How We Do Quotes (As Told by the Sales Team)

So when an RFP comes in it usually goes to whoever's inbox it lands in. Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's forwarded from the website form, sometimes a customer just sends it directly to someone they know. There's no real system for it honestly.

First thing I do is read through it which takes a while because they're usually long and half the stuff isn't relevant to us. I'm looking for the meat - what do they actually need? Warehousing? Transportation? Both? What locations? I highlight as I go and make notes.

Then I figure out what they actually need. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes I have to read between the lines. If it's a big one or something unusual I'll call the customer to clarify before I waste time on a quote they don't want.

Rates I pull from the SharePoint file but honestly it's not always updated so sometimes I ask Kevin what we quoted last time for something similar. For transportation rates I have to go into the TMS or sometimes I just call the carriers directly if I need something current. That can take a day or two if carriers are slow to respond.

For big deals over like maybe $8K monthly I have to loop in operations to check capacity. Do we have space? Can we handle their volume? That's usually a conversation or two. Sometimes they come back and say we don't have room and then I have to get creative or tell the customer we can't help.

Then I build the quote in Word. We have a template but everyone kind of uses their own version at this point. I copy the rates in, write up the scope of work (that's the part that takes the longest honestly), do the math in Excel to figure out their estimated monthly cost, then paste it all together.

If it's over $10K monthly Mark has to review it before it goes out. That can take a day or two depending on how busy he is. If he has changes I fix them and send it back. Sometimes we go back and forth a few times.

Then I send it out and hope for the best. I set a reminder to follow up in a week if I don't hear back. Sometimes I forget and it's been two weeks before I realize I never followed up.

Oh and the whole thing probably takes me 3-4 hours spread across a few days. More if it's complicated.

I'm still learning the process so bear with me...

When I get an RFP I first try to find a similar quote we've done before so I can use it as a template. I ask around to see if anyone has done something like it. Sometimes I find one, sometimes I'm starting from scratch.

I read through the RFP and try to understand what they need. If I'm confused I ask Mike or Kevin. I make a list of questions and sometimes I email the customer to clarify. They don't always respond quickly.

Then I need to figure out pricing. The rate sheet is in SharePoint somewhere... I usually just ask someone to send me the link. The transportation rates are harder because I don't really know how to use the TMS that well yet so I ask for help or use last quote we did to that area.

I try to fill in the quote template. It asks for a lot of stuff and I don't always know what to put. Like the implementation timeline - I just guess based on what seems reasonable. I should probably ask ops.

Before I send it I have Mark or Mike review it. They usually find things I missed or tell me my pricing doesn't make sense. Then I fix it and send.

I'm supposed to follow up but I'll be honest I don't have a good system for tracking that yet. Things slip through the cracks.

Here's how it SHOULD work:

1. RFP comes in to the sales inbox
2. I assign it to a rep based on territory/workload
3. Rep reviews and qualifies within 24 hours
4. If qualified, rep builds quote within 48 hours
5. Quotes over $10K come to me for approval
6. Quote goes out
7. Rep follows up at 7 days, 14 days, 21 days
8. We track everything in Salesforce

Here's how it ACTUALLY works:

RFPs come in everywhere - email, website, phone calls, referrals. Sometimes I don't even know about them until the rep asks me a question. There's no central tracking.

Reps take anywhere from 1 day to 2 weeks to turn around a quote depending on how busy they are and how complex it is. No real accountability on timing.

The rate sheet is a mess. There's like 4 versions floating around and I don't know which one is current. We really need to fix that.

The approval process is inconsistent. Sometimes reps send stuff without approval, sometimes they wait days for me when they didn't need to.

Follow-up is hit or miss. Some reps are great, some forget. We lose deals because of it.

We're supposed to use Salesforce but nobody really does. Half the quotes never get logged.

The whole process needs an overhaul.