Printing Industry Best Practices
Tracking Your Winning
and Losing Quotes
Calculating the ratio of estimates that
turn into live orders is frequently used by printers to measure
their competitiveness. But it’s even more important to track WHY you
win or lose jobs. Doing this will identify the performance of your
salespeople, pricing strategies, competitive position, and the cost
effectiveness of your organization.
How can you track the success of your quotes? Start by creating a
list of reasons why your organization wins or looses quotes. It is
not necessary to start out with a complete list. More reasons can be
added later as needed. Example win and loss reasons may include:
- Unable to meet the customer’s
schedule
- Our equipment configuration is not
suitable for the job
- Project canceled by customer
- Price to high by 1-10%
- Price to high by 10-20%
- Price to high by > 20-
- Best price by < 10%
- Great quality
- Great service
- Liked our Christmas Party
You can also incorporate your
competitor’s name in the reason codes so you can track who you are
loosing work to and who you are beating out. Us this information to
support pricing decisions
when competing against these other companies:
- Loss to Ace Printing
- Loss to Ace Printing by <10%
- Loss to Ace Printing by >=10%
- Loss to El Cheapo Graphics
- Loss to El Cheapo Graphics by <10%
- Loss to El Cheapo Graphics by
>=10%
- Beat El Cheapo Graphics by <10%
- Beat El Cheapo Graphics by >=10%
Next, produce weekly reports listing
your live estimates or quotes sorted by salesperson and customer.
Ask each salesperson to write on the report the status of their
estimates using the win and loss reasons and then track it with forms, spreadsheets, or in your management software. The list of
report of quotes also makes an excellent customer call-back list for your
salespersons.
Tracking winning and loosing sales opportunities will help identify
the products or market segments you should be promoting or
eliminating, and where you need to make adjustments to be more
competitive.
By Craig L. Press
President, Profectus, Inc.
craig.press@profectus.com
Craig L. Press is president of Profectus, Inc, a national consultancy that helps printing organizations implement best business practices and maximize the value of their information technology investments.
www.profectus.com
Phone: 1-888-868-8662