How To Configure Quotes Faster With A CRM for Distributors

In distribution, generating timely, accurate quotes can make or break a sale. Quoting directly impacts customer satisfaction, competitive positioning, and revenue potential.

Let’s explore why speeding up the quoting process while ensuring accuracy is vital, common challenge distributors face, and actionable strategies to configure quotes faster using a CRM that integrates with your ERP.

Understanding the Quoting Process

Quoting typically includes a number of administrative tasks: obtaining product details, determining pricing, checking inventory, and presenting a final, accurate quote to the customer. While seemingly straightforward, this quoting process often involves multiple systems, teams, and data points, creating numerous opportunities for inefficiencies and errors.

Common Challenges in Quoting For Distributors

Distribution companies often struggle with manual data entry, miscommunication between departments, and reliance on outdated or cumbersome systems that don’t easily integrate with other tools the organization might be using. Any of these issues slow down the process and introduce opportunities for mistakes and lost deals.

For instance, Clayton Controls, an automation distributor, produces highly customized solutions for customers, which require detailed pricing from numerous suppliers. The company’s previous CRM software, Maximizer, did not integrate with their ERP, Epicor Prophet 21. Since the customer support and accounting teams used the ERP to generate quotes, the sales team lacked visibility into key customer data, such as previous order history or outstanding quotes. As a result, they struggled to follow up with customers in a timely manner, slowing down the sales process​.

This issue is commonplace for many distributors, leading to siloes between the teams creating quotes and the sales reps who initiate them and follow up with prospects. The sales team might pass product and quantity information to a customer service team, which builds the quote in the ERP and then passes it back to sales. Without real-time syncing between these systems, the CRM devolves into nothing more than a contact database, lacking the crucial data to drive strategic customer conversations.

Without access to ERP-generated data, the sales team also misses opportunities to use customer insights to close deals. Important data – order history or product trends – aren’t accessible when the sales team needs them the most​.

Steps To Configure Quotes Faster

1. Gather Detailed Information

The first step to ensuring accuracy is to start with real-time data. Sales reps should have access to comprehensive customer profiles, past order details, and inventory levels. Not having access to up-to-date  pricing, product codes, or quantities can lead to costly errors.

CRM and ERP integration ensures that all this data is readily available and your reps have the latest pricing information, minimizing the chance of errors.

2. Use Templates To Make Quoting Faster

Pre-built quote templates can significantly speed up the quoting process by providing a standardized format. Templates also reduce human error by minimizing the amount of data entered manually.

3. Use Automated Workflows To Manage Deals

Automation is a game-changer when it comes to configuring quotes quickly. Quoting software like White Cup CRM’s native quoting functionality allows sales reps to pull essential product and pricing data from the ERP, enabling them to create accurate quotes in minutes.

Sales reps can also set up automated email workflows to follow up with customers on open quotes, improving the chances of closing deals faster. Reps can receive notifications when a quote is created, opened, or signed so they can respond quickly.

5. Use AI and Machine Learning in Quoting

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are transforming quoting by offering valuable insights that help sales teams optimize their proposals. AI can analyze vast amounts of customer data, from purchasing patterns to product preferences, and recommend the best products and pricing combinations to include when quoting a prospective client. This level of personalization ensures that each quote is tailored to a customer’s specific needs, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

For instance, White Cup’s Top Related Products feature uses AI to identify complementary products, increasing upselling. When a sales rep adds a product to a quote, White Cup CRM automatically surfaces a list of complementary products that are most frequently purchased alongside what’s being quoted. Sales reps can select these products and easily add them to customize quotes.

6. Outline Products and Services in a Proposal

Distributors can create templates for emails to accompany their quote for added context. 

A well-constructed proposal email should complement the quote by aligning with the client’s specific needs and purchase history. It should outline the customer’s expectations and communicate the overall value of working with your company beyond the product and list price. This may include next-day delivery, volume discounts, the convenience of online ordering or the expertise of your sales team.

Gain Full Visibility Into Every Quote and Opportunity 

As Clayton Controls discovered, the right tools can transform the quoting process. By integrating White Cup’s CRM with Epicor Prophet 21, Clayton Controls gained total visibility into customer order history, allowing them to streamline quotes and follow up more effectively. This helped them create more deals, ensure accuracy, and build stronger customer relationships.

Is your team ready to experience the same efficiency? Take a two-minute tour of White Cup’s CRM + BI today and see how it can help simplify your quoting process.