Quote-to-proposal automation: proposals drafted from your price book, sent when you approve
Your estimator sets the number. A system you own builds the proposal from your templates, sends it once it's approved and follows up on the dates you set.
$3,000, credited in full toward your install if you go ahead within 30 days.
TL;DR
Quote-to-proposal automation turns a request for pricing into a finished proposal and a follow-up schedule without anyone retyping scope notes. Your estimator still sets the number. The system drafts the proposal from your templates and price book and sends it once you approve it. Then it follows up on the dates you set. An install runs $12,000 to $35,000, one time. The $3,000 audit is credited in full if you go ahead within 30 days.
What is quote-to-proposal automation?
Quote-to-proposal automation is a system that turns a pricing request into a finished, sent proposal and a follow-up schedule, using your templates, price book and approval rules. A person still sets the price and approves what goes out.
For a specialty contractor, the request is usually a bid invite with a plans link and a due date. The system logs it and pulls the scope into your proposal template, with your standard inclusions, exclusions and clarifications. Your estimator gets a draft to price and approve. After it goes out, the system follows up on your schedule, including after bid day.
How many bids go out late, and what are they worth?
You already know slow quotes cost you work. Most of the delay happens in moments like these.
- The invite sits in a shared inbox for a day before anyone logs it.
- The estimator copies last year's proposal, and the old exclusions come with it.
- The general contractor wants your number by 10am for a 2pm deadline, and at 9:45 the proposal is still being formatted.
- Bid day passes and nobody calls to find out who came in low.
Pull last quarter's bids. Count the ones that went out late or never got a second follow-up, and put a rough value on them.
Where does a quote wait between the request and the send?
A quote goes through seven steps. Your estimator needs to be at two of them.
- 1
Logged
The request is captured with the due date, plans link and contact, wherever it came in.
- 2
Scoped
Scope notes and addenda are gathered in one place.
- 3
Priced
Your estimator sets the number. This step stays with a person.
- 4
Drafted
The proposal is built from your template, with your standard inclusions and exclusions for that kind of work.
- 5
Approved
Your estimator or you read it and sign off. This step stays with a person too.
- 6
Sent
It goes out in your name, from your email.
- 7
Followed up
Reminders go out on the dates you set until the customer answers or the bid closes.
What stays with your estimator?
The number. The system never sets a price. It drafts around the price your estimator gives it and won't send anything nobody approved.
Judgment on the bid stays too: whether to chase it, what to exclude on a job with a difficult general contractor and when to walk away.
If you lose bids on price, a faster proposal won't win them. This system helps when you lose on speed, slow follow-up or a sloppy document.
Will it work with our estimating software?
It's built around the tools you already use. Whether a given estimating or CRM product can be connected directly depends on what it lets outside systems read and write, and that gets checked before anything is scoped.
Where there's no direct connection, there are usually other ways in, such as the exports and emails your team already sends.
Should you rent, buy or build quote-to-proposal automation?
There are three ways to get proposals out faster. Each one suits a different shop.
| Comparison area | Rent an agency | Buy software | Build and own (Strategyc install) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | An outsourced estimating or proposal service working on their systems | Proposal or estimating software your team configures and runs | A system that drafts, sends and follows up on proposals from your templates, on your accounts |
| Who sets it up | The service | You or your estimator | Strategyc, from your audit, with your estimator trained to run it |
| What it costs | A monthly retainer. At $5,000 a month, that's $60,000 a year, every year. | Per seat or per month, for as long as you use it | $12,000 to $35,000 per system, one time, after a $3,000 audit credited in full if you go ahead within 30 days |
| What you own | Nothing, once you stop paying | Your data, inside their product | The system, the accounts, the data and the runbook |
| If you stop paying | It stops the same day | You lose the tool and the setup your team put into it | It keeps running. Managed operations is optional and you can cancel anytime. |
| Best when | You'd rather hand off the whole proposal and accept their format | Your estimating software already produces proposals and the gap is using it | Your proposals are specific to your trade and the delay is in the handoffs between people |
Whoever you talk to, ask what still runs the day you stop paying them.
How does Strategyc build quote-to-proposal automation?
We scope it from the audit and build it on your accounts. Your estimator is trained to run it before go-live.
The audit is one working session with Alastair, then a written map of where AI removes cost, hours or lag in your operation. It names the systems, ranks them by payback and puts them in build order, with a buy-vs-build call on each. If the numbers don't clear the bar for an install, you get that in writing too.
What it costs
- AI Opportunity Audit: $3,000. It becomes your first payment on the build if you go ahead within 30 days, while the map is current.
- AI System Install: $12,000 to $35,000 per system, one time.
- Managed AI Operations: optional, $1,500 to $6,000 a month, cancel anytime. The system keeps running if you cancel.
Every install is scoped by proposal from your audit, and the price changes only if the scope does.
The guarantee
For quotes, a good pass-or-fail line is time: how many minutes a quote takes from the estimator's approved number to a proposal in the customer's inbox. You set the number before we build.
Your scope document sets a go-live date and a pass-or-fail line for every system in it. Miss the date and we keep building at our own cost until it works as scoped. If we still can't deliver it, we refund the install and you keep everything we built, in your accounts, with the documentation.
We take on two to three installs per quarter. Build weeks are blocked in advance, so installs start on fixed dates.
Every install is scoped and led by Alastair Macartney, Strategyc's founder. He's a former British Army Major who directed the UK's Defence Courier Service. More about Alastair
The full offer, the audit and how the guarantee works are laid out on our AI implementation partner page.
What do owners ask about quote automation?
The audit is $3,000, credited in full toward the install if you go ahead within 30 days. A quote-to-proposal install runs $12,000 to $35,000, one time, depending on how many tools it connects and how consistent your proposals are.
The audit takes one to two weeks. The build is typically a few weeks once it's scoped. The go-live date goes in your scope document, and the guarantee is tied to that date.
Because the audit is where the build gets defined. It names the system, ranks it against anything else worth fixing and makes the buy-vs-build call. Your scope document is drafted from it.
Yes, as long as the differences follow patterns. Price and quantities change from bid to bid. Your format and standard exclusions mostly stay the same, and the system handles those.
No. Your estimator sets every number. The system builds the proposal around it and won't send one nobody approved.
What are your late bids costing you?
Before the call
Pull last quarter's bids and count the ones that went out late or never got a second follow-up.
Apply for the AI Opportunity Audit
A working session with the founder, plus a written map of where AI pays off in your specific operation, ranked by payback. $3,000, credited in full toward your install if you go ahead within 30 days. We run a small number of these each month. If your numbers clearly fit, you'll see the calendar straight away. If it's not obvious either way, Alastair reads the application himself and replies within one business day.