Remember that time a customer showed interest in your service and requested a quote for the next day? You know you can’t take too long to respond. The process needs to be quick yet meticulous to ensure your client has everything they need before hitting the ACCEPT button.
With great design comes great impact
The design, quality and efficiency of your quotes have a direct impact on business development and client capture. Let’s look at some statistics.
- According to a 2018 report by McKinsey, businesses that utilise design can generate on average 32% greater revenue and 56% greater shareholder returns. (an example would be a product or service such as a professional quote template to reflect your offer)
- A report by Top Design Firms analysed the impact of web design on consumers. 50% of consumers agree that a website’s design is critical for their opinion on that brand. (consider web-based quotes as a product of modern web design)
We see the impact of design on business performance be it websites, strategic documents, or quotations. But there’s more to creating proposals and quotes than simply making them look pretty.
Static PDFs have been around for over three decades now. While their format may have been loved overall, there’s an inherent increase in the demand for smoother, easier, and more interactive options.
Your quote is your offer letter to your prospective buyer
Your client is expecting a clear, simple, and comprehensive structure to support the price you are putting forward. It’s not like sending a one-liner email or text message indicating the price you want to charge. The beauty of sending a personalised quote is that it covers the areas that matter to your client and provides a window of opportunity for you to justify the amount you’ve set your offer to.
So, what is it exactly that you get through custom proposal tools? Before we list down some amazing tech options out there, let’s go over several key benefits of this modern approach to proposal and quote design.
Here’s what you get with proposal creation software
Ready templates (massive time savings)
Let’s be real – drafting your best offer takes quite the time. There’s a lot you need to consider, including the details of scope, timelines, estimates, images, design, the target audience, and so on. Curating the perfect offer means paying attention to detail and ensuring that each client gets exactly what they’re looking for. All this sums up to huge amounts of potentially non-billable hours. With the right software to help you out, guess what? All that time can be spent working on other lucrative opportunities.
Option to edit after sending
Since your quote is available through a custom link and stored as a central online document, you can make any changes even after it’s been sent to your client. Typos, incorrect tables, missing information, and other content errors can be taken care of right away without needing to send a whole new quote and confusing the recipient with multiple versions.
Easy management and storage
With proposal software, your data management and storage are simplified. Your data is saved online and accessible from any device for you to create, review, or share links to your quote. The entire process becomes efficient and also gives you better insight into performance and sales.
Web-based format for universal compatibility
Instead of sending the traditional PDF or Word file, you can simply send the link to your quote. The benefit of optimised links is that they look perfect on any device. This web-based format also reduces the number of steps traditionally required to download, access, review, and forward the proposal.
Integration capabilities
More and more apps are zeroing in on easy integration with other software and tools. With proposal creation software, you can sync other tools such as email marketing, CRM, Xero, MYOB, and project management software to connect and streamline data efficiently.
Analytics and tracking
Modern proposal software allows you to track the status of your quote anytime. Data is available in one place for you to check:
- When the link was opened
- When and for how long it was read
- When it was signed
- Who else accessed and viewed the link
Easy electronic signatures
Your client’s electronic sign on your proposal is a legally binding signature. Additionally, you can connect various payment methods with your web-based proposal for quick processing.
Interactive videos
One of the best features for proposal software has got to be the ability to add videos and interactive backgrounds. You can choose from available ideas and designs built into the platform.
Your options for proposal creating software
Here’s a list of proposal creation software that you can use to craft those compelling, vibrant, and dynamic offers for clients to say, “wow!” There are plenty out there, but we’ve shortlisted ten that you can assess for your specific business.
- PandaDoc
- Proposify
- Bidsketch
- Better Proposals
- Qwilr
- Nusii
- RFPIO
- Loopio
- Proposable
- Venngage
What’s our top recommendation?
We’ve been sending web-based quotes for a while now, and our favorite platform is Qwilr. This one tool has incredible design features, including 50 templates to give you a plethora of ideas to craft your offer. The software reflects a minimalist, classy and contemporary look for your proposals. In terms of design, Qwilr definitely stole our hearts. The tool allows you to insert and adjust content accordingly and add images or videos to make the proposal more engaging. Once a client hits the “Accept” button, the platform automatically sends an update to our bookkeeping software.
If you haven’t moved away from traditional proposal methods, try out one of the tools listed above and watch your proposal creation process become a winning strategy for clients.
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