The Client Waits a Week for a Quote Because Only One Person Can Make It

In short

• Quoting a configurable product combines four different jobs: reading documentation, building the bill of materials, running the calculation and converting formats. Each one consumes the same expert's time.
• Calculation logic usually lives in spreadsheets whose rules only their author knows — that is not a tooling problem, but knowledge that was never written down.
• Preparing a quote ≠ deciding the price. The tool takes over the repetitive part; judging a difficult case and setting the price stay with the person.
• The first step is establishing which stage the quote gets stuck at the longest — that is where shortening the cycle pays off most.
• If nobody can articulate the calculation rules, extracting them is the first stage. A tool preserves logic that exists; it will not invent rules the company never had.

Where the quote gets stuck

Quoting a configurable product is work that combines reading technical documentation, knowing the materials catalog, calculation logic, and a feel for what everything actually costs. Few people can do it, and the ones who can are overloaded.

It starts with analyzing documentation — pulling dimensions, materials, and quantities that determine cost out of 2D drawings, 3D models, and PDFs. Then comes the bill of materials, mapping line items to the plant's catalog, and selecting components and substitutes. The calculation itself usually lives in Excel sheets whose logic only the author understands. Finally, the same quote gets converted into different formats — internal, client-facing offer, tender, and a translated version for export. Every stage eats up the time of an expert who is in short supply.

What can realistically be built

An assistant that reads incoming technical documentation and extracts the parameters that matter for cost — a first draft of the quoting data appears on its own, and the expert reviews and corrects it. A tool that generates a bill of materials from the plant's catalog, proposing substitutes when something is missing. Consolidating calculation rules scattered across spreadsheets into a single tool that learns the decisions of specific quoting engineers. Comparing a new inquiry against the history of past jobs, so earlier calculations can serve as a reference point. Converting a finished quote between formats without retyping it.

The point is to take the repetitive part off the expert's plate, so their time goes toward what nobody else can do for them — judging difficult cases and making the pricing call. The machine doesn't do the quoting instead of them; it prepares the ground.

Where to start

The first step is to see at which stage the quote gets stuck the longest — because that's where cutting time has the biggest effect. For some companies it's documentation analysis, for others it's the calculation, for others still it's format conversion. The map comes from observing how the department actually works. I describe the implementation flow on the technical quotes variant page.

An honest caveat. If the calculation relies on rules that even their author can't fully articulate, the first stage is extracting and writing them down. The tool captures logic that already exists — it won't invent quoting rules the company never had.

Frequently asked questions

How can we shorten the time it takes to prepare a technical quote? By first establishing which stage takes longest: reading documentation, building the bill of materials, the calculation itself, or converting formats. Shortening only makes sense where time is actually lost, and that differs between plants — it comes out of observing how the department works.

Can a tool price jobs on its own? No, and that is not the goal. The tool prepares the ground — it pulls cost-relevant parameters out of documentation, proposes a bill of materials and surfaces similar past jobs. Judging a difficult case and setting the price stay with the quoting engineer.

What if all the quoting knowledge sits in one person's spreadsheet? Start by extracting and writing down the rules that person follows. This is often the hardest stage, because some rules were never named. Without it there is nothing to preserve — a tool reproduces existing logic, it does not create new logic.

Where should we start with the quoting department? With one stage of the process, not the whole thing — usually the one where enquiries wait longest. A first narrow implementation fits into a four-week window and ends with an effect measured against the state before it.

What's next

If quoting time is limiting your sales, and everything rests on one or two people, this is exactly the case for a first implementation. One stage of the process, four weeks.

→ See the implementation in the technical quotes department → Book a 30-minute consultation