How to make a quotation customers accept quickly

Wholesalers, equipment suppliers, contractors, repair businesses and printers all live on quotations. A customer asks 'how much for this?', and the reply decides whether you get the job. Yet many quotes are a price typed into a WhatsApp message, with nothing about what is included, how long the price holds, or what happens next.

A good quotation makes saying yes easy. Here is what to put in it and how to send it.

What should a quotation include?

• Your business name and contact details, and the customer's name and contact.
• A quote number and date, so both sides can refer to it.
• Each item or service on its own line: description, quantity, unit price and line total.
• Any delivery, installation or call-out charge, shown separately.
• Tax, if you charge it, shown clearly.
• The grand total.
• How long the price is valid.
• Payment terms: advance, on delivery, or on completion.
• Delivery or completion time.
• What is not included.

How to price a quotation

Start from your real cost: materials or stock, labour, delivery, and an allowance for the unexpected. Then add your margin. For jobs where the work can grow once you start (a wall opened up, a fault that turns out bigger), say in the quote how extra work will be agreed and charged, before you do it. Our guide to pricing for profit covers the cost side in detail.

How do I write a quotation that wins the job?

Be specific

'Supply and install 2 split ACs, 1.5 ton, including copper piping up to 3 metres, wall brackets and first service' beats 'AC installation'. Specific lines show you understood the request and make it hard for a competitor's vague, cheaper quote to look comparable.

Send it fast

The first sensible quote often wins. If you need time to price it properly, reply the same day to say when the quote will arrive, and meet that promise.

Set a validity date

Prices of stock, fuel and imported parts move. A validity date (for example 7 or 15 days) protects you, and gives the customer a reason to decide rather than shopping your quote around for a month.

Make accepting easy

Tell the customer exactly how to say yes: reply 'confirmed', sign and return, or press an accept button. Every extra step loses a few.

Follow up once

A short, polite message two or three days later ('any questions about the quote?') wins jobs that were simply forgotten. One follow-up is service; daily follow-ups are pressure.

Quotations on Biizay

Biizay has quotations built in, on every plan. Customers can request a quote from any product or service page on your store, with the item already attached and, for a service, their preferred time. You can also start a quotation yourself for a request that came by phone.

1. 1Price each line in the portal.
2. 2Send it: the customer receives an email with the quote and a link to accept it.
3. 3When the customer accepts, convert the quotation to an order in one step. Stock is taken then, and for a service the job is scheduled for the time they asked for.
4. 4If you need to change prices after sending, move the quote back to review, reprice and send again. The old link stops working, so the customer can only accept the figures you actually sent.

Our guide to sending a quote shows each screen. For a store that should never show prices, such as a wholesaler or a medical equipment supplier, the whole catalogue can run as a quote-only catalogue with 'Price on request', so every product leads to a quote instead of a cart.

Can AI help write quotations?

Yes, with care. With BiiConnect, ChatGPT or Claude can read your incoming quote requests and draft a priced quotation from your products. Nothing is sent to the customer until you review and send it yourself, unless you have chosen to let it send without asking.

Common quotation mistakes

• Leaving delivery, installation or call-out charges until after the customer has accepted.
• No validity date, so a customer accepts a three-month-old price after your costs have risen.
• Vague lines that make it impossible to compare your quote fairly with a cheaper, thinner one.
• Quoting from memory without checking stock, then discovering the item is out after acceptance.
• Changing the price after sending without telling the customer clearly what changed and why.

Should my prices be public, or quote only?

If most of your products have stable prices, show them: customers who can see a price order faster. Quote only when prices genuinely depend on quantity, specification or the job, or when you sell to businesses who expect negotiated terms. Many suppliers mix both, publishing prices for standard items and taking quote requests for bulk or custom orders. On Biizay, any product or service can take quote requests, and a whole store can be switched to quote only.

Quotation or invoice: what is the difference?

A quotation is an offer before the work or sale: 'this is what it will cost'. An invoice is a request for payment after it: 'this is what you owe'. Once a quote is accepted, the order (and later the invoice or receipt) should match the accepted quote line for line.