Best Quoting Software Tools and Solutions:
A Complete Guide

Earning a handshake to close a deal takes more than just a compelling proposal and a winning smile. It demands a written quote that's clear, easy to understand, and delivered with accuracy and speed. Today's sales quoting software speeds up the configure, price, quote (CPQ) process. And with built-in automation, dynamic pricing, and AI-driven recommendations, modern quoting platforms are essential for sales teams that want to stay competitive.

Sorting through the many quoting software options available can be a challenge. Read on to learn about the key features to look for when finding the right fit for you.

Quoting software — also known as CPQ software — is a tool that helps sales teams quickly generate and manage sales quotes for products or services. It may include features like built-in product and pricing catalogs, discount controls, tax and currency management, and customizable templates. Typically, CPQ software can automate calculations, generate product descriptions, and manage approvals.

It's a powerful tool that consistently generates accurate quotes faster, delivering a seamless customer experience. It reduces manual work and frees up time for reps to interact with potential customers one-on-one — ultimately leading to more closed deals.

A sales quote, price quote, or just plain quote is a proposal document typically prepared within a CRM. It details the price and terms for goods or services offered by a seller to a prospective buyer. It also serves as a formal proposal that specifies the particulars of a potential purchase. While not a legally binding contract, it explains what you or your company will provide to a prospective customer in exchange for a set fee.

A well-prepared sales quote should include these elements:

Provide all the necessary information about both the seller and the buyer, along with an issue date, expiration date, and quote reference number.

• For the seller: Include the company name, logo, address, and contact details.
• For the buyer: Include the customer's name and company name (if applicable) along with contact details.

This section of the document should feature an itemized list of products or services to clarify what the seller is offering to the buyer. Be sure to include:

• Description
• Quantity
• Unit price
• Total price per item
• Signature field for the buyer to sign their name and date, indicating approval of the purchase
• Additional notes, clarifications, or special instructions

It helps to know how the total breaks down and how you arrived at your number. Be sure to include these itemizations:

• Subtotal: Indicate the sum of the items or services themselves before taxes or discounts.
• Discounts: List the reasons for the discount and whether it's a percentage or a fixed amount.
• Taxes: Identify and apply the applicable tax rates, such as sales tax, duties, tariffs, etc.
• Shipping and handling fees: When applicable, include the method of shipment, the carrier's fee, and any handling fees you may charge.
• Grand total: Tally up the final cost, including all applicable charges, taxes, and fees.

Next, outline the details for payment, delivery, and legal aspects related to the sale. These might include accepted payment methods, due dates, estimated shipping dates, delivery methods, how long the quote is valid, warranty terms, customer support information, return policies, cancellation processes, and liability disclaimers.

By automating pricing, terms, and customization, quoting software enables sales teams to respond to clients quickly and consistently and increases efficiency. Here are some of the key benefits of using quoting software:

• Improved accuracy with AI: AI for sales uses machine learning (ML) and data analytics to generate customized quotes based on real-time pricing, customer preferences, and historical data from sales analytics and sales reports. Human error is minimized by using preset pricing rules, discounts, and product configurations. It also helps prevent misquoting through a combination of automation and centralized data.
• Better consistency: Applies standard terms, conditions, and pricing policies uniformly.
• Properly configured quotes: Allows complex product configurations using CPQ tools. You can easily create tailored solutions based on customer needs.
• Tracking and reporting of sales and quoting activity: Provides insights into pricing, discounting, product configuration, sales rep performance, and customer engagement. These insights help to forecast sales revenue more accurately.
• Complex deal management: Tailor approval workflows to meet your business needs.

To help you choose the best tools for your sales team, we've compiled a list of top-rated quoting software. These solutions are designed to optimize sales workflows, improve collaboration, and drive more efficient selling.

This list is curated from G2 and Capterra , both of which score sales software based on user feedback, features available, and overall satisfaction. G2 uses a five-star system focused on usability, customer satisfaction, and market presence while Capterra (which also uses a five-star system) incorporates user ratings across categories like ease of use, customer support, and value for money. Each of the tools listed here has a minimum rating of four stars.

Salesforce Revenue Cloud is a comprehensive solution that includes built-in CPQ capabilities. Quote quickly and accurately from anywhere on any channel using guided selling flows, product bundles, and discounting rules for sellers. Mitigate business risk with controls, approval workflows, and compliance built into the quoting process. Plus, AI-driven support automates routine tasks, providing improved efficiency.

Reviewers note that Salesforce Revenue Cloud allows users to manage the entire sales process, from quotes to invoices, in one place.

