Quote-to-cash: The foundation of any business


Understanding the sales cycle is one of the most important ways to get the most out of your clients when providing your services for them, as well as to turn them to become repeat customers. Although, understanding the quote-to-cash cycle is equally important as well, running before and parallel to the sales cycle as you court and service your customer in a manner best tailored to their needs. 

So, what is quote-to-cash?  It's defined as a business process that starts at the moment customer intends to purchase a product or service and ends with a payment receipt.  This includes creating a quote for a customer, order management, payment requests (invoicing) and payment receipts. It's an essential part of your daily operations, your back office. 

Quote-to-cash serves as the foundation of which your success with yours customers is based upon. Mastering this will greatly help you in attracting and retaining customers. These five steps illustrate every step you need to take to make this happen.

I. Create a quote estimate (Includes terms, pictures, drawing and schematics) or contract

Being able to effectively communicate expectations of costs and procedures for the job will allow your customers gain a solid understanding of what they can expect from you. Quote estimates are usually generated quickly – think of this as a preliminary outline of the contract you will later create. Not only is this your opportunity to delineate the ways in which you can tackle and solve their unique problem, but it also allows the customer to negotiate and adjust the course of action when they commit. Thus, reducing the chances that another client will get to them first.

It's important to keep your quotes very simple and concise to give the reader a sense of confidence and trust in the service you will be providing. You don't want your quote estimates to be lengthy and intimidating as it becomes the first impression of how it will be to work with you and your business. Having a simple creator tool can help to improve accuracy and time in generating a quote or contract. 

For projects with a particular duration, a contract can be generated to cover the time period the services will be completed in.  This is where all of the fine print and details come into play. This is where you can generate a contract with more detail to project or job.  Every phase of the project and each step taken therein is laid out, with the deadlines for each phase being of particular importance. By managing your customer's expectations with a detailed plan, you reduce the cost of the overall project.

As the project progresses, there is less back and forth about particular details or what the deliverables are. It's important to be clear as to what will be provide and how it will be done. You will want to ensure that the job is done as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality, and this is the phase where you can communicate and fine-tune the timeline with your client.

II. Signing the deal

Ensuring an agreement of the terms and a plan set forth is important to reduce any conflicts or miscommunication between you and your client. Having a electronic signature helps facilitate the process.  Most companies have found a faster close rate by including electronic signature in their workflow. It makes it much easier for the customer to get you the documentation.

In addition, most e-sign provides automatically save and store your documents in a centralized depository. It's less work and management on your part. Having a secure areas for agreements protects your business of any future issues that may arise in this process. Taking these precautions can help improve your overall customer service and customer retention. 

III. Simplify the Payment process

Once you have your quote ready for a signature, remember to offer a easy method to collect a payment. Send out invoices or payment requests when money is needed by a particular time and ensure your customer has a simple way to pay you. With many different online services out there, it's essential to utilize these services to help facilitate this process. Through easy payment integrations, some businesses have found quicker turnaround times on receiving payments and tracking payments on outstanding quotes or contracts.

Finishing the job and collecting payment is the last step of a specific job, but the way this step is handled is especially important as it is the final impression a client has with you when they walk away after the job is done. Make collecting the payment as easy a process as possible, and it will go a long ways towards encouraging the client to purchase your services again in the future.

Source: Quote-to-cash: The foundation of any business

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About Mosspaper

With Mosspaper anyone can create, sign, track and accept quotes and contracts anywhere. Mosspaper provides a streamlined paperless quote and contract renewal SaaS solution from creation to sales renewals, allowing users to monitor and track work.  The company offers a quote creator tool, paperless approval process, centralized customer communications, e-signature, payment integration, real-time notifications, and data analytics for small businesses.

To learn more more information about Mosspaper and how Mosspaper works, please visit our website.

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