When you sell to other businesses, a quote is not a brochure. It is a promise about price, quantity and terms, and every mistake in it is paid for later, in margin, in disputes or in a lost customer. Here is what to check before you choose a quoting tool.
1. Each customer’s own prices, filled in for the rep
Most B2B sellers agree different prices with different customers: a trade price list, a contract rate, a volume price. If reps look those up by hand, some quotes go out at the wrong price.
Look for:
- Price lists you can attach to a customer, more than one if needed.
- Prices filled in automatically when a rep adds a product.
- Prices in the customer’s currency if you sell abroad.
- Changes to a price list that apply to new quotes, not to quotes already sent.
2. Discount limits that hold
Reps need room to close. They should not have unlimited room.
Look for:
- A discount limit per rep or role.
- A margin floor: quotes below it cannot go out without approval.
- Approvals that go to a named person or group, with the decision kept on the record.
- A view for the sales head of what is waiting and what was approved.
3. Versions, not copies
Customers ask for changes. If each change is a new file, nobody knows which version the customer accepted.
Look for:
- Every change saved as a version of the same quote.
- The ability to see which version was sent and which was accepted.
- Quotes emailed from the system, so the sent copy is on record.
4. A clean handover to the order
The most common gap is between the accepted quote and the order. If someone retypes the order, lines are missed and prices drift.
Look for:
- An accepted quote that converts to the order with one action.
- The same lines, quantities and prices carried across.
- The invoice raised from the order later, so the chain is unbroken.
5. Questions to ask any vendor
- Show me a quote for a customer with their own price list. Where did the prices come from?
- What happens when a rep discounts beyond their limit?
- Where is the approval recorded, and who can see it?
- Show me the order created from an accepted quote. What did someone have to type?
How AIMS handles it
In AIMS V2 and AIMS IQ, customer-specific price lists fill each quote, by currency where needed. Quotes and approvals send any quote below your margin floor, or with a discount beyond the rep’s limit, to a named approver or group before it can go out. Quotes are emailed from AIMS, and an approved quote converts to an order without retyping. See the whole flow in the lead to cash journey.