Quoting, Simplified: How to Stop Letting Perfect Get in the Way of Better
As a team of people that take a lot of pride in our work, there’s intentionality behind everything we do here at Paperless Parts. But as a startup, if we want any chance at staying on track with our goals, we have to work smarter, not harder. That means not allowing “perfect” to get in the way of “better.” This mindset helps us consistently improve and grow at a much faster pace to make quoting, simplified.
As a Technical Implementation Specialist, I always keep this in mind when working with our customers. Adopting new software can feel overwhelming – many people come to us without any formal software in place and what they see as the “perfect” quoting system feels lightyears away. But when it comes to quoting, simplicity is key. In fact, over-engineering quotes often just leads to wasted time and lost jobs.
Luke (second from the left) with a few other members of the Paperless Parts Technical Implementation Specialist (TIS) team.
How to Simplify Your Quoting Process
If you’re feeling overwhelmed on the cusp of overhauling your quoting process, keep the following in mind:
1. Stop comparing yourself to others.
There are a million different ways to quote, and none of them are right or wrong. Instead of wondering how your process stacks up to what other shops are doing, keep your head down and focus on building the formulas, workflows, and rules that make sense for your business. This prevents “analysis paralysis” so you can get up and running faster knowing that we can easily change any of the pricing logic down the road.
2. Work smarter, not harder.
When implemented successfully, Paperless Parts can do a lot of the manual quoting work for you. Consider the concept of copy pricing in a scenario like this: you just received a quote for a large, complex assembly. Assuming the assembly has similar subcomponents within it, you can quickly copy pricing from the initial quoted subcomponent to identical ones in the assembly, allowing you to skip the duplicate effort of quoting in your ERP. This type of automation allows you to provide a quote much faster than your competitors, builds consistency, and primes your business to scale exponentially.
Is over-engineering costing you? Watch this on-demand webinar to find out.
3. Remain open to feedback.
If you’re working with an implementation specialist and they recommend one approach over another, try to think about their perspective: we witness a lot of different strategies play out and watch as they either create efficiency or add difficulties down the line. While you know your business best, leveraging new vantage points and being open to change is key in making sure you’re truly optimizing for efficiency.
Planning for Long-Term Success
When your estimating and quoting processes are too complicated, they can bog down your team to the point where much of that time and effort spent quoting is ultimately wasted. A big part of not letting perfect get in the way of better is building simple, flexible pricing formulas that can last.
Our software leverages the geometry of the part to drive cost and pricing formulas, allowing you to spend more time focusing on what’s most important to you – whether it’s training employees, researching new machinery, or taking time off to relax.
If you’re thinking about implementing Paperless Parts, chances are you’ve already identified areas for improvement in your quoting process. Whether you’re transitioning systems or starting from pen and paper, if you’re willing to take intentional, incremental steps towards making those improvements, you’ll end up with a solution that works for you, not against you.
Luke Eberth with teammate Dakota Santos at an onsite visit with a Paperless Parts customer, Arcamed.
Want to see how it all works? Hop on a free demo of our platform today.
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Luke Eberth is a Technical Implementation Specialist at Paperless Parts. He joined the team after his time as a Mechanical Engineer at General Dynamics Electric Boat. Luke graduated from Union College with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He resides in South Boston and enjoys playing golf in his free time.