Quote Automation
Software
Your team still rebuilds the same quote in Word and Excel. By the time it's out, the prospect is comparing other suppliers. We build the software that turns quote requests into priced, approved, branded PDFs in days.
4h to 15m
SAP CASE STUDY, COMPLEX QUOTES
28%
OF REP TIME SPENT SELLING, SALESFORCE
Days
TO FIRST VERSION, NOT QUARTERS
A quote is a workflow, not a document.
Most quotes still get made the same way: a rep opens last quarter's Word file, edits the numbers, asks a manager about a discount, waits, exports a PDF, emails it over. By the time it's out, the buyer is already reading other quotes.
Salesforce says reps spend just 28% of the week actually selling, with the rest going on deal management, data entry, quotes and proposals. SAP says Cleaver-Brooks cut complex boiler quote time from four hours to 15 minutes after moving the process into SAP CPQ.
You don't have to keep paying people to assemble PDFs.
TODAY'S QUOTE
- Rep edits last quarter's Word file
- Prices live in someone's head
- Discount needs a Slack to the MD
- Wrong VAT, wrong delivery, wrong totals
- No idea if the buyer opened it
AUTOMATED QUOTE
- Configured from your real catalogue
- Pricing rules in one place, named
- Approval routes itself, logs the decision
- Maths and tax done by the machine
- You see opens, clicks and signatures
Every quoting system has the same five parts.
Configure, price, approve, deliver, track. Whether you sell pallets, scaffolding, fit-outs, IT contracts or insurance, the parts are the same. Once you can see them, you can build them once.
Catalogue
Products, options, bundles, units, lead times. One source of truth instead of a price list per rep.
Pricing rules
Volume breaks, contract rates, customer-specific deals, surcharges, VAT. Named, tested, and the same for everyone.
Approvals
Auto-route the discount, the long payment term, the new customer. Approver gets one click. Everything's logged.
Document
Your branded PDF, generated from the same data the rep just configured. Terms attached, numbers correct, ready to send.
Send and track
Sent from the system. Open, click and accept tracked. E-signed if you want it. Nothing falls into a forgotten inbox.
Slow quotes lose deals quietly.
Nobody emails to tell you they went with the supplier who replied in twenty minutes. You just notice the win rate drift down and blame the market.
Slow quoting is usually a process problem: stale prices, unclear approval rules, and too much copy-paste between systems.
28%
of a sales rep's week is spent actually selling, according to Salesforce's State of Sales research.
Salesforce, State of Sales
50%
faster discount approval at EXFO after it moved quoting into an integrated SAP CPQ system.
EXFO via SAP CPQ
70%
more quotes per month at EXFO after the same quoting system change.
EXFO via SAP CPQ
4h to 15m
Cleaver-Brooks moved complex boiler quotes from manual processes onto SAP CPQ. SAP says the quote time dropped from four hours to 15 minutes.
Cleaver-Brooks via SAP CPQ
Where we come in.
Manual quoting fails in familiar places: catalogue, pricing rules, approvals, document generation, handover into the rest of the business. The detail changes. The failure points don't.
Not a year-long CPQ rollout. Fixed-scope phases, a working tool, you own the code and the data.
BOOK A QUOTING AUDITQuoting audit
Send us your last 20 quotes, your price lists and your spreadsheets. We map who touches what, where it stalls, which discounts get bent, which numbers come out wrong. Scope and price up front, no slide decks.
Model catalogue and rules
We turn the price tabs, the rep's headnotes and the "ring Dave first" rules into proper products, options and pricing logic. You sign off the model before we touch production code.
Launch the first version
Configure, price, generate, send. One rep, one product line. Plugged into your CRM, your accounts package and your e-sign tool. We migrate the live deals.
Roll out, then automate further
Add the rest of the catalogue, the rest of the team, the approval routes, the analytics. Then the AI layer: inbound RFQ parsing, draft quotes for repeat buyers, follow-up nudges. Small, steady releases.
Where this pays back fastest.
Five places where manual quoting usually starts costing money. If yours looks like one of these, the audit is quick.
Made-to-order manufacturers.
Bespoke kitchens, signage, sheds, packaging, doors. Reps spec a build in the configurator, the engine prices it against your real materials and labour rates, the PDF comes out branded and right first time.
Installers, builders, fit-outs.
Site survey in, line-item quote out. Materials, labour, access, scaffolding, VAT and the contingency. The quote that used to wait for the office on Monday lands while you're still in the van.
MSPs, IT, telecoms, SaaS.
Per-seat pricing, term commits, hardware bundled in, optional add-ons. The renewal quote builds itself from current usage. The new-business quote builds itself from the audit.
Wholesale and distribution.
Contract-priced accounts, volume breaks, carriage rules, drop-ship surcharges. Reps stop ringing the office to ask "what can I do on this one". The rules answer for them.
Agencies and consultancies.
Day-rate matrices, retainer tiers, scoped fixed fees. The proposal comes out of the same model as the SoW and the invoice. Margin's calculated before it's sent, not three months in.
Something else?
If a person has to "work out the price" by hand every time, there's a quoting engine inside that decision waiting to be lifted out. Send us a few examples and we'll tell you straight if there is or there isn't.
The ones we get asked first.
Why not just buy Salesforce CPQ or HubSpot Quotes?
If your pricing fits the boxes those products give you, buy them. Most UK SMEs we meet don't. Their pricing has a few rules the off-the-shelf engine can't express, and the licence costs more than building the thing that does. We'll tell you honestly which side you're on after the audit.
Our pricing is genuinely complicated. Can a tool really handle it?
Yes, because someone in your business is already handling it in their head. Our job is to write that logic down once, with you watching. If a corner truly needs human judgement, we route it to a human and log what they decided. We don't try to delete the experts, we just stop them being a bottleneck.
Does it talk to our CRM and accounting software?
Yes. HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Capsule on the CRM side. Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent on the accounts side. Docusign, Adobe Acrobat Sign or our own e-sign for signatures. We integrate at proper API level, not a CSV export.
How long to first live quotes?
Days for the first product line and team. The rest of the catalogue and the rest of the team follow in small, steady releases. You're not waiting six months for a big-bang launch.
What about AI? Can it write the quote for us?
Once the engine's in place, yes, and that's where the next round of payback comes from. AI reads the inbound RFQ or email, pulls the spec, drafts a quote against your rules and drops it in the rep's queue. The rep checks and sends. Don't let anyone sell you the AI before the engine. It just hallucinates prices.
Who owns the code and the data?
You do. Source, data, IP. We can host it for you on UK infrastructure, or hand it over to your team. No per-quote fees, no per-seat licences, no lock-in.
How much does it cost?
Priced per phase, fixed before we start. The audit is its own short phase. A first live version is scoped against the audit. You see the number before we write a line of production code.
Get your quotes out before the buyer's coffee goes cold.
Send us your last few quotes and the spreadsheet behind them. Thirty minutes on a call and you'll have a clear view of what we'd build first and what to leave alone.