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, the records to bring, and a practical first check with your team.

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?

Look for these patterns, then use the check below to trace the issue in your own records.

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. Ask the person who owns the records to gather the exports and agreements, then work through these steps together.

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.

Talk through a workflow

Let’s start with one thing.

Give your team more time for the work that needs them.

Show us the quoting, order-entry, or follow-up work that keeps piling up. We’ll map it with you and find a practical place to start.

Start with a free workflow conversation with Alex.