Your experienced sales reps probably know a lot more about creating the right quote than they realize. They know which products and services are commonly sold together, which accessories are required, how quantities relate to one another, and which options should be considered for different types of opportunities. They also know which choices can safely be left to the customer and which ones need to remain under the sales team's control.
The challenge is that much of this knowledge can live in the salesperson's head. As quoting becomes more complex, relying on every sales rep to remember every product relationship, quantity requirement, and possible option becomes increasingly difficult to scale. It also means newer sales reps have to learn not just what you sell, but all of the unwritten rules your experienced team has accumulated over time.
QuoteWerks includes powerful capabilities for solving these individual challenges. Document Templates provide a repeatable starting point. Item Dependencies automate quantity relationships. QuoteValet gives customers controlled ways to interact with a quote. Each capability is valuable on its own.
But the real power comes from using these capabilities together.
When Document Templates, zero-quantity items, Item Dependencies, QuoteValet, and other QuoteWerks features work together, you can build more of your product knowledge and sales process directly into the way your team creates and delivers quotes. Instead of simply making individual quoting tasks easier, QuoteWerks can help you create a connected quoting workflow.
And this isn't limited to one QuoteWerks platform. The workflow we're describing is available to both QuoteWerks Desktop and QuoteWerks Web users.
If your sales team regularly creates similar types of quotes, there is no reason to start with a blank document every time. QuoteWerks Document Templates give your sales reps a starting point for a particular type of quote, allowing you to include the products, services, accessories, and options they are likely to need.
For example, a template for a particular solution might already contain the primary product, required accessories, licenses, installation services, optional upgrades, training, and recurring support. Instead of expecting the rep to remember everything that should be considered, those possibilities are already in front of them as they build the quote.
This saves time for experienced reps, but it can be even more valuable for newer members of the sales team. The template becomes more than a shortcut. It provides a repeatable starting point that incorporates some of the knowledge your team has developed from quoting the same types of solutions over and over again.
Of course, not every customer needs everything included on the template. That's where another simple QuoteWerks capability becomes particularly useful.
Items on a Document Template can be included with a quantity of zero. This means your template can contain products and services the sales rep might need without automatically committing those items to the customer's final quote. As the rep works through the opportunity, they set quantities for the items that apply while everything else can remain at zero.
When the rep is finished configuring the quote, the Remove Zero Quantity Line Items feature removes those unused items at once. Instead of manually reviewing the document and deleting each unused line, the sales rep can clean up the quote with a single action.
This isn't just about saving a few clicks. It also helps avoid the embarrassment of sending a customer a quote containing products or services the rep never actually intended to quote. The template can be comprehensive for the sales rep while the finished quote remains clean and relevant for the customer.
The result is a subtle but important change in the quoting process. Instead of asking the rep to remember everything they might need to add, you can present the possibilities up front and let them determine what applies to that particular opportunity.
Selecting the right products is only part of creating an accurate quote because products and services often have relationships with one another. Perhaps every server requires two licenses, every workstation requires one installation service, or every unit of a particular product requires three of an accessory.
QuoteWerks Item Dependencies can automate these relationships using quantity multipliers. Suppose each unit of Product A requires two units of Product B. If the sales rep enters a quantity of 5 for Product A, QuoteWerks can automatically set Product B to 10. Change Product A to 8, and Product B becomes 16.
A single item can affect the quantities of multiple dependent items, each with its own multiplier, and those items don't need to be located in the same section of the quote. This gives you considerably more flexibility when different components of a solution need to appear in different parts of the customer's proposal.
More importantly, the sales rep doesn't need to calculate those quantities manually or remember the relationship each time they create a quote. That product knowledge becomes part of the quoting process itself, helping reduce both the time required to build the quote and the opportunity for quantity mistakes.
Quantity dependencies can also be daisy-chained, allowing one calculated quantity to affect another. Product A can determine the quantity of Product B, and Product B can then determine the quantity of Product C. A single quantity change can therefore flow through multiple related products and services.
Consider a solution where the primary product determines the number of licenses required, and the resulting license quantity determines the quantity of another related item. The sales rep only needs to determine the appropriate quantity of the primary product. QuoteWerks handles the quantity relationships that follow.
