-dog (or, as stated, bird-eat-worm) space. Getting a slick looking, accurate, on-brand quote into a prospect’s hands quickly is the cornerstone of closing a sale–whether it’s a pallet of Pelotons or a truckload of treadmills or even just a box of barbells.

For fitness equipment sales pros, there’s no better way to build a compelling quote quickly than with iQuoteXpress (IQX), the sales quoting software that makes creating custom proposals as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Select and customize a template

2. Drop in products and pricing

3. Send, track, close

Professionally designed sales quote templates

It all starts here. With a professionally designed sales proposal template, the work is half done. Your template can and should include elements of your branding that will resonate with your prospect.

Better still, it should include a way for you to easily drag/drop elements of your prospect’s branding. There’s nothing people like better than their own reflection.

IQX includes many templates ready to roll right out of the box. But if you really want to make a lasting impression, make a small spend on a graphic designer and create quote templates that are unique to your line of business. This is a minor investment that goes a long way.

Product and pricing configurations

In terms of quoting software, “configurations” is often just a more fancy way of saying bundles–how you put products and pricing together for a given market or specific customer. And in the fitness equipment space, the ways you can configure your deliverables are endless as there are literally thousands of components.

With IQX’s drag and drop product and pricing configuration tool, however, you can quickly add the right products for the right customer at the right price. More importantly, from an administrative angle, you can ensure that salespeople are accessing the products you want to move most.

By moving your product and pricing lists from, say, a spreadsheet (which likely differs from rep to rep) into a centralized engine, you have more complete control over your inventory, pricing, and even your discount structures. And you create a more even playing field for every rep in your organization.

And… they’re off! Sending, tracking, closing quotes.

Interesting fact: in the time it has taken you to read this blog, you could have built a proposal in IQX. We have more than a few clients in the fitness equipment space, and they pump out an average of 5,000 quotes a month. That means speed.

You can send quotes right out of IQX (or Outlook or Gmail or ______–whatever system you prefer) and, unlike with a standard CRM system that tracks “sent” and “won/lost,” our quoting software enables you track a sales proposal at every critical step along the way, empowering you to improve your overall sales process. Knowing what closed/what didn’t, and when and why and who was involved? Crucial details for improving your process.

In fitness equipment sales, only the strong survive. And the strong only get stronger using IQX.