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Quote automation: from the request to a priced draft

A price request comes in through the website form, by email or with a drawing. It is read, matched to your price list and your rules, and a draft quote is prepared in the ERP or the CRM. The salesperson checks it, adjusts it and sends it.

Updated

From

£4,300 ex VAT

Timeline
3 to 5 weeks
Pricing
Fixed price per stage
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A sample screen, for illustration. The companies and data are made up.
RequestDraft quoteApprovalRequestDraft quoteApproval

You need this if

  • A quote for standard parts takes days to go out because the salesperson is on the road.
  • Requests arrive incomplete: it takes two emails to get the quantity or the material.
  • Each salesperson prices in their own way, in their own spreadsheet.
  • Simple requests and complex jobs wait in the same queue.
  • You do not know how many requests go unanswered, or how many quotes are ever chased.

What gets put in place

  • One place for requests

    Website form, quotes mailbox, attachments: everything lands in the same place, with the company and the contact identified.

  • Reading

    A language model extracts what is being asked for (items, quantities, options, requested lead time) and spots what is missing.

  • Pricing by your rules

    Lines are matched to the price list, the customer’s discounts and your rules: minimums, quantity breaks, carriage. The sums are done by written rules, not by the model.

  • The draft quote

    Created in the ERP or the CRM, or produced as a document on your letterhead, with the lines to check flagged.

  • Review

    The salesperson sees the original request, the draft and the points to watch. They adjust, approve and send from the tool they already use.

  • Follow-up

    Each request has a status: received, incomplete, priced, sent, chased. A reminder is suggested to the salesperson after the delay you set.

Example: a price request for standard parts

A typical run, for illustration. The company and the data are made up.

  1. 1

    A buyer emails the quotes mailbox: 200 flanges of a catalogue model, in stainless steel, delivered within three weeks.

  2. 2

    The workflow recognises the company in the CRM, reads the request and finds the item and the material option in the price list.

  3. 3

    It applies the quantity break and the customer’s discount, adds carriage and takes the item’s standard lead time.

  4. 4

    The salesperson receives the draft with one flag: the lead time requested is shorter than the standard one.

  5. 5

    They confirm the date with the workshop, adjust and send the quote from the ERP. A reminder will be suggested seven days later.

How it runs

  1. Specification

    We go through 30 to 50 past requests and the quotes sent in reply, and write down your pricing rules with a salesperson. Scope and price are fixed.

    2 to 4 days

  2. Build

    Intake, reading, pricing rules and draft, with a delivery halfway through on a test environment.

    2 to 3 weeks

  3. Pilot

    Real requests are priced twice: by the workflow and by the salesperson. We compare the totals.

    2 to 4 days

  4. Launch

    Training for the sales team and go-live. One month of fixes against the specification is included.

    1 to 2 days

Durations to scale, using the longest stated

What the price covers

The starting price covers intake of requests, reading, pricing one family of standard products from your price list, and the draft in one tool. The specification here is a short scoping of 2 to 4 days, included in the price; no audit is needed for a single process. The final price is fixed at the end of it.

Estimate my projectSee pricing

Quote preparation: reading, pricing, draft
from £4,300 ex VAT
Additional product family
from £1,050 ex VAT
Quote configurator on the website, standard products
from £5,300 ex VAT
Audit and roadmap (optional), deducted from the first project we build for you
£1,650 ex VAT
Maintenance
from £390 ex VAT a month

Payment, for each stage

30%
on order
70%
on accepted delivery

What can be automated in a quote, and what stays manual

StepWhat the automation doesWhat stays with sales or engineering
Intake and sortingIdentifies the customer, sorts the request: standard or special.Nothing.
Incomplete requestDrafts an email with the missing questions.Sending it, or picking up the phone.
Standard products on the price listLines, quantity breaks, discounts, carriage.Checking and sending.
Variants and optionsPriced if the rule is written down.Deciding when two rules conflict.
Parts to drawing, special designsSummarises the request and passes it on with the drawing.Engineering review, feasibility and costing.
Commercial termsNothing.One-off discount, negotiated lead time, payment terms.

The language model reads and sorts. It does not set prices: the amounts come from your price list and from written rules that you can read and change.

A quote configurator on the website, for standard products

For a range with options (dimensions, material, finish, quantity), the customer can put the request together on the website. The configurator only offers combinations you actually make, shows a guide price or hides it as you prefer, and sends a complete request. On the sales side it arrives already priced, as a draft.

  • It fits when the rules fit in a table: options, quantity breaks, incompatibilities.
  • It does not fit special machines or parts made to drawing, where every job is an engineering study.
  • It relies on a clean product catalogue, with the same part numbers and options as the ERP.
  • It can sit inside a customer portal, where each customer sees their agreed prices.

Whether to show prices online is a commercial choice; both can be built.

What moves the price

What moves the priceWhy
The number of product familiesEach family has its own options and rules to write and to test.
The state of the price listA price list held in the ERP can be read directly; one spreadsheet per salesperson has to be reconciled first.
Where the quote ends upCreating a quote in the ERP through its API costs less than producing a laid-out document.
How requests arriveA structured form is easier to read than free text in a mailbox.
Attached drawingsThey are filed and passed on; reading them to cost a part is a different project.

The specification prices each of these points. The first product family carries most of the cost; later ones reuse the intake, the reading and the draft.

When this is the wrong answer

  • Everything is a special. If every quote goes through engineering, automation will only sort and summarise requests. Useful, but not enough to justify this project.
  • The pricing rules are not written down anywhere. They have to be set out first, sometimes aligned between salespeople. The specification can stop there, and that is already a result.
  • Your ERP or CRM has a quoting module you are not using. Start with that; we can connect it to the website (CRM implementation).
  • Few requests. At a handful of quotes a week, a good quote template and a complete enquiry form are enough.
A quote binds the company. By default, a quote goes to a customer only after a salesperson has read it. If you are not sure quotes are the place to start, the AI review compares your processes first.

Frequently asked questions

How much does quote automation cost?

From £4,300 ex VAT for one family of standard products, from intake of the request to the draft. Each additional family is priced from £1,050 ex VAT. The price is fixed at the end of the specification.

How long before it is live?

3 to 5 weeks. Writing down the pricing rules with your sales team is the step that weighs most.

Does the AI work out the prices?

No. It reads the request and turns it into lines; prices come from your price list and from calculation rules that are written down and tested. The salesperson checks before sending.

Will it work with our ERP or CRM?

Yes, through an API, a file import or a connector: Sage 200, Access Dimensions, Pegasus Opera, Odoo or SAP Business One on the ERP side; HubSpot, Pipedrive or Zoho on the CRM side. Failing that, the quote is produced as a document on your letterhead.

What if the drafts are not right?

The pilot compares the workflow’s totals with your salespeople’s on the same requests. Differences are used to correct the rules; if too many remain on one family, it is taken out of scope and stays priced by hand. The stages already delivered and accepted remain due; nothing further is invoiced.

Who owns the system?

Pricing rules, workflow, server and accounts are in your name from day one, and rights in them pass to you as each stage is paid. One month of fixes against the specification is included, then maintenance is monthly, from £390 ex VAT, no lock-in. Every automation project works that way.

Read next

Start with a fixed-price audit

In one to two weeks you know what to build, in what order and in what price range. The audit fee is deducted from the first project we build for you.

£1,650 ex VAT 1 to 2 weeks See a sample report

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