You're Spending 10 Hours a Week on Quotes. Here's Why.
Ask a sales rep how long it takes to create a quote. They’ll say “15 minutes.” Time them — it’s closer to 45.
Here’s where the time actually goes.
The Hidden Time Sinks
Finding the Right Price (10-15 min)
The price list is in a spreadsheet somewhere. Maybe it’s on the shared drive. Maybe it’s the one Sarah emailed last month. Maybe there’s a newer version you haven’t seen.
You open three files before you find the right one. Then you scroll through 200 rows looking for that specific model. Then you check if the price is current — when was this file last updated?
With a product catalog: Search by name or SKU. Price is always current because there’s one source of truth. Time: 30 seconds.
Assembling the Quote (15-20 min)
Open a blank spreadsheet or copy an old quote. Delete the previous customer’s info. Paste in the new products. Manually type quantities. Manually calculate line totals. Check the subtotal formula. Add a discount row. Recalculate. Format it to look decent.
Somewhere in this process, you paste a price into the wrong cell and don’t notice.
With quoting software: Select customer, add products from your catalog, adjust quantities. Calculations are automatic. Time: 2 minutes.
Making It Look Professional (5-10 min)
Paste in the company logo (it shifts every time). Adjust column widths so nothing gets cut off. Make sure the fonts are consistent. Add a page break so it doesn’t print awkwardly.
With PDF generation: Click a button. Professional document every time. Time: instant.
Sending and Tracking (5 min + ongoing)
Export to PDF. Compose an email. Attach the file. Hit send. Then wonder if the customer ever opened it. Follow up by phone three days later — “Did you get my quote?”
With a customer portal: Share a link. The customer views the quote online, can acknowledge receipt, and leave comments. You know they saw it. Time: 30 seconds to send, zero time spent wondering.
Do the Math
If your sales team creates 10 quotes a week:
| Task | Per Quote | Per Week (10 quotes) |
|---|---|---|
| Finding prices | 12 min | 2 hours |
| Assembling quote | 18 min | 3 hours |
| Formatting | 7 min | 1.2 hours |
| Sending + follow-up | 8 min | 1.3 hours |
| Total | 45 min | 7.5 hours |
With a product catalog and quoting software, that drops to about 5 minutes per quote. That’s 6+ hours per week back for actual selling.
At $50/hour loaded cost per sales rep, that’s over $15,000 per year in recovered productivity. Per person.
”But We Only Create a Few Quotes a Week”
Even at 5 quotes per week, you’re losing 3-4 hours. And the hidden cost isn’t just time — it’s errors. Every manual step is a chance to:
- Quote the wrong price (old price list)
- Miscalculate a discount
- Send the wrong quote to the wrong customer
- Forget to include a required product
One pricing error on a large deal can cost more than a year of software.
What Actually Needs to Change
You don’t need to overhaul your entire process. Three things make the biggest difference:
- A single product catalog — Stop hunting for prices across files. One place, always current.
- Automated calculations — Let software handle math. Discounts, totals, taxes — all correct, every time.
- A better way to share — Portal links instead of email attachments. Know when customers view your quote.
Everything else — professional formatting, team visibility, approval workflows — those are bonuses. The product catalog alone pays for itself.
The Hesitation Tax
Every week you keep using spreadsheets, you’re paying the “hesitation tax” — time lost because it felt easier to stick with what you know than to try something new.
The irony: setting up a product catalog in quoting software takes about the same time as creating 2-3 quotes in Excel.
See it for yourself. Start free — build your product catalog and create your first quote in under 10 minutes.