Opportunity to Quote
Assessing whether an opportunity is ready to be priced, and issuing a quote.
Workflow
- 01Opportunity Assessment
- 02Needs Confirmation
- 03Solution Configuration
- 04Pricing
- 05Quote Issue
If you change this
It implies 6 topics across 2 modules, including Supply Chain Management which you might not expect.
See the path ahead →Why it matters
Quoting is the stage most ERP sales configuration actually turns on. Pricing rules, discount authority and approval thresholds all land here, and a quote that the business cannot honour is worse than a slow one.
The workflow
- 01
Opportunity assessment
Sales judge whether the opportunity is ready to be quoted, or needs more work first.
- 02
Needs confirmation
What the customer actually requires is confirmed, not assumed from the original enquiry.
- 03
Solution configuration
Products, services and options are configured into a valid combination.
- 04
Pricing
Price is derived from the configuration, with discount applied inside approval limits.
- 05
Quote issue
The quote is issued — raised by the rep, or self-served by the customer.
Configure, price and quote capability earns its cost when the product set is genuinely configurable. For a simple catalogue it is overhead. Judge it on how many invalid combinations a rep could otherwise sell.
What you need in place
- A validated product model: Rules about what can be sold with what, so invalid configurations cannot be quoted.
- Pricing rules: Price lists, customer-specific pricing and volume breaks held as data, not in a spreadsheet.
- Delegation of authority: Discount limits configured to mirror the signed authority, with escalation above them.
- Quote versioning: Revisions tracked, so what the customer agreed to is unambiguous later.
- Margin visibility: The rep can see the margin effect of a discount at the point of offering it.
Questions to ask
01Configuration
Can the system stop a rep quoting a combination we cannot deliver?
Test with a deliberately invalid configuration rather than a clean one.
02Approvals
How are discount approvals enforced and escalated?
Confirm the limits are configuration, not training, and that they match the signed authority.
03Quote to order fidelity
Does the order carry exactly what the quote agreed?
Follow one quote through to a booked order and compare line by line.
Metrics and KPIs to track
Quote turnaround time
Elapsed time from opportunity to issued quote.
Quote-to-order conversion
Share of quotes that become orders.
Average discount
Discount given against list, by segment and by rep.
Approval cycle time
Time quotes spend waiting on an approver.
Quote revision count
Revisions per won deal — a proxy for how well needs were confirmed.
Alongside this