Leak 29 · Sales & Quoting - High-value quotes receiving inadequate attention
A $40,000 project quote gets the same fifteen minutes as a $400 stock quote, because it arrived in the same inbox on the same busy morning.
Diagnostic note. Symptoms, required records, an initial check, and possible fixes. This shorter note does not include a full worked example.
What is it?
Quote effort tends to be allocated by arrival order, not by value. Large quotes deserve a check on pricing, availability, alternatives, and terms, a manager’s eye, and a planned follow-up. Without a threshold that triggers that treatment, they get whatever time was left.
- Family
- Sales & Quoting
- Primary owner
- VP Sales
- Secondary owners
- Sales Managers, Product Managers
- Primary impact
- Revenue
- Typical data source
- ERP quotes, CRM activity
- Detection difficulty
- 30-day measurability
Ask yourself
Does a quote over a defined value get a different process from a routine one: a review, a manager touch, a follow-up plan?
Yes, partially, no, or don’t know. “Don’t know” is the most useful answer, because it points at the test below.
What does it look like?
Warning signs. None of these proves the leak exists. They tell you where to look.
- No value threshold that changes how a quote is handled.
- Large quotes sent without a manager review.
- Large-quote win rate no better than routine win rate.
- Lost large quotes with no post-mortem.
What data do I need?
The minimum viable set. Most of it is already in your ERP.
| Field |
|---|
| Quotes with value, gross profit, rep, and outcome |
| Activity records: reviews, calls, follow-ups per quote |
The initial check
Start with a small sample. Gathering the exports, agreements, or observations is separate from running the check; agree that work with the person who owns the records.
- 1List last quarter’s twenty largest quotes with outcome.
- 2For each, note whether anyone other than the rep reviewed it before it went out, and how many follow-up contacts are recorded.
- 3Compare the win rate to the overall win rate.
Large-quote attention = reviewed quotes ÷ large quotes; follow-ups per large quote
Then ask one question: For the large quotes you lost, does anyone know why?
How much could it be costing us?
A conservative range, not a headline. The goal is a number management can trust enough to investigate.
Large-quote value per year × incremental win rate from a defined large-quote process × gross margin
Common root causes
Fixes fall into three layers. Not every problem needs software, and almost none needs AI first.
- Process
- No tiered quote process by value.
- Data
- Quote value is not visible in the work queue when the quote is being prepared.
- Technology
- The quoting workflow has no routing rule by value.
What should we do?
Start with the simplest intervention that could solve it. Move down the list only if the one above is not enough.
Level 1
Visibility
A weekly list of open quotes over the threshold with activity to date.
Level 2
Process
A large-quote checklist: pricing review, availability check, alternatives, follow-up plan, and a manager sign-off.
Level 3
Workflow
Automatic routing of large quotes to review with the customer’s history, margin, and comparable quotes attached.
Where AI helps
- Assembling the context for a large quote: customer history, comparable past quotes, and margin, so the review takes minutes.
Where AI probably doesn’t
A threshold and a checklist come first.
Before you call it a leak
- More attention is not the same as a lower price. The checklist should protect margin, not spend it.
Think this might be happening in your business?
Turn the finding into a next step.
If the numbers say there is something there, send us what you found and we will help you decide whether it is worth a full investigation. No transaction files needed for that conversation.
Related leaks
- Leak 27 · SalesQuotes that are never followed upA quote goes out. Nothing happens. Nobody calls, because the quote is not in anyone’s queue. The customer bought from whoever called.
- Leak 01 · PricingUncontrolled quote discountingSalespeople discount quotes without the discount buying enough extra win probability to justify the margin given away. Thousands of individually reasonable decisions add up.
- Leak 30 · SalesLow-probability quotes consuming excessive laborA customer sends thirty RFQs a quarter and buys twice. Each RFQ takes an hour. Your quote desk is their free pricing service.
Let’s start with one thing.
What would better performance look like?
Bring a result you want to improve, a symptom, or a workflow you already understand. You do not need to know the bottleneck yet. We’ll help choose what to investigate first.
No transaction files needed for the first conversation.