All businesses have a sales cycle, regardless of the operations and business industry. To keep profits from plummeting, it is necessary that each link within the process is paid diligent attention. From reaching out to the customer and following up to lead conversion, every step matters. You need to have a strategy, customizable tactics, and a capable automation tool to help your business reach its goals on time.
What is the quoting software?
Quoting software is a combination of automation tools that rationalize proposals and request proposals for the sales cycle. This is especially useful as it allows businesses to successfully track their prospects without indulging in any unnecessary hassle. Essentially, quoting software renders an otherwise time-consuming sales process incredibly efficient, in turn, allowing work teams to focus on more complex tasks.
On top of all, clients in 2021 are not all the same. While some are easy to convert, others take their sweet time weighing every alternate, and rightfully so. As a business owner, it is your priority to make sure your venture stays at the top of its game at all times, and quoting software is an extremely important ally.
What is accounting software?
Regardless of the type of company, an accounting department is always in place. From recording transactions to making sure the money is invested in the right places, the jobs of this department are crucial to the safe sailing of a business. Before the digital revolution, people would rely on manual order; there was a lot of paper and, needless to say, a lot of human error.
In the modern era, however, businesses have shifted to powerful accounting software. These have various modules dealing with different parts of the accounting process, such that accounts receivables and accounts payables are separated and integrated for a seamless flow of financial operations.
Accounting software vs. quoting software
Technically, most accounting software applications do allow sales quotations, but they are riddled with limitations. Thus, there are accessibility and security issues as it can be difficult to extend access to salespeople in the workforce. To create a quote, a part number needs to exist before the process can take place, which means a new entry needs to be created every time.
With the world going online, some of the biggest company’s employees are working from home. For sales personnel to be able to create quotes remotely, their laptop or computer will need to have an installed copy of the organization’s accounting software. This gives way to major security issues and near impossible feasibility, especially during a pandemic. Most importantly, even if accounting software supports quote creation, it can’t have all the extra features a quoting software does, and this can lead to inefficiency. Thus, negating the whole point of the practice in the first place.
Which one should you use for your business?
If your business derives most of its income from personalized customer interactions, you should not even consider using accounting software for your quoting needs. A quoting software can open doors for your sales team by ridding them of mundane tasks and increasing their productivity.
Creating quotes in proper software compared to an accounting version can be super easy and flexible. And in any case, you can always integrate one application with another for maximum cohesion and optimal results.