This becomes particularly useful when selling solutions made up of multiple products, licenses, accessories, services, or other components with predictable quantity relationships. Rather than relying on every sales rep to know and calculate those relationships correctly, you can incorporate them directly into the quoting process.
The same concept becomes even more powerful when the quote is delivered through QuoteValet. Instead of simply sending the customer a static document, QuoteValet can give the customer controlled ways to interact with the quote while the sales rep determines which choices are available to them.
For example, you might allow a customer to change the quantity of a particular product, select an optional service, add a one-time item, or choose one option from several available alternatives. At the same time, other products, quantities, pricing, and configuration decisions can remain under the sales team's control.
That distinction matters. Giving customers an interactive quote doesn't have to mean giving them unrestricted control over it. The sales rep determines where customer flexibility makes sense and where the underlying configuration needs to remain protected.
This can create a better experience for the customer while still preserving the rules and relationships you've built into the quote.
This is where these capabilities become much more interesting when used together.
Suppose a sales rep starts with a Document Template containing the products, services, and options commonly needed for a particular solution. The rep enters a quantity of 5 for Product A, while products that aren't needed remain at zero.
Each Product A requires 2 units of Product B, so an Item Dependency automatically sets Product B to 10. Other dependent quantities can be calculated as well, including daisy-chained dependencies where one calculated quantity drives another.
When the configuration is complete, the rep removes the remaining zero-quantity items, leaving a clean quote containing only the products and services intended for that customer.
The quote is then delivered through QuoteValet, where the customer can interact with the choices the sales rep has made available. They might select an optional service, choose between several alternatives, or change the quantity of Product A from 5 to 8.
That customer quantity change doesn't exist in isolation. Product B can automatically change from 10 to 16, and any additional dependent quantities can follow the rules already established in the quote.
The customer only needs to make the decisions that belong to them. They don't need to understand all of the relationships between the underlying products and services, and the sales rep doesn't have to manually rebuild the configuration every time something changes.
That's the difference between having a collection of useful features and having those features work together as part of a quoting process.
Consider what would otherwise happen when a customer reviews a quote and responds, "Everything looks good, but can you change this from 5 to 8, add the training option, and send me an updated quote?" The sales rep has to reopen the quote, make the requested changes, adjust any related quantities, generate the revised quote, and send another version back to the customer.
With QuoteValet, the customer can potentially make those permitted choices themselves. If they change a quantity that has dependent items, QuoteWerks can handle the related quantity changes. If they want an optional service you've made available, they can select it without asking the sales rep to generate another version of the quote.
Not every change should be left to the customer. The value is in deciding which choices make sense for the customer to control and allowing QuoteWerks to handle those interactions while maintaining the business rules you've already established.
That can mean fewer revisions for the sales rep, less waiting for the customer, and a more interactive experience throughout the quoting process.
The capabilities we've covered are only part of the quoting logic you can build into QuoteWerks. QuoteWerks also includes capabilities such as required items, optional items, substitute items, bundles, configurations, and more, giving businesses additional ways to model how their products and services are actually sold.
Each of these capabilities can solve a particular quoting challenge on its own. But just as with the workflow we've explored here, their value can increase considerably when they're combined with other QuoteWerks capabilities.
A required item might participate in a larger configuration. An optional item can become a choice presented to the customer. A product relationship can influence quantities elsewhere in the quote. Different capabilities can work together depending on the rules and processes your business needs to support.
The goal isn't to use every feature available. It's to identify the combination of capabilities that best reflects the way your company actually sells. The more product knowledge, relationships, and repeatable decisions you can build into your quoting process, the less your individual sales reps have to remember, calculate, and manage manually.
When quoting is simple, individual features may be all you need. If every sale consists of selecting one product, entering a quantity, and generating a PDF, a basic quoting tool may be perfectly adequate.
But as a business grows, quoting often becomes more sophisticated. Products have relationships. Some items are required while others are optional. Quantities affect other quantities. Customers need choices. Different opportunities require different configurations. The quoting process begins to reflect more of the knowledge your company has developed about how its solutions should actually be sold.
No single feature solves all of those challenges. That's why the depth of a quoting platform matters.
QuoteWerks gives you individual capabilities for solving specific quoting problems, but you're not limited to using those capabilities in isolation. You can combine them to build a quoting process that reflects your products, your business rules, your sales process, and the experience you want to provide your customers.
