The first accurate quote usually wins. Yours should go out the same day.
The problem
In distribution, manufacturing, and the trades, quoting is where revenue starts and where it stalls. A request arrives as an email, a PDF drawing, or a spreadsheet of parts. Someone looks up costs, checks past jobs, applies a margin, and builds the document by hand.
It takes one to three days, and the price depends on who did the quote. Margins vary by rep. When your two best estimators are busy, quotes wait, and buyers go with whoever answered first.
What we build
We build a quoting system around your own pricing rules. An agent reads the incoming request, pulls out the line items, and matches them to your catalog or past jobs. Then it applies your costs, margins, and freight and drafts the quote in your format.
A rep reviews every quote before it goes out. Quotes above a size you set, or with low confidence on any line, go to a senior estimator. The system also records which quotes win, so pricing can be tuned on real results.
How we build it
Eight to twelve weeks to every rep quoting from the system. Highly custom work may stay with your estimators, and we say so in the discovery project.
- Weeks 1 to 2
Write down the pricing
We sit with your estimators and write down how they actually price. Costs, margins by customer type, freight, minimums, and the judgment calls they make without thinking.
- Weeks 3 to 6
Build the quote engine
We connect to your catalog, cost data, and CRM and build the agent that reads requests. We test it against 100 or more past quotes and compare its numbers with what you sent.
- Weeks 7 to 10
Reps review every quote
Two or three reps use the system on live requests and correct anything it gets wrong. We tune the rules on their corrections.
- Weeks 11 to 12
Roll out and track wins
Every rep moves onto the system, with approval rules by quote size. Win and loss tracking starts so pricing can improve next quarter.
What you get
Quotes out the same day, margins applied the same way every time, and estimators free for the complex jobs. You see quote turnaround and win rate on the monthly scorecard.
What you receive
- Your pricing rules, written down where your team can edit them
- An agent that reads requests from email, PDF, and spreadsheets
- Quote drafts in your format, inside your CRM
- Approval rules by quote size and confidence
- Win and loss tracking by customer and product line
- Training for reps and estimators
The pricing rules, the quoting system, and the history of every quote live in your accounts. Your team changes the rules without calling us.
What it takes
What we need from you
- Your senior estimator for about three hours a week in the first month
- Access to your catalog, cost data, and CRM
- At least 100 past quotes with their outcomes
How we measure it
- Time from request to quote sent
- Quotes sent per rep
- Margin spread across reps
- Win rate
What it looks like in practice
An industrial fasteners distributor doing $16M a year gets about 40 quote requests a day. Three inside sales reps build each quote in a spreadsheet.
The average quote takes a day and a half to go out. Margins on similar orders range from 18 to 31 percent depending on the rep. Requests with more than 50 lines often wait until the end of the week.
The agent reads each request, matches part numbers to the catalog, applies cost, a margin by customer tier, and freight, then drafts the quote in the CRM. Reps review every quote. Anything over $25K goes to the sales manager.
Median time to quote falls to about three hours. The margin spread across reps narrows to about 4 points. Quotes sent the same day win about 9 points more often than later ones, and the team now tracks that every month.
An illustrative example. Every build is scoped from your own numbers.
Where it fits in a Quarter Plan
Eight to twelve weeks
Typical build time
Fits in a first or second quarter for businesses where sales depend on quote speed. It works best once your catalog and costs are clean, which the discovery project checks. The scorecard tracks turnaround, margin spread, and win rate.
Tell us where AI should be paying off in your business.
In 45 minutes we will tell you where we see the opportunity and whether we are the right fit.