Quoting a client needs to be well thought out and precise. You will be using the data acquired during your demo and discovery stage. Attention to Detail and Good Judgment are required.
If you do not know your audience, it is impossible to quote them correctly. If you get the quote wrong, you expose yourself and VMG to operating at a significant loss.
It is inevitable that you will make mistakes. We have misquoted many clients over the years. Our objective is to learn from our mistakes and reduce them. Learn from the mistakes others have made before you.
Here’s a story to illustrate the point.
At the end of 2009, Alan was referred to King of Cars in Boksburg. At this time, Alan was in Cape Town and VMG cashflows were being managed with surgical precision. We had no cash. We only had around 30 clients and at an average of R 1700 per client and 2 developers to pay plus all the other business expenses needed to keep the doors open, there was no extra money at all.
Alan managed the “demo” over a few phone calls with Illia Gyltidis. This was before TeamViewer was a thing. Over a few phone calls, Alan and Illian discussed the system, and the issues Illia was trying to resolve. Their website showed that they had around 60 cars in stock and on the surface, they looked like the perfect VMG profile client.
Eventually, Alan advised they start with DMS Pro and look at upgrading at a later stage to DMS Accounting once the day-to-day admin had settled into a state of quality. Alan sent them a DMS Pro quote. The upfront fee was R 4 500 and the monthly was R 1275 pm for DMS Pro. They accepted the quote and paid the upfront fee.
Alan immediately booked airline tickets and arranged to borrow a car from a family friend and use his Mom’s couch for accommodation.
When Alan arrived on site, he was greeted with the biggest showroom lot he had seen to date. There were over 400 units in stock and they were split into different sections. One section was for light commercial, one for cheapies, one for luxury units and so on. There was administrator for each section as well as a workshop.
Alan had to honour his original quote.
The amount of time that it took Alan to successfully on-board King of Cars was closer to 60 hours instead of the prescribed 8 hours. This created an opportunity cost so great, that it would take King of Cars at least 2 years of monthly payments just for VMG to break even on the deal. It was a financial disaster for VMG.
King of Cars of course did not know this; it was not Illia’s fault that Alan didn’t do his due diligence. Alan’s failure to accurately assess and then really understand his potential customer ended costing VMG significant time and money. Over the years, efforts have been made to increase the revenues generated from King of Cars and to this end, we have been largely successful, but the quote stage of the onboarding process was a complete failure. A few more of those would inevitably result in VMG needing to close its doors because we simply couldn’t afford to be in business.
The key takes away from this story is to ensure that you research your audience before you meet them. Then make sure you have an educated estimate of how long it will take you to onboard your new customers. Once you are satisfied, start prepping your quote.