How to write a price quote

A price quote is a business document that gives the recipient important details about a specific piece of work, project, or product order. A business would generally produce and send a price quote in response to someone who has requested a product or service, partially to give information about price but also in an attempt to make a sale.

As you’re sending the quote to someone who has requested information about your services, you’re working with a hot lead and it’s a great opportunity to close the deal. However, you are never guaranteed to make a sale just by sending out a price quote and it’s very common for customers to request multiple quotes from different providers for the sake of comparison.

This makes the business quote a vital part of the sales process and therefore it’s something you want to get right. This guide will help you understand the fundamentals of a quotation, how to write a price quote for your business, and give you advice on how to maximize your conversions.

Why you might need a quote

Like it or not, quotes are an almost unavoidable part of business. Whatever your industry, and whether you’re a small or a large business, chances are high that you will either write, send, or receive a quote at some point, so it’s very good practice to know what you’re dealing with, and even better to know how to write one that sells.

Price quotes are excellent tools, as they allow you to relay a lot of information in an easy format without having to have endless meetings or documents. You can send one from the other side of the world and it will be pretty much universally recognized as a helpful business document. It’s a format that lays everything out in a clear, concise way which any good business person will respect.

Besides just communicating your price, a price quote can also function as a legal document, binding the involved companies into an agreement if the recipient accepts.

Choosing the best price

As a proper price quote can be legally-binding, you need to be sure that the information you’re giving is accurate. This means doing a proper cost analysis and not just throwing together a rough estimate. This approach would be more suited to the more casual business document called a price estimate.

To help you determine the right figures to include in your price quote, you should always ensure you fully understand what is being asked of you, and clearly state what you will provide so there’s no confusion.

Many customers will request tight deadlines. You may be tempted to accept just to get the business, but make sure you’re actually able to meet them before committing with a quote otherwise you could end up losing.

Double and triple check all the applicable financial variables before sending, such as taxes, duties, and exchange rates. If these variable costs are overlooked when making your price list, you could end up undercharging for your total cost and making a loss.

At the end of the day, only you know what price and profit margins at which you’re prepared to operate, just make sure that you know as much about the project as possible before sending your quote.

Boosting your conversion rate

To get the most from your price quotes, your approach and the quotes themselves need to be optimized to maximize conversion rates.

The following tips can help you stand out to potential customers:

1. Construct your quote clearly and logically to make it easy to read. Nobody will hire you if they can’t understand the quote.
2. Include all necessary information but don’t cram it so full that it’s impossible to stay engaged.
3. Try to send your quotes quickly, i.e. within one working day of receiving a quote request.
4. Include your contact information like company name and phone number and also try to follow up quotes with another message after a couple of days.
5. If you miss out on a big deal, try to get feedback about why you weren’t chosen. Was it that your price was too high, or was your quote lacking in some way?
6. If your business can support it, try setting generous payment terms as an incentive.

Creating your quotes with PandaDoc

Building an accurate and effective price quote from nothing can be difficult, particularly if it’s your own business and you need to make them regularly for different kinds of potential clients.

However, using specially-designed quoting software like PandaDoc, anybody can create an error-free, professional price quote and massively simplify the quoting process in no time:

1. Create a new document. Log into PandaDoc and click on the “New Document”.
2. Pick a template. Choose a quote template from the list, or simply start a blank new document.
3. Build your price quote. Using the menu, pick and choose from a wide range of different features to add to your quote. Embed videos and high-resolution images, add text boxes, custom tables, signature boxes, and more. Customize the quote to suit your exact client in minutes, not hours.
4. Fill the form using your CRM data. PandaDoc has integrated CRM support for over a dozen top providers, including Salesforce and HubSpot. Just connect them and auto-populate your quotes in seconds.

Make your business stand out

Properly-structured, eye-catching quotes win business. It’s as simple as that. If you seriously want to impress potential customers then understanding how to build an effective price quote is vital to your business strategy.

It takes time to write a good quote, but with innovative software like PandaDoc, you can drastically reduce that time and make it easy to create, send, sign, and track the metrics of every quote, from a single tool.