[Lauren]

Hey all,

For builders and other trades alike, it can be challenging to know how to structure your quote effectively. Writing quotes can be very time consuming and is not an enjoyable task, but quoting in a way that is clear to understand is essential to keep up a steady workflow.

So, how do you write a professional quote?

8 easy steps:

Start with a template
The first step is to have a good, consistent template to work from. There are many free templates available online which will provide you with an excellent starting point for your business quotations.

Customise your template
Using a template to guide you doesn’t mean your quotes must look the same as all of the others. To stand out from the crowd, you must ensure your quotes are customised to meet your business branding. This means using your select fonts and colours, incorporating your logo and ensuring it reflects the tone of your business. For a serious building company, a cursive font in a pastel colour is likely not going to meet your requirements or reflect your business very well at all.

Ensure your quote is clear and well structured
Making sure that your quote is clear to read and understand is essential. It should offer a clear breakdown of your costs, including details of material vs labour. It should be obvious to see how these costs have been added and where the total cost comes from. You should also make sure that any VAT or Tax is added in a way which is understood. Customers don’t want any hidden surprises, and it’s essential that they can see what they are paying for.

The final amount payable must be clear to see
Alongside clearly breaking down your costs and showing where Tax, VAT and any other additional fees apply; you must also ensure that your final price is very obvious to see. This should be the total amount payable, should they accept your quote.

Provide your contact details clearly
You should include your contact details clearly on the quotation, so as to avoid any confusion when customers come to reach you to either decide whether to go ahead with the job or with any questions.

Protect customer privacy
It may be worthwhile to provide fraud protection techniques to clients, particularly when they come to pay more substantial sums of money. A straightforward way of doing this is to ask the client to deposit a small amount of money into your bank account first, usually less than £1. They will then have the opportunity to call you and ensure that you can confirm the amount that they deposited. This will ensure that the money is going into the correct bank account and eliminate any costly errors.

Remember the date
Most customers tend to shop around and will be requesting multiple quotes. You must provide not only your cost breakdown on this quote sheet but also the date. This also means that you should include information on how long that quote stands for. You don’t want to be in a situation where you have quoted for a job, and then after a long delay, the customer returns asking for the work to be carried out, only to find that your prices have gone up since then for whatever reason. You should always have a time period. This also offers clients a sense of urgency – if they want to secure this price, they should contact you as soon as possible.

So, what is the key to writing a good builders quote?
The key to writing a good builders quote is to provide an honest and upfront quotation for clients to clearly understand. Taking into account the points above, you should be on your way to creating a clear and simple quote format suitable which meets the requirements of your business.

Do you have any other expert advice on writing quotes?