# Every request quoted, followed up and booked For sales and operations teams in freight, distribution and automotive. Agents read every request, price it from your own rates, send it for approval where it needs one, follow it up and book what the customer accepts. [Talk to the team](https://qantara.systems/contact) / [Read the thesis](https://qantara.systems/original/thesis) The clock on one quote. The dial runs from the request to the quote being sent, and its centre names the step. The blue mark is when the same quote goes out today. A request left waiting is an order someone else takes. We put agents on every request, so none of them waits. ## What the agents do around every quote Five desks touch a quote before it becomes a booking: the one that answers requests, the one that sets prices, the one that has to deliver, the one that extends credit and, if you bid for public work, the tenders team. Agents work alongside all five, inside the systems you already run. ### Sales: Every request answered, even the incomplete ones How many requests got no answer last month, and who would know? - **Ask for what is missing.** A request often arrives without something the price depends on: the delivery site, the quantity, the model or the date. The agent asks for exactly that, once, on the channel the customer used, and quotes when the answer comes. - **Keep one thread per customer.** The same buyer writes on WhatsApp, emails the next morning and messages a salesperson directly. The agent puts it together as one request, so the customer gets one quote and not three. - **Answer when nobody is in.** A request that comes in after hours, on a day your office is closed or in the shorter working days of Ramadan is acknowledged at once, and its quote is ready for the first person in. In a group, the offices may not even share a weekend. - **Revise without starting again.** When the customer asks for a better price, another quantity or another date, the agent prepares the revision against the first quote and records what changed and why. ### Pricing: Every price from the list in force today Are we still quoting from last month's prices? - **Price from the version in force.** Price lists, rate sheets and surcharges change, sometimes from one week to the next. The agent prices from the version in force on the day, gives the quote a validity that matches it, and says which charges can still move. - **Apply each customer's agreement first.** Contract prices, volume tiers and agreed discounts come before the list price, so a key account gets its own price without anyone opening a spreadsheet. - **Hold the margin rule.** A price below your floor or a discount beyond its band goes to whoever your delegation of authority names, up to the general manager or the owner, with the margin, the customer's history and the last price they accepted. - **Reprice open quotes when costs move.** When a price list, a surcharge or an exchange rate changes, the open quotes that used the old one are found and flagged before the customer accepts them. ### Operations: Nothing promised that cannot be delivered Can we deliver what we just quoted, by the date we promised? - **Check before the quote promises.** Stock on hand, space with the carrier, a vehicle in the allocation or a bay in the workshop: checked before the quote names a date. - **Turn the acceptance into a booking.** The accepted quote becomes the booking, sales order or reservation in your system, with every line exactly as quoted. - **Ask for what the booking needs.** Shipping instructions, the delivery site and its receiving hours, the papers for an import permit: requested with the confirmation and chased until they arrive. - **Confirm, then hand over.** The customer gets the confirmation with your reference. The warehouse, the carrier or the workshop gets what it needs to start. [See orders and confirmations](https://qantara.systems/solutions/orders) ### Credit control: Every quote safe to accept Did we just quote a customer who is over their limit? - **Check the account before the price.** The open balance, overdue invoices and the credit limit come from your ERP. A customer on hold gets a quote with payment in advance, or the request goes to credit control first. - **Put the right terms on the quote.** Credit, advance payment or a letter of credit, by customer and by amount, as credit control set them, written on every quote so nobody promises terms they cannot give. - **Issue the pro forma from the quote.** When a buyer needs a pro forma invoice for a letter of credit, an import permit or a payment in advance, it is issued from the accepted quote, line for line. - **Say the currency and the VAT.** Each quote is in the customer's currency and says plainly whether VAT is in the price, with the treatment your tax adviser set for the country of supply. A price that says nothing about VAT can be read as including it. [See collections](https://qantara.systems/solutions/collections) ### Tenders: Every tender read before it closes Which tenders closed last month without a bid from us? - **Watch the portals every day.** New tenders and requests for quotation on the government and company portals you are registered on, matched to what you sell. - **Read the documents for the decision.** Scope, closing date, bid bond, the documents required and the deadline for questions, summarised for the person who decides whether to bid. - **Prepare the file.** Your commercial registration, certificates, the local content documents where they are asked for, and the price schedule in the buyer's format, in Arabic where the buyer requires it. - **Keep every date.