A company’s revenue depends on the efficacy of its sales process. A quote-to-cash solution makes it effortless for a sales team to focus on their customers’ requirements. From generating a quote to analysing its performance post-transaction, the quote-to-cash software addresses the sales process end-to-end.
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Steps in a Quote-to-Cash Process
A quote-to-cash process incorporates many individual and disconnected steps involved in a successful sale. Commencing from when a customer places their order till its execution and renewal, a quote-to-cash tool gives an encyclopedic view of the sale relating to every step in between. Additionally, it analyzes all of them together to form an overall assessment of the factors in play.
To put it simply, a quote-to-cash process contains six steps that we shall discuss below in detail.
Step 1: Configuration of goods and services
An organization may sell various goods and services. However, only a subset will be relevant to specific customers. Before the salesperson pitches the products and services, they must narrow them to suit a customer.
Thus, customizing the company’s offerings to suit that customer group is essential from a sales perspective. The quote-to-cash software helps salespeople select relevant goods and services that fit best the relevant groups of customers. As a result, the sales team can customize their pitches to customers and potential clients, thereby boosting their sales.
Step 2: Settling on the right price to pitch
Deals with high quality, low price, and potential discounts attract clients like nothing else. On the other hand, it is also crucial to give discounts and fix prices so that they do not impact the business profits.
A quote-to-cash process guides sales representatives to finalize a product’s price that can be pitched to the customers. As a part of this, the tool considers the customized deals you can offer so that the pitch successfully turns into a sale.
Also Read: How Quote to Cash enhances Customer Experience?
Step 3: Quoting the price to the customersÂ
By now, the right set of deals, discounts, and prices for the customer are finalized. The next step in the quote-to-cash process would be to put forth that offer to the customers.
In practice, this might be the first step in the entire process that deals with customer interaction directly. It also when the customer forms the first impression of the organization.
If the quotations are filled with errors, no wonder you may lose the customer since they are not likely to waste time with the back and forth. A quote-to-cash tool serves precisely this. It eliminates the errors in quote-making and helps your sales team to generate error-free quotes efficiently.
A good practice here would to be prompt with the quote and be available for follow-up questions to offer good customer service. This increases the chance of making an impression on the customer and the probability of realizing the deal.
Step 4: Contract Generation
A contract is the first formal agreement between the organization and the customer. The document includes all the details of the order and services that your company will be offering. The quotes need to be agreed upon by both parties before the process can move forward.
However, before customers sign the contract, a little bit of negotiation is expected. Keeping track of tiny details that keep changing in this negotiation phase may be difficult. At the same time, ignoring to note them down might increase delays in closing the deal later on. If an organization has a department that deals with contracts, handing these matters over to them can be a time saver.
Step 5: Order Fulfilment
Now that the customer has signed the contract, the company begins working on the order fulfilment to ensure its timely delivery. More importantly, the orders need to be delivered to the right customers. Misplacing of orders loses customer trust, delays transactions, and ends up in negative sales.
Fulfilling the order satisfactorily also requires companies to keep a tab on the invoices, production cycle, and shipping statuses. Managing all these aspects can get complicated as the number of orders grows. A quote-to-cash tool makes such intricacies easier to manage and removes the burden involved in your sales team.
Step 6: Billing
Once the products are delivered, the next step would be to send a bill to the customer. The bill thus prepared includes all the details that both the parties agreed upon in the previous steps.
Besides mentioning the final amount the customer has to pay, it also showcases the discounts, offers, and other deals mentioned in the contract. The customer is allowed a timeframe to perform the transaction.
Companies often have a separate department that handles finance-related matters, including billing. They interact with customers directly for the billing transaction. The sales team also stays in touch with the customers to ensure that the transaction is processed correctly.
The finance department can also assist customers who are having trouble with their payments. Thus, consistent and reliable inter-team communication also wins the trust of customers. The Quote-to-cash tool further simplifies this paving the way for minimal errors at any stage.
Step 7: Renewal
Generally, this bill includes information about how the customer can renew their purchase if they wish to do so. To boost sales, it is essential to stay in touch with the customers through promotional emails and encourage them to renew or purchase other products. The renewals can be a continuous source of income for the company, which a quote-to-cash tool makes seamless.
Summing Up
The quote-to-cash process encompasses the customer experience end-to-end. Right from the customer intent to buy an item till the company receives the cash, the quote-to-cash process caters to each step in detail. The software develops the next step based on its relationship with the previous step. All in all, a quote-to-cash process lets your company close the deals seamlessly and obtain concrete outcomes.
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