We all know the headaches of creating quotes, especially for groups! You’d rather be doing something else instead of checking over and over your spreadsheet for any mistakes or forgotten costs!
Today is your lucky day! Fortunately, we’ve got a formula to reduce calculation mistakes, speed up your efficiency to focus on what matters most – productivity!
Streamlined quoting system +
less scope for human errors +
an advanced technology partner with great customer service
=
increased efficiency +
more motivated employees +
more time spent on expansion and profitability
1. Spend less time on manual work … To avoid typos, make sure your data is available where you need it
Whether you have a dedicated purchasing team or not, whom are working on your bi-annual/annual commercial agreements, negotiating with hotels and all kinds of providers, why waste time doing the work twice?
Centralize all the information in one place. Have all those contracts as part of a reference sheet and from there pull your prices to avoid typos… with an all-in-one platform like Manage Your Trip, you can integrate all your information once and pick it up directly from your dedicated quotation tool. Bye-bye to manual work and copy-pasting!
2. Does Risk Management ring a bell? Increase in Currency rate? Inflation?
“I have checked over and over my calculation sheet, modified my profit, calculated again and again to make sure to fall on my numbers once my group arrives, but something seems to always be missing”
First things first, you’re not always the one to blame! Second, a very important element that is too often overlooked are “risk factors” that can show up only once the group has arrived.
We are talking about, currency rate change that can impact even 5% your selling price, but also when quoting for the next academic year, you should take into consideration the rise of your negotiated rates with your suppliers.
In some countries, where inflation is a prominent issue
It is crucial to take these elements into account to better define your selling price when quoting and therefore more easily budget your profit.
3. Building a template quotation for the sales team is key to avoiding human errors.
By having one standard way for all sellers to build a quotation you can avoid many errors. Build a dedicated spreadsheet as a template to share with your team. This will also allow for a better and more effective formula and calculation check.
At Manage Your Trip when we first started building our quotation tool, we had a team of mathematicians analyze almost fifty excels taken from fifty different incoming tour operators worldwide. Each one had some calculation mistakes. Do yourself a favor, and have an excel expert analyze your excel sheet.
With a dedicated tool, forget about the formulas and the calculations, leave it to the algorithm specifically designed for it.
4. Added value on your competitor… see what’s working with Marketing!
Now that the delicate part is over, it’s time for some creativity. In the tourism industry, competition is fierce and Marketing, especially with B2B clients being less famous, shouldn’t be ignored!
Take the time to add a picture, put in bold your titles and add some color. Choosing a platform that also integrates a Marketing tool, automatizing that last but essential step will not only save you time but money!
5. You say Efficiency and growth, we say centralization!
Simplicity is often the key to success. By overdoing, or thinking manual work will save you time and avoid errors, it more often causes harm. What you need is a dedicated tool integrated with a catalog and CRM that was studied, tested and proven successful to handle the headaches of calculations and leave the fun part to you.
Are you interested in talking this through in more detail? Book your demo with a specialist today!