Once in a while, you simply have to toot your own horn. What’s quoting software? iQuoteXpress is. It’s right there in our name.
We’ve been in the business for nearly twenty years. When we first got started, it seemed that everyone who found us online was looking for inspirational quotes, a tool that would automatically generate the perfect inspirational quote from an historical figure, writer, movie, star, athlete, or (ugh) “influencer.”
But times have changed and most people now know that quoting software is usually (but not always) an extension of a larger sales and marketing system (Zoho CRM, Dynamics 365 Sales, Salesforce, Oracle, HubSpot, and more) that lets anyone make professional sales quotes in minutes.
That’s the basic definition. But real-world uses? Real-world meanings? Different. WAY different.
Today’s real-world applications of quoting software
Like most business applications, quoting software – also called a configure, price, quote (CPQ) or quote-to-cash solution – changed as it was put into use.
Originally created as more of a sales quote template system (professionally designed proposal templates a rep could easily add products and pricing to, and further customize for a sale), quoting software has become an essential tool in the day-to-day of both sales representatives and managers as it enables granular tracking of (and reporting on) a proposal’s progress… for starters.
Sales analytics
If you’ve been in sales for even a hot minute, you know how critical sales reporting is to stakeholders. Knowing which quotes are where in the closing process easily enables more accurate forecasting, and forecasting is fundamental. Quoting software uncovers and presents these specific datasets and helps improve sales analytics almost immediately after deployment.
But it’s another feature of the solution that is currently being put to use in unexpected and highly effective ways.
Product pricing configuration
The backbone of your CPQ system is the product and pricing configurator, which is how sales people, as stated above, add products to proposals.
It allows for:
central administration of available products and services (keyword: available – it also prevents reps from adding products to proposals that may be out of stock);
easy assembly and presentation of bundles, upsells, and upgrades;
geo-targeted (and even rep-specific) pricing, and
easy management of discount structures.
Product and pricing configurators are also now a major piece for traditional B2B businesses as they reluctantly or happily embrace ecommerce. By essentially embedding product and pricing configuration into a customer-facing portal, they empower customers to self-serve.
With this core functionality of quoting software made available to customers, they can search through products and pricing on their own, explore all upgrade options, and even (with the addition of a shopping cart, such as Shopify) buy what they need – without ANY help from a sales rep.
It’s important to state that this in no way replaces sales reps. For most B2B companies, the initial sale and future upgrades have too many moving pieces, or too many revenue opportunities, to be “passed off” to the customer.
However, adding ecommerce functionality to B2B systems and processes does make customer purchases such as restocks (which typically take more of a rep’s time than they’re worth) as easy and point and click for your customers.
Less time wasted by reps, self-satisfied, self-serving customers, easy revenue. It’s a no-brainer for most B2B companies.
What’s next for quoting software? That’ll be up to its users to discover.
