Inside sales & quoting · Food & beverage distribution
Quotes out same day, deals closed.
Twenty lines price at week's volume, but food cost moved and catchweight items price by weight. The rep rebuilds while the prospect calls a competitor.
The reality
Quoting is a turnaround problem.
Speed wins the deal, but the quote is slow to build. Food cost moves weekly, so the rep has to pull today's cost, not last week's price book. Catchweight items — meat, cheese, produce — sell by the case but price by the pound, so each line has to be converted before margin even means anything. Contract SKUs carry a deviated, billed-back cost; street SKUs do not. Then landed margin gets checked against the floor, and anything under it stalls in a manager's inbox while the window closes.
The operator owns the quote end to end: it reads the bid request, pulls live cost per SKU including deviated contract cost, builds each line at the customer's case or per-pound unit, applies the volume bracket, checks landed margin against the floor, routes only the lines that need approval, and sends the quote back same day.
How the operator runs inside sales & quoting
Quote QT-7740 · Bid
building- 20 lines parsed from request
- Live cost pulled, 6 lines deviated
- Catchweight lines priced per lb
01Read and build
Parses the bid, pulls live cost per SKU including deviated contract cost, and builds each line at its case or per-pound unit.
Quote QT-7740 · Margin
checking- Volume bracket discount applied
- 18 lines clear the floor
- 2 lines below floor — flagged
02Discount and check margin
Applies the volume bracket and tests landed margin on every line, by case and by weight, against the floor.
Quote QT-7740 · Approval
routing- Below-floor lines sent to manager
- Approval received
- Quote sent to customer same day
03Approve and send
Routes only the below-floor lines for approval, then sends the quote back same day.
The outcome
55% less quoting cycle time
Quotes out fast, deals closed
- Quotes built from today's cost, not last week's price book
- Catchweight lines converted to per-pound pricing automatically
- Only below-floor lines routed for approval, not the whole deal
- Bids returned same day, before the prospect shops elsewhere
Common questions
Inside sales & quoting
- What does the Inside sales & quoting operator do?
- The operator owns the quote end to end: it reads the bid request, pulls live cost per SKU including deviated contract cost, builds each line at the customer's case or per-pound unit, applies the volume bracket, checks landed margin against the floor, routes only the lines that need approval, and sends the quote back same day.
- What impact does the Inside sales & quoting operator have?
- 55% less quoting cycle time. Quotes out fast, deals closed
- How does the Inside sales & quoting operator work?
- Parses the bid, pulls live cost per SKU including deviated contract cost, and builds each line at its case or per-pound unit. Applies the volume bracket and tests landed margin on every line, by case and by weight, against the floor. Routes only the below-floor lines for approval, then sends the quote back same day.
More operators in Food & beverage distribution
See the full catalogue →