As a countertop fabricator, putting together countertop quotes is a daily part of the job.
If you’re the owner of a countertop shop, you likely have years of experience with countertop estimates, and you know why it’s so important to get it right the first time.
If you’re on the sales side, you want to make sure your estimates meet a few key criteria:
- Quotes are fast
- Quotes are professional
- Quotes are communicated well to the homeowner
In a perfect world, all of your quoting would be spot-on, and every quote produced would turn into a sale. In reality, quoting can be a complicated process with the potential for error along every step of the way. Our goal is to make quoting easier for your business so that more of your quotes can turn into sales.
Here are some tips to consider to help you provide better countertop estimates based on our experience working with over 2,600 countertop shops.
1. Include a countertop drawing
If you create a countertop estimate and forget a part of the job, you’re on the hook to make it right for the customer. Your reputation is also at stake.
In the 1900s, the average kitchen was around 80 square feet. Today, the kitchen is the centerpiece of the home, with larger homes averaging sizes up to 720 square feet. Modern kitchens are bigger than ever. So, you’ve got to make sure that you included not just the kitchen perimeter, but also:
- The island
- The office area
- The butler’s pantry
- The raised bar
- and all of the other important pieces that are so popular these days.
Most successful countertop fabricators always include a drawing with their quotes. This helps your customers visualize what they’re getting and ensures that nothing important is missing or wrong.
Two quick tips for countertop drawing
1. Add pictures of slabs
Adding pictures of slabs is a huge wow factor for customers. CounterGo users appreciate being able to add pictures of slabs when they are working on the drawing and layout of a countertop.
This not only helps your clients visualize what they’ll get, but it also increases the likelihood of the quote turning into a sale. Adding the pictures will help you predict if seams will look right, especially if you’re doing natural stone with lots of movement, and if you’ll need additional slabs.
Read more: Adding slab pictures to your countertop drawings
If you have CounterGo and are learning how to add images of slabs, here’s a step-by-step guide.
2. Add text to your countertop drawing
Being clear in your quote is much easier when text accompanies important aspects of your drawing. The ability to include important notes helps your clients understand the details and provides added context.
Read more: Adding text to countertop drawings, and more
2. Make sure your sales team is aligned
If your shop has multiple salespeople, can you confidently say they’d all quote the same price for a kitchen countertop? If the answer is “no” or even “I’m not sure,” you could be leaving money on the table. Granite countertops are a luxury item, and inconsistent pricing, especially just to close a deal, can hurt your margins.
Most of the time, pricing is inconsistent because there isn’t a great tool or process in place to keep pricing consistent across the team.
With Moraware’s CounterGo countertop estimating software, you have the ability to control exactly what prices a salesperson can change on each quote. Want to lock things down completely? You can do that, too.
It’s also important to make sure your team knows the pricing for everything—cutouts, radius corners, edge profiles, and more. Pricing can be tricky, but when your whole team is aligned, you’ll deliver quotes that are faster, more accurate, and consistent every time.
3. Focus on your value
When thinking about the “accuracy” of your quotes, it’s tempting to try to figure out your production costs to the penny.
The problem with trying to account for every minute of your templating, installation, and fabrication time is that you’re likely spending way too much time and effort on your estimate.
While your dedication to an exact quote is noble, it may be costing you sales. In general, people aren’t willing to wait long for a quote, and here are two key reasons why:
- Your competition finished faster, and they’re moving forward with them.
- Because you took so long on the quote, the potential client has the impression that you’d take way too long on the project, too.
The best countertop fabricators focus on the value they bring instead of on the price. Yes, time and effort are spent setting prices, but it’s not to the penny. Prices are reasonable and are aligned with the pricing available in the area.
Remember: 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. Knowing this, you can spend less time on making quotes and, instead, spend more time on selling.
Here are four key areas you can set yourself apart to potential clients:
- Speed to completion, and sticking to the deadline
- Better service before, during, and after the installation
- Providing higher quality materials
- Offering unique materials or utilizing a better process
In a world where more than half of Americans have scrapped a planned purchase because of bad service, it’s essential to promote what makes your company valuable.
4. Save time with countertop quoting software
Producing a quick, professional countertop quote is incredibly important, and that’s why we made CounterGo. Using our countertop quoting software, you can draw, layout, and quote a countertop in just 3 minutes.
That means you can put together a quote in front of your potential customer… and get instant feedback!
Here are the 3 basic steps to quoting a countertop job fast:
- Draw your countertops (as easy as using your mouse or touch screen)
- Layout countertop on slabs (even upload a photo and show your customer how the finished counter will look)
- Print or email the quote (even find out when they viewed the quote!)
If you’re drawing up quotes without any software, you may be spending a lot of time and effort that could be spent on other things. You don’t want to be stuck behind your desk putting together quotes when you could be spending that time getting more customers. You could also be spending that time providing better service to the ones you have.
Here’s what some of our CounterGo users have to say about embracing countertop quoting software:
“CounterGo is a lifesaver. Over the last year, I’ve been able to grow the company to several jobs per day and haven’t had to hire anyone else to do quotes.”
Robby, Northern Stone
“This software has allowed me to focus more of my time and energy into the production side of things. I am no longer a full-time estimator, and my employees appreciate seeing me take a more hands-on and physically present role.”
Sean Keller, Flagstaff Tile & Stone
“I can quote immediately, in front of the customer, rather than spending an hour on it after they leave, receiving no feedback from our customer.”
Melanie Bratcher, Kentucky Solid Surface
If you’re interested in making fast, consistent quotes and reducing mistakes – schedule a live demo with us. During the demo, we’ll learn more about your countertop shop, and you’ll be able to see just how easy your estimating process can be.
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