I also know this problem from the other side.
A few years ago, I was buying a pergola for my own house. I contacted three companies.
One stood out right away. Their website was good. Booking was easy. They sent me
reminders by email and SMS. They even showed me a nice 3D design.
They made the best first impression by far.
Then they sent me the quote and disappeared.
No real follow-up. No clear next step. Nothing that brought me back into the sale.
So I bought from somebody else.
That experience stuck with me because they had already done the difficult part. They
got my attention, spoke to me, designed the product, worked out the price and sent
the quote.
They lost the job after all the expensive work was already done.
I am not telling you that story because it is sad. I am telling you because
somewhere in your open quotes there is a customer doing to you exactly what I
did to them. They liked you. They opened your quote. Then nobody came back, so
they bought from the company that did.
Since then, I have seen the same thing inside many of the outdoor living companies we
work with. We have now worked with more than 160 companies across more than 30
markets, and one pattern keeps coming back.
Most companies think they need more leads.
Sometimes they do.
But before spending more money on new leads, I would ask a much simpler question.
What is happening to the quotes you already sent?
If your team sent 50 quotes last month, do you know which customers opened them?
Which came back several times? Which changed the size or options? Which looked again
yesterday? Which never opened the quote at all?
Most companies do not know.
So the salesperson has to guess.
They call everyone. Or they call nobody. Or they keep following up with the same
people because those are the names they remember.
There is another problem too. In many companies, the quote is already late
before it is even sent.
A normal inquiry might say, “Hi, I am interested in a pergola. Can you send me a
price?”
Your team then has to ask for the size. The customer replies later. Then you ask
about options. Someone technical gets involved. The price is worked out. The quote
is prepared.
A few days disappear very quickly.
By then another company may already have answered.
This is why speed matters. Not because the first company always wins. It does not.
And not because the cheapest quote always wins either.
But the company that makes buying easy has a big advantage.
That is what I am going to show on Thursday 17 September
I will show you how to take a customer from the first inquiry to a won job with a
much simpler process.
It starts by getting the full job from the customer at the start. The size, model,
options and extras. The customer can see the product in 3D, and your team gets a
proper specification instead of a short email with half the information missing.
Then your own pricing rules can be used to work out the price. This means the quote
can go out much faster, sometimes in minutes rather than days.
But the most important part comes after the quote is sent.
You should be able to see who opened it, who came back, who looked several times, who
changed something and who disappeared.
Now your salespeople know where to spend their time.
And there should be a simple follow-up process too. What happens on day one? What
happens on day three? When do you call? When do you send something useful? When do
you stop?
That is the system I will break down in the workshop.
I will show it live inside SaleSqueze because that is the software we build. But the
useful part is not the software demo. The useful part is the process behind it.
How to get better information from the start. How to quote faster. How to see buying
signals. How to follow up properly. And how to win more of the quotes you have
already sent.
Everyone who joins will also get our Quote-to-Won Playbook, so you can take the
process back to your team and use it afterwards.
The workshop is for companies selling configurable outdoor living products such as
pergolas, awnings, verandas, garden rooms, carports, pools and fencing.
It is free and live on Thursday 17 September at 11 am CEST. It will take about
60 minutes, and I will stay afterwards for questions.
Here is what changes on Thursday.
You will have the steps written down. What to send on day one. What to look for
on day three. What to say when you call on day ten. You will stop guessing which
of your open quotes are still alive, and your team will have the playbook in
their hands the same hour.
Here is what changes if you skip it.
Nothing. The quotes sitting open right now keep going quiet. You buy another
batch of leads to replace the ones you already paid for. And in a month you are
looking at the same list, asking the same question.
The hour is free. The quotes are not.
Leon Panjtar
Co-founder and CEO, SaleSqueze
P.S. Bring the person who actually sends and follows up your quotes. There is
more revenue sitting in your open quotes than in the next batch of leads you
are about to buy. The difference is that the open ones are already paid
for, and they do not stay open forever.
