You get one shot to make a first impression, and the same is true when you’re giving your client the proposal for your technology solution. The appearance of the quote and what you choose to include, or not include, has a big impact on the success of your sale. We don’t just mean whether you closed the sale. How large was it? What size were your margins? Did you get a repeat, long-term customer with monthly payments, or a one-time sale and you’ll never hear from them again?

We see it a lot. An IT provider loses a deal because it was out-priced by a competitor, or maybe the deal got whittled down in size and margin because the customer didn’t think it needed everything in the solution.

Industry experts agree: Your quote may be the cause of these headaches. From decades of doing business with IT companies like you, we’ve determined three simple ways for you to make your quotes more appealing.

Keep your customer in mind when you are crafting your proposal. The executive-level person you have an audience with doesn’t want to see the bits and bytes of each element of your solution. Instead, replace the technical descriptions with business descriptions on how that part of the solution will improve the business. You’ll win bonus points if you demonstrate you listened during the discovery or assessment.

Pair your line-item pricing with technical descriptions, and you’ve crafted the best invitation for your customers to price shop you on Amazon or CDW.

Plus, you increase the likelihood your customers identify the most expensive item on the proposal and decide they don’t need it…even if it is the most critical piece of the solution they agreed on.

This has the ring of Goldilocks to it, doesn’t it? Not too little and not too much. Here’s a rule of thumb: If you are quoting financing, stick to two or three options. Providing only one could lead your customer to request more options, just for the sake of having them. On the flip side, give them every option and you risk paralyzing them with too many choices.

Making IT Easy

Remember, you are a trusted adviser for your customers. They expect you to make recommendations for everything: from what technology they need to what the best financial option is.

Don’t underestimate the power your quote has on encouraging them to select the optimal solution. If you follow these three steps, you’ll win deals more easily, have larger margins and a foster a better relationship with your clients.

Making your quotes more appealing is now easier than ever. Ingram Micro FPS has integrations with industry-leading quoting tools–find out more here. Don’t have a quote tool? No problem! Use our new quoting tool to price out the financing option for any solution you’re working through, send your client a proposal, and then apply for credit approval all from within the Ingram Micro Flexible Payment Solutions portal.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.