How To Prepare a Price Estimate or Quote?

If you own a business, your product or service pricing is critical to your bottom line and also an essential part of customer satisfaction. You have to secure pricing for each product or service because when a customer calls and request an estimate, you have to be ready. It would help if you spent a lot of time in the preparation process of pricing.

Here are some tips.

The price quote

Quoting a price to a customer is simplified when you have a price list or an idea of the scope of the project. If you are selling products, it is easier to come up with a price quote. However, when you own a service-oriented business, there is a lot that goes into giving a quote because not every project is the same. When the customer calls, you have to be able to ask the right questions to glean information necessary to provide a price quote. Therefore, employees need to be appropriately trained in this regard.

Before the quote

When you receive an email or phone call from a customer or the customer visits the store and ask for an estimate or quote, you may not get enough details right away on the scope of the request. Before you even prepare the estimate, you have to take time to become familiar with the customer and his or her needs. If it is a large project, you may have to visit the customer’s home before giving an estimate. This is especially true for repairs and home remodelling projects.

You also have to ask the customer a few questions before giving a quote such as:

• How far is your home? 
• Is the home located within the service area?
• What is the time frame for the project to end? 

If you cannot meet the customer’s specific needs, it is better to turn down the project from the beginning because you don’t want to waste your time or your customer’s time.

Going to the home

There are some basic rules for visiting someone’s home as a contractor. You must keep any promises you made to your customer and be sure you arrive on time. If you have another project that is holding you up, be sure to contact the client and let them know beforehand. Be sure to portray professionalism at all times. While this doesn’t mean wearing a suit and tie, it means the right attire for your type of work with an extra pair of pants and shirt, if the project gets messy.

Pertinent questions

Finally, be sure to ask all the pertinent questions so that you can give the customer the most accurate estimate. If it is a paint job, find out first, if the customer will provide the paint and other products for the project. If you are providing the necessary products, be sure to have an estimate or receipt of what was purchased. Find out exactly what the customer wants, every detail counts, and you will deliver an accurate quote for the project, which will hopefully lead to more invoices at the end of each month.

About the author

Hannah Butler works as a web developer and designer. Besides, she likes sharing her experience in the form of articles. In this case, she has her section on the website of custom writing service. In the future, she is going to start writing a blog to describe her working methods to others.

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