Trade office
Check a trade quote: make the five minutes before sending count
A useful quote does more than answer the price question. Customers need to see what they will receive and which conditions you assumed. A short review using fixed questions often helps more than adding another standard paragraph to the document.
Start with the finished result
Read the quote from the customer’s perspective: what will actually be complete? Two coats of paint differ from creating an entirely new substrate. Describe preparation, execution and known limits clearly. Use terms the customer understands and identify the surveyed area where needed, rather than relying on internal abbreviations that only your team recognises.
Cross-check quantities and units
Pay particular attention to copied items. Forty square metres and forty pieces share a number but mean very different things. Reusing an old job can also retain outdated material prices or the wrong room details. Calculate one important item manually and compare estimated effort with a similar completed job. This is a plausibility check, not a guarantee of the eventual margin.
Keep uncertainties visible
If a quantity can only be established on site, do not hide that behind an apparently precise total. Describe the assumption and agree how it will be resolved before commissioning. Keep the version that was actually sent. Later changes form a new version, so the office and customer do not unknowingly discuss different documents when a question arises.
Your business checklist
- Read the scope and exclusions from the customer’s perspective.
- Check quantities, units and copied details.
- Compare effort with a similar completed job.
- Preserve the sent version and outstanding assumptions.