** Questions, extensions and the closing date are tracked. Your team submits the bid, and the result is recorded with the winning price where it is published. ## Beyond the five desks Some of the work around a quote happens away from the desks: with salespeople on the road, between the companies in your group, with the brands you represent and with customers who said no. - **Prices for the team on the road.** A salesperson in a customer's office sends a voice note asking for a price. The agent answers while the meeting is still going, with the price, the stock and how far the discount can go. Your field team quotes on the spot, inside your rules. - **One buyer, several of your companies.** In a group, two companies can quote the same customer for the same goods. The agent sees both quotes on the record, keeps the prices and terms consistent, and tells both sales heads when they clash. One price for one customer, across the group. - **Leads passed on by your brands.** Manufacturers and principals pass on leads from their own sites and campaigns. The agent answers each one in the brand's tone, quotes from your list and keeps the record the brand asks you to show. Every lead from a brand answered, with the proof it was. - **Lost quotes, asked why.** When a quote is turned down or lapses without an answer, the agent asks the customer what decided it, once, and records the reply: the price, the date, the terms or another offer. A reason on every lost quote, instead of a guess. ## How it works for quotes and bookings 01 **Embed.** Our engineers sit with sales, pricing and operations and go through a month of requests with them: where each came in, how long the answer took, who followed it up and whether it was won. That becomes the baseline and shows where to start. 02 **Build.** An agent takes each line from its source: the items from the request, the prices from your list, the discount from the customer's terms, the VAT from the country's rules. A line outside your rules waits for the person who signs it off, then the quote goes out. 03 **Scale.** Revisions, wins and losses stay on one record for each customer, with the reason. Their next request, the order, the invoice and the next branch start from what it already knows. 04 **Measure.** Requests answered, quotes won and the time from request to quote, each against the month before we start, counted with your sales team. ## The invoice starts at the quote An e-invoice carries the buyer's legal name, tax number and address, and it is checked before the buyer has it. A tax number in the wrong format or a required field left empty gets it rejected, and once issued it cannot be edited, only reversed with a credit note and issued again. A new customer often gives those details first when they ask for a quote. Agents take them there, check them and carry them to the order and the invoice. The buyer's details, carried to the invoice. Taken once on the quote and checked there, in orange, the details slide into the order and then the invoice, so it is accepted first time. [See e-invoicing and compliance](https://qantara.systems/solutions/e-invoicing) ## Built around the systems you run Nothing has to be replaced to start. Agents work inside your ERP, your CRM and the price lists you keep, and answer on the channels your customers already use. - ERP and accounting - Price lists - Forwarding software - CRM - Email - WhatsApp Business - Tender portals - Dealer systems - Spreadsheets ## What sales teams ask us **What if our prices live in people's heads?** Then the first weeks write them down. Our engineers sit with whoever prices today and turn what they know into lists and rules the agent can use. Anything the rules do not cover still goes to them. **Will this damage our customer relationships?** Your salespeople keep their customers. The agent answers what is routine, the same way every time and in your company's name, and hands anything that needs a person to the account manager with the whole conversation. **Can the agent negotiate?** Only inside what you allow: another volume tier, another validity, other payment terms. A counter-offer beyond your rules goes to the person you name, with the customer's message attached. **Which channels do requests come in on?** WhatsApp Business, email, web forms and customer portals, in Arabic or English. Each request is answered where it was asked, in the language it was asked in. **Do you replace our CRM or ERP?** No. Quotes, bookings and orders are written into the systems you already run, through their own interfaces. Your team keeps the screens it knows, and nothing is migrated. **Do agents submit tenders?** No. The agent watches the portals, reads the documents and prepares the file. Your team decides whether to bid and submits it. **Where do we start?** With the requests of one branch or one product line, timed for a month with your team. The agent goes first to the desk where they waited longest. ## Quotes in your industry - [Logistics and freight](https://qantara.systems/solutions/logistics): Quotes, bookings, customs and delivery, on time. - [Distribution and trading](https://qantara.systems/solutions/distribution): Orders confirmed, delivered and collected. - [Automotive and heavy equipment](https://qantara.systems/solutions/automotive): Bookings, parts and customers followed up. ## Start with the requests nobody answered Tell us where requests come in today and who answers them. Our engineers take it from there, on site. [Talk to the team](https://qantara.systems/contact) / [Email us](mailto:hello@qantara.example) Muscat and across the Gulf --- This is the Markdown twin of the page at https://qantara.systems/solutions/quotes-and-bookings