How to quote efficiently
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Many businesses often complain that quoting takes hours out of their day without any reward at the end. Here is a guide to providing quotes in a way that is efficient and effective.
When you receive an inbound enquiry from a consumer, what is your process? How do you qualify the consumer to know that he/she meets your businesses target market? How do you quickly determine exactly what the consumer needs done? How do you identify the size and scope of the job with the minimal amount of effort on your behalf?
Firstly let's look at what tools are available at your disposal. Today's internet provides you with a great set of tools that can enable you to know everything about a job, and provide a quote without having to visit the site. These tools include:
- Email. Emails enables you to contact a consumer at any time of the day. Unlike telephone calls, you can shoot off an email late at night and know that you won't be interupting the consumer. More importantly, email enables you to work with the consumer to build up a very specific scope of works. Plus, email gives you the documentation that proves that you and the consumer are talking about exactly the same thing. This can help clarify the scope of works, as well as avoid any disputes into the future.
- Photos & Video. Nowadays everyone has a digital camera, in fact most people have them on their phones. As they say, a photo is worth 1,000 words. Ask the consumer to take photos of the work that they need done and email them through to you. Even better, if they can send you a video then you can have an even better understanding of the scope of works.
- Google Street View - maps.google.com.au - enables you to view a picture of an address as though you were standing right there. This is a great way to get a feeling for the building that needs work done. Especially, if they need external work done.
- Google Earth - earth.google.com - enables you to view satelite images of anywhere in the world. Its a great way to get an instant understanding of a building's roof, fencing and gardening. It also has great measuring tools so that you don't need to go out on site, you can simply measure the size of the block/roof/fence on your computer.
- Skype - www.skype.com - is a fantastic webconferencing tool that enables you to speak directly with the consumers via webcam. This gives you a great chance to sell yourself and your business without having to drive to their location.
- Other tools/ideas. Real Estate websites can often have pictures of the interior of properties from when they were previously listed for sale. Simply google the address of the property and see if anything comes up.
So what can you do with these tools?
By using these internet tools you can connect with a consumer and provide them with a quote without having to visit the site. This can help you save hours of your time each week, and potentially quote on more jobs and win more work.
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What happens if you get the price wrong? There are things that you would see if you went onto the site, that you would miss if you are just looking at pictures, etc.
over a year ago by Peter -
You are right Peter. You might miss some things if you're not going onto the site.
over a year ago by danial_ahchow
However, weigh this up against the time savings you would get. For example, if it takes you an hour (30 minutes each way) to get to a job and quote it, plus another 30 minutes to speak to the customer and put a quote together, and you charge out at $80 per hour. Then going and doing that quote in person has effectively cost you $120.
If, however, you have missed something on the photos and it means you have to do an extra 1 hour of work, this mistake would have only cost you $80.
So effectively you would still come out ahead, as long as you request enough information from the consumer (pics, videos, specifications, etc) to ensure that your quote is "within the ballpark".
That's my 2 cents. How do you feel about that?
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