Writing a quote: what you should consider when creating a quote

Quotes should be written formally. You should def­in­itely use your logo: it is your trademark and therefore belongs to the corporate design of your company and should be placed in a prominent position.

The usual form­al­it­ies are essential when writing to customers: the quote must contain both the name of your company (with legal status and address), your first name and last name as well as the customer’s in­form­a­tion. You should also include the quote number, date, delivery date, customer number, and the contact person of your company. The place you’re sending the order to and the date are also needed.

In the heading, you can specify exactly what you’re offering. Use the correct form when ad­dress­ing the customer since this shows respect and pro­fes­sion­al­ism.

The text should be kept as short as possible and divided into compact para­graphs of no more than four lines. Describe and explain your services to the customer. Fur­ther­more, a quote consists of a clear statement of what your services are and the basic in­form­a­tion that has been agreed upon. Include the different amounts (e.g. quantity of goods, number of hours for a service) and the cor­res­pond­ing prices. This can be presented as a table or a list.

For the customer to be able to un­der­stand the structure of your quote better, you should break down the total price into in­ter­me­di­ate sums e.g. the net price, price with VAT, and the delivery costs. It is also advisable to set a time period so that you can specify how long the con­di­tions are valid.

The actual quote should ideally be no longer than one page. However, it’s not always possible to fit all the necessary in­form­a­tion on a single page. If you need to give your customer more details that require more space, you can send an ac­com­pa­ny­ing letter ex­plain­ing the rest.

As a rule, you include text to show the customer the benefits of your service. Emphasise the ad­vant­ages and positive aspects here since you want to convince your potential customers that their order is in the best hands.

Try to find at least one unique feature that makes your quote stand out. For goods, you could mention how good the quality of the material is, the im­press­ive work­man­ship, options for custom-made products, etc. In terms of services, however, you could emphasise how well the customer is supported in their project or that customer service is con­stantly ac­cess­ible.

If the quality of your services have resulted in you receiving im­press­ive ref­er­ences and/or customer comments, you can also list these (including names and, if ap­plic­able, the company and position of the re­spect­ive person) in the quote. The aim of a quote, however, is not self-praise. The examples are designed to show potential customers that others have be­ne­fit­ted from your services.

Include powerful arguments to encourage potential customers to take advantage of your offer. In doing so, you focus on the in­di­vidu­al needs of your customer and avoid using technical terms: the content should be un­der­stand­able for the reader at all times. Don’t repeat anything as this un­ne­ces­sar­ily lengthens the text.

For your business re­la­tion­ship to have a solid base, you have to include certain content.

• Exact de­scrip­tion of what you’re offering: designate your goods and/or services as precisely as possible so that there are no mis­un­der­stand­ings. If there’s a time limit, you should also mention this.
• Prices and quantity or duration of services offered: it is not always possible to specify the expected working time and the necessary pro­duc­tion costs in advance. This is why it could make sense to arrange an hourly rate. If you give your customer a discount or other benefits (a discount will have a positive effect on how the offer performs), you should have this in writing. The same applies if any ad­di­tion­al costs occur.
• Pro­duc­tion and delivery time: indicate how much time the pro­duc­tion and delivery of the offered services need. If you aren’t able to work this out in advance because the project is quite long, talk to the customer about it and come to an agreement.
• Delivery and packaging costs: when de­liv­er­ing goods, you should list all costs that result from this. Indicate the type of delivery here as well.
• Fees: any ad­di­tion­al costs you incur due to trav­el­ling to meet the customer or because of overnight ac­com­mod­a­tion and meals should be stated.
• Terms of payment: it always makes sense to specify how and when the customer should pay. For work that extends over a longer period of time, you should offer the option of paying in in­stall­ments.
• Reference to the general terms and con­di­tions: if your company has general terms and con­di­tions, you should include them in the quote. Any extra details should be mentioned in a separate letter. You are the only one who is re­spons­ible for any legal disputes that might arise between you and the customer.
• Product’s usage rights: make it clear where the order is carried out and when the customer will receive the product or service (often after payment has been received). If you still want certain rights of use for the product after the order has been completed, you need to specify this in the quote.
• In­form­a­tion on damaged de­liv­er­ies, non-delivered products, and payment problems: sometimes com­plic­a­tions can occur (even without personal neg­li­gence), so to make sure that you’re prepared in case the worst happens, you should have a certain clause ex­plain­ing what the procedure is, which both parties then agree on.

Even if it takes a while to put together a well-struc­tured quote, it’s worth it since you can use it as a template for further quotes. Many form­al­it­ies and com­pon­ents can be used in every quote. So once you’ve created a suc­cess­ful quote, you or your employees will always have a sample copy that meets the basic content re­quire­ments. You just need to customise it ac­cord­ingly.

Although a quote needs to be a man­age­able size, there are many aspects that need to be con­sidered in terms of content and structure. The following checklist sum­mar­ises the es­sen­tials:

• Ensure you know the wishes and general con­di­tions the customer expects from the quote.
• Mention the benefits of what you’re offering compared to that of your com­pet­i­tion.
• A written offer should be easy to un­der­stand and as short as possible without neg­lect­ing any important aspects.
• Address your customers per­son­ally.
• State the price with and without VAT.
• Limit the duration of your offer.
• Check to make sure all in­form­a­tion and notes on your company are correct and detailed.