Quotation management · Sales
Every quotation that leaves your office should follow the same rules.
A quotation starts as the last one sent, with the customer's name changed. One rep keeps a validity line, another forgets it. A revised price goes out on WhatsApp and nobody can say which version the buyer is holding.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Quotation management is the set of rules that decides how a quotation is built, approved, numbered, sent, revised and closed. GullySales writes those rules down with your team, builds the template and the quotation register, and sets up the review of quotations you lost and the reasons.
Quotation management puts one template, one numbering method and one list of who may issue or approve what. It also keeps a register by buyer and status, so an open quotation always has a version, a validity date and a named owner.
The boundaries matter. Chasing a sent quotation is quotation and proposal follow-up. Writing the document for a complex job is proposal development, and configure-price-quote software is CPQ consulting. This service is the control around all of them, and it sets no prices.
Who it is for
This is written for you if these sound familiar.
- Fabricators, panel builders and equipment suppliers who quote from drawings and revise several times
- Interior, kitchen and construction firms where one site produces several versions of a quotation
- Distributors and printers sending a large number of rate quotations every week
- Clinics, schools and service businesses that quote packages, annual contracts or institutional supply
- Owners who still read every quotation personally because nobody else has a clear limit
Not for
It is not the right fit if.
- Businesses that sell at the counter or online at listed prices and rarely send a quotation
- Teams that want us to set the prices or margins, which stay with your owner and accounts lead
- Owners hoping a register will win quotations by itself, because it only shows where they are lost
The problem
Does this sound like your business?
Common situations this work addresses.
“The buyer is quoting from an old version”
A revised price went out, but the buyer's purchase order refers to the first one. Nobody can show which version was current on which day.
“A quotation went out with a mistake”
A wrong quantity, a missing tax line or the wrong payment terms reached the buyer, because the sender and the checker were the same person.
“I do not know what we have quoted”
Quotations sit in individual inboxes, folders and chat threads. Open value is a guess, and expired offers still count as live.
“We lose quotations and never learn why”
A quotation goes quiet and is forgotten. The same reasons for losing repeat because they were never written down.
What we do
The work we can include.
Each deliverable and the purpose it serves. Your written scope confirms what is included, who is responsible, and what it costs.
Quotation template
One document with your customer block, scope lines, exclusions, tax display, payment terms, delivery terms and validity line. Your accounts lead confirms how GST must appear, and your adviser reads the standard terms.
Numbering and version rule
A quotation number and a revision suffix, plus a status for each version: draft, approved, sent, superseded. The latest sent version is the only one a rep may quote from.
Issue and approval matrix
A one-page table of who may prepare, who may issue, and who must approve, by quotation value, special terms and non-standard items. You decide the limits; we write them down and test them on real quotations.
Validity and expiry rule
The validity wording, the date it starts from, and what happens on expiry: closed, renewed with a new version, or re-priced by an approver. The wording on a quotation is your decision.
Quotation register
A shared sheet, or a view in your existing CRM, holding quotation number, buyer, version, owner, date sent, validity date, status and next step. It replaces the memory of whoever sent the document.
Pre-send check
A short list read against the document before it leaves: buyer details, quantities, tax lines, terms, attachments, approval recorded. The checker is not the preparer.
Closure codes
Agreed definitions for won, lost, expired and withdrawn, with a short list of lost reasons in the buyer's own words, such as price, delivery, specification or no budget.
Lost-quotation review
A sheet for the sales lead that groups lost and expired quotations by buyer type, product and reason. It points to which part of the process or offer needs a decision.
How the result is measured
- Quotations issued with the approved template and a recorded approval
- Open quotations with a version, validity date and named owner
- Corrections sent after a quotation had already gone out
- Expired quotations still shown as live
- Lost and expired quotations with a recorded reason
- Orders traced back to a numbered quotation
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
Before you decide
Agree the work. Know how to judge it.
Quotation management: use these checks to prepare, choose the scope, and review what changes.
Bring the right evidence
Bring a recent proposal and the buyer's original requirement. Mark the questions that remained unanswered and the assumptions your team made about scope or approval.
Make the scope clear
Agree the proposal structure, required evidence, pricing authority, and follow-up ownership. Keep commercial terms under the control of the person authorised to approve them.
Check the work in use
Ask someone outside the sales conversation to identify what is being offered, what is excluded, and how the buyer can decide. Check that the proposal matches the recorded requirement.
Know when to change course
If the buyer has not confirmed a real need or decision process, clarify those before producing a long proposal. More pages rarely resolve missing qualification.
These are discussion points, not a fixed package. GullySales confirms the deliverables, responsibilities, fee, and term in writing after reading your brief and speaking with you.
How it works
How the quotation management work runs
The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.
- 1
Collect what was sent
You share recent quotations from inboxes, folders and WhatsApp, with the outcome where it is known. We map how each was built, who changed it and where the versions diverged.
- 2
Agree the rules
Your owner and sales lead set the approval limits, validity wording and who may issue. Accounts confirms the tax presentation and the adviser reviews the terms.
- 3
Build the template and register
We draft the template and the register, then fill the register with the quotations that are still open. Each entry gets a version, an owner and a next step.
- 4
Test on live quotations
Your reps prepare their next real quotations through the new route. We read what slowed them down and correct the template or the matrix.
- 5
Hand over the routine
A named person owns the register, and the sales lead owns the approval matrix. Follow-up of sent quotations moves to quotation and proposal follow-up if you commission it.
- 6
Review what was lost
The sales lead and we go through closed quotations by reason. Changes to the offer, the template or the rules are made by you, in writing, before the next round.
Before you hire anyone
Do this first yourself.
Look at what your team has actually sent before you change any rules.
- Pull the last twenty quotations from inboxes, folders and WhatsApp into one folder.
- Mark which ones carry a validity line, a tax display and payment terms, and which do not.
- Find any quotation that was revised and check whether the buyer's order refers to the latest version.
- Write down who may send a quotation today and who checks it before it goes.
- List every quotation still open and note the date it was sent and whether its validity has passed.
Judge any provider
What to ask any provider of this service.
Useful whoever you choose, including us.
- Who decides the approval limits, and where are they written down?
- How will we tell which version of a quotation is current?
- What does the register hold, and who keeps it up to date after handover?
- How are lost and expired quotations recorded, and who reads the reasons?
- Which parts are set up on our existing tools, and which need new software?
- What do you leave to our accounts lead and adviser, such as tax display and terms?
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 4, presentation and proposal. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2 · you are here
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Do you set our prices or approve our discounts?
How long should a quotation stay valid?
What is the difference between a quotation and a proforma invoice?
Do we need CPQ software?
Will this increase our win rate?
How is the work priced?
How long is the contract?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
By industry
Quotation management, written for your industry.
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