For existing QuoteWerks customers, that may mean discovering new ways to combine capabilities you already have. For companies evaluating quoting solutions, it demonstrates why looking beyond a checklist of individual features is important. What matters isn't simply whether a quoting solution has a particular feature. It's what you can accomplish when those features work together.
That's the power of QuoteWerks.
Whether your team uses QuoteWerks Desktop or QuoteWerks Web, you can build a quoting process that is faster for experienced reps, easier for newer reps to follow, less dependent on tribal knowledge, and more interactive for your customers.
Your quoting software shouldn't just help your sales team create a quote. It should help them create the right quote.
If your team has outgrown building every quote manually, QuoteWerks can help you standardize the repeatable parts of your quoting process while preserving the flexibility that makes each opportunity different.
Already using QuoteWerks? Take another look at your current quoting process and consider where combining Document Templates, Item Dependencies, QuoteValet, and other capabilities could eliminate more manual work or give your customers a better experience.
Evaluating QuoteWerks? Look beyond individual features and consider what your quoting process could look like when those capabilities work together.
Already using QuoteWerks? The examples in this article are just a starting point. The resources below provide more detail on setting up and using many of the capabilities we've discussed.
These capabilities are available to both QuoteWerks Desktop and QuoteWerks Web users. The exact interface may differ depending on which experience you're using, but the underlying goal is the same: combine QuoteWerks capabilities to build a quoting process around the way your business actually sells.
Whether you're discovering these capabilities for the first time or looking for new ways to combine features you already use, the documentation can help you turn these ideas into a quoting workflow that works for your business.
Yes. The capabilities discussed in this article can be used by both QuoteWerks Desktop and QuoteWerks Web users. The interface and exact steps may differ depending on which experience you use, but both can take advantage of these capabilities to build more repeatable and interactive quoting workflows.
Document Templates give sales reps a predefined starting point for creating a quote. A template can contain products, services, accessories, options, and other items that are commonly considered for a particular type of sale.
Instead of relying on each sales rep to remember everything that might be needed, the template provides a consistent starting point. Items that don't apply to a particular opportunity can remain at zero quantity and be removed before the quote is delivered.
Yes. QuoteWerks Item Dependencies can use quantity multipliers to link quantities between items. For example, if each Product A requires two of Product B, quoting 5 of Product A can automatically result in a quantity of 10 for Product B.
One item can affect multiple dependent items, and those items do not have to be located in the same section of the quote. Dependencies can also be daisy-chained, allowing a quantity change to flow through additional dependent items.
Yes. You can allow customers to modify the quantities of specific items through QuoteValet while keeping other quantities under your control.
This can become especially powerful when combined with Item Dependencies. If a customer changes an allowed quantity from 5 to 8, for example, dependent quantities can automatically adjust based on the relationships you've already configured.
Yes. QuoteValet can provide customers with controlled choices within an interactive quote. Depending on how the quote is configured, customers can select optional products or services, make one-time additions, adjust permitted quantities, or choose between available alternatives.
The sales rep determines which decisions the customer can make while maintaining control over the rest of the quote.
No. Document Templates, Item Dependencies, QuoteValet, required items, optional items, substitute items, bundles, configurations, and other QuoteWerks capabilities can each be useful on their own.
The larger opportunity is understanding how the capabilities can work together and choosing the combination that best reflects your products, business rules, sales process, and customer experience. You don't need to use every capability. You use the ones that make sense for the way your business sells.
Not necessarily. Many quoting solutions offer templates, optional items, configurable choices, or other individual capabilities similar to those discussed here.
The difference is what you can accomplish when these capabilities work together. In QuoteWerks, a Document Template can provide the starting point, Item Dependencies can automate quantity relationships, other quoting features can apply additional product and configuration rules, and QuoteValet can give the customer controlled ways to interact with the resulting quote.
That's why evaluating quoting software solely through a feature checklist can be misleading. Having a particular feature is one thing. Being able to combine multiple capabilities to support the way your business actually sells is much more important.
QuoteWerks has been built over decades around the realities of creating and managing quotes. The depth comes not just from the individual capabilities, but from the ways they can be used together to create quoting workflows that fit different businesses, products, and sales processes.
That's where the power of QuoteWerks becomes much more apparent.