Administration and finance
Writing quotes faster
A quote often starts with a blank page. With a fixed instruction and your own price list, you'll have a solid draft in minutes.
6 min read
Writing a quote usually isn't hard, but it is time-consuming: rereading the customer's request, picking the right line items, writing a covering note. AI can produce the first draft. Prices and terms remain yours.
What AI does well with quotes
- Turning the customer's request into a list of what's actually being asked for.
- Proposing a structure: introduction, description of work, line items, timing, terms.
- Writing a clear covering note in your company's tone.
- Listing the questions you still need to ask the customer before you can price it.
What you do yourself
- Prices and quantities. Don't let AI make up prices. Provide your own price list or fill in the amounts yourself.
- Terms and conditions. Use your own terms. AI shouldn't rewrite or summarise them in the quote.
- Calculations. Totals and VAT belong in your quoting software or spreadsheet, not in an AI-written text.
A fixed four-step routine
- Analyse the request. Paste the customer's request and ask what's being asked and what's unclear.
- Build the structure. Ask for a structure based on your standard quote. Give an old quote as an example, without customer details.
- Fill in the line items. Provide your price list and let the AI choose the right items. Check every one.
- Covering note. Ask for a short email explaining the quote, with a clear next step.
Turn it into an assistant
Do you often write similar quotes? Put your price list, a sample quote and your tone into the standing instructions of a project or assistant. Then all you need to do is paste in the customer's request. Update those instructions when your prices change.
Exercise
Take a recent quote request. Let AI do steps 1 and 4 and compare with what you wrote. Tick:
Your answers stay only in this browser.
Prompt to copy
You're helping me prepare a quote. Below are the customer's request and our price list. 1) List exactly what the customer is asking for. 2) Say what's still unclear. 3) Propose line items using prices from the list only, without making any up. 4) Write a covering email of no more than 120 words. Don't calculate totals.
Customer request: [paste]
Price list: [paste]
