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Remove Bottlenecks
Bottlenecks can occur at many points in a sales process. However it is in the area of quoting that the greatest level of resource is consumed. It is generally accepted that early despatch of quotes increases the likelihood that prospects will buy from you. Yet it is often in this area that performance suffers when businesses seek to increase sales. Response times become extended, quotes are rushed, and quality degrades. As a result conversion rates fall. Removing these bottlenecks improves the conversion rate.
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Minimise Errors
People make mistakes. Pricing, product selection and keying errors are common throughout Quote-to-Order processes. Couple this with the increasing complexity of business today, and the effect on sales development and profitability can be serious. Some costs, such as product returns and re-working can be recorded and measured. Others are not so visible - such as increases in customer dissatisfaction levels and reduction in repeat orders. Many of these basic mistakes can be avoided with simple process change and automation.
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Eliminate Duplication
Anything that involves 'copying and pasting' between documents and systems is wasting time that could be better spent on value added activities such as selling and converting orders. Re-keying is not only time wasting, it is also prone to errors. Amending quotes needs to be quick and easy, as should be the creation of identical and similar quotes. It is now both practical and affordable to remove duplication and feed data from quotations into sales order processing software and accounting systems.
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Enhance Presentation
It is proven that professionally presented quotations, that are quickly dispatched, enhance sales conversion rates. Quotes that contain clearly presented product details and specifications, remove ambiguity. Quotes that display features and benefits, particularly unique selling points, significantly assist a sale. Producing such quotations manually however is time consuming. Automation makes this a practical proposition - speeding and enhancing the process, and providing consistency.
