Salesforce Quotes to Signatures: Automating the Full Process

How much should your organization invest to ensure accurate, consistent quotes in Salesforce? Some companies attempt to automate every step, adding complexity that slows teams down, while others rely on manual processes that create delays and inconsistencies, frustrating potential customers. 

The key is finding a balance. Over-automation can make simple tasks harder, while too little automation leads to inefficiencies. Your sales and service teams need a quoting process that’s streamlined, reliable, and easy to maintain. SalesReady delivers this at a price point that makes sense.

To strike this balance, you first need to understand your specific quoting requirements. Quoting tools for Salesforce come in many forms, each offering different features and complexities. With so many options available, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when trying to determine which solution best fits your organization’s needs. To evaluate your needs effectively, consider these key questions:

• Does a typical quote include one or many line items?
• How often are you bundling dependent items?
• What does an ideal reporting structure look like to ensure relevant users can track the status of quotes?
• How often do you send multiple versions of a quote to a customer?
• What format is being sent to customers? Are you generating e-docs, PDFs, Word docs, or something else?
• Which milestones should trigger notifications?
• Is verbal acceptance sufficient, or is a signature required?

While these tactical questions help define your quoting requirements, they’re just the starting point. Beyond defining requirements, ensuring adoption is critical. After all, a quoting tool is only effective if people want to use it, know how to use it, and actually do use it.

How to Build Enthusiasm for the Quoting Process

Some companies enforce strict rules on how salespeople build and deliver quotes, while others allow more flexibility to close deals. The good news? You don’t have to choose one or the other. The right quoting tool finds the right mix, offering both control and agility. Here’s what to look for:

1. User Experience
   • A fast, mobile-friendly UI with drag-and-drop functionality for smooth and intuitive quoting.
   • A quick and easy document generation process built directly in Salesforce.
2. Flexibility
   • The ability to use predefined bundles or create custom groupings on the fly.
   • A dynamic column structure that adapts to different pricing models.
3. Integration
   • The option to leverage native Salesforce objects or incorporate custom ones when needed.
   • Seamless communication with the Opportunity pipeline for accurate tracking and forecasting.

How to Trust the Quoting Process

Sales managers, salespeople, and Salesforce admins need to see the value in a quoting tool and be aligned on what the end goal will be. When these three groups are on the same page, it creates a unified, efficient quoting process that benefits the entire sales cycle.

Many companies come from legacy quoting methods that rely on spreadsheets, manual calculations, and ad-hoc approvals, leading to inconsistencies. This transition can be challenging, as each user has different needs and expectations. 

Sales managers want consistency and reliability, salespeople need speed and ease of use, and Salesforce admins are concerned with maintainability and scalability.

Other times, companies find themselves using complex quoting tools that demand an unexpected level of effort, leading to frustration. When all three user types are involved in the decision-making process – whether directly or through clearly defined requirements – it fosters trust in the tool from the beginning. 

By addressing the specific needs of each group and ensuring that the tool is easy to implement, maintain, and use, you create a quoting process that everyone can rely on.

How to Implement an Efficient Quoting Process

Whether you’re selecting a new quoting tool or working with an existing one, setting clear priorities is essential. Prioritization is key; ask yourself, is the ability to enable or disable a discount column for customers a must-have, or should the focus be on ensuring that salespeople apply realistic discounts? 

While both are valuable, determining what’s critical upfront will lead to a smoother rollout.

Here are some important considerations when getting started:

• Understand your solution’s strengths and weaknesses: No tool is perfect, but knowing its capabilities – and when to adapt – ensures a smoother process.
• Documentation is crucial: Use project management tools to track progress and maintain visibility on completed tasks, ongoing work, and future improvements. Your vendor should also provide a clear roadmap to guide your implementation.
• Plan for evolving reporting needs: Reporting requirements will change over time, but proactively building reports during the implementation process – rather than waiting until go-live – will save you from scrambling later.
• Leverage vendor support and documentation: Make full use of support email addresses, knowledge bases, and documentation sites. Companies value direct feedback, and a responsive vendor should be eager to assist.

Summary

Salesforce quoting software should enable teams to build a quote, generate a document, and send it for signature – all seamlessly within the platform. While many tools specialize in one or two of these areas, few offer a complete solution that does it all. 

What if there was a tool that handled everything at a reasonable price, with no add-ons required and a faster implementation? Good news – SalesReady does exactly that.

See it for yourself in our interactive, anonymous demo.