How it helps sales teams:

• Guided selling: Offers AI-powered workflows and guardrails to ensure you sell the right product to the right customer or make it easier for sales to build a quote for the customer.
• Quote generation: Instantly generate quotes based on your CRM data with an AI sales agent. This saves time for your sales team - no more digging through spreadsheets.
• Pricing catalog and rule configurations: Streamlines your sales process with a unified product catalog. You can make it easy to understand with a pricing waterfall, and ensure accurate and compliant pricing.
• Approval workflows: Advanced approval features support complex pricing models, configurable approval chains, and maintain audit trails and notifications.

Conga CPQ helps businesses automate the process of configuring complex products or services. Reviewers say Conga CPQ's features streamline the quote process, helping users produce professional and persuasive proposals from templates.

How it helps sales teams:

• Guided selling: Offers a step-by-step experience that simplifies the process of selecting and configuring products or services based on customer needs.
• Proposal document generation: Automatically generates quotes and proposals directly from CRM systems.
• Pricing catalog and rule configurations: Allows you to configure complex products or services with rules-based logic to ensure only valid combinations are selected.
• Approval workflows: Includes logic for routing quotes that need special approvals, like pricing exceptions, to the right managers or departments.

Zuora offers CPQ-like functionality, but it is geared more for businesses with recurring, usage-based, or subscription revenue models. It has several options for configurable discounting and billing triggers. Reviewers note that it features a user-friendly interface and offers an uncomplicated layout.

How it helps sales teams:

• Guided selling: Product rules and configuration logic guide you in selecting the right products, terms, and add-ons.
• Proposal document generation: You can automatically generate branded proposal documents directly from the quote in the platform. It also enables e-signatures and document workflows.
• Pricing catalog and rule configurations: The product catalog defines products, pricing models, charge types, and billing frequencies.
• Approval workflows: Triggers can be set for approvals based on discount thresholds, contract lengths, or deal values.

DealHub.io is a cloud-based CPQ platform that helps sales teams manage their pricing strategies and deal processes. With a no-code architecture, teams can adapt workflows quickly. Reviewers say DealHub.io has a range of customization options, streamlines the entire sales process, and integrates well with existing CRMs.

How it helps sales teams:

• Guided selling: Offers a step-by-step guided selling playbook that leads you through a series of questions to configure the right products, services, pricing, and terms.
• Proposal document generation: Generates branded sales proposals that include a dynamic quote, legal terms, products, and custom content. All elements exist within a unified digital experience.
• Pricing catalog and rule configurations: Define configuration logic, price rules, and discount parameters.
• Approval workflows: Real-time, rules-based approval workflows automatically route quotes for approval based on discount size, margin thresholds, and contract length.

Oracle CPQ supports the complete quote-to-cash process and ensures consistency from CRM to ERP throughout the customer journey. Reviewers say the platform's design makes it easy to configure new products and provides visualizations of the components.

How it helps sales teams:

• Guided selling: Provides an interactive question-and-answer interface that guides you through the process of identifying customer needs and selecting the right products or services.
• Proposal document generation: Supports custom templates and legal clauses as well as multiple languages and currencies. It can also embed dynamic content, such as product images, terms and conditions, discount tables, and customer-specific pricing.
• Pricing catalog and rule configurations: Pricing rules can be dynamically adjusted based on customer type, volume, or contract length.

Approval workflows: Supports multilevel approval chains with escalation logic.

When evaluating sales quoting software, it's essential to look for features that streamline the quoting process, improve accuracy, and enhance collaboration. Here are some features to consider:

The platform must have CPQ functionality so you can configure your products or services, apply pricing rules, and generate quotes efficiently and effectively. It should also feature dynamic pricing models, tiered pricing, volume discounts, and approval workflows. Another critical aspect is bundling, which allows you to combine products into packages with set pricing or rules.

The software should have customizable templates, allowing you to create professional-looking quote documents tailored to various scenarios. Look for real-time quote generation that offers immediate, up-to-date quotes based on the latest product and pricing data. Multilanguage and multicurrency support is helpful for global sales teams.

AI can streamline the quote creation process, reduce errors, and accelerate response times. With machine learning (ML) and data analytics, it can generate accurate, customized quotes based on real-time pricing, customer preferences, and historical sales data.

Approval workflows should have automated routing for discount approvals or special pricing. Notifications also should be automated, with alerts for quote approvals, expirations, and customer views.

The platform should offer digital signature integration, with built-in e-signature tools. Version control and history tracking are also important for managing multiple revisions and maintaining an audit trail.

When reviewing a prepared quote, customers should be able to comment or request changes directly in the quoting software.

Data encryption, role-based access, and compliance with standards such as GDPR or HIPAA are essential for those working in a regulated industry.

It takes time to choose the right quoting software for sales teams. But it's an investment that can pay real dividends. Today's quoting software streamlines the preparation of quotes, making it easier, faster, and more foolproof than ever.