Three days to turn around a quote for a conference room system? In commercial AV, that's an eternity. Your competitors are responding in hours, not days. Here's why speed wins and how to fix your quoting bottleneck before it costs you the next project.
The Speed Expectation Has Changed
Five years ago, prospects expected quotes in 3-5 business days. Today, they're comparing you to companies that deliver same-day ballpark estimates and full proposals within 24 hours. The market has accelerated, and slow quoting feels unprofessional—even if your quality is excellent.
When you tell a prospect "I'll have something to you by Friday," and it's Tuesday, they're already shopping around. By the time your quote arrives, they've received two others and mentally committed to the vendor who responded first.
Where Quoting Bogs Down
Equipment pricing lookups
You're checking distributor portals, vendor price sheets, and margin spreadsheets for every component. A 12-item quote means 12+ tabs open and 20 minutes of price hunting before you even start assembling the proposal.
Labor and installation estimates
How many hours to run cable, mount displays, configure the system, and provide training? You're guessing based on past jobs, checking with your lead tech, recalculating if the job is complex. This adds another 15-30 minutes.
Document formatting and customization
You copy last month's proposal, update the client name, adjust the line items, tweak the scope description, fix the formatting that broke when you pasted. Total time: 20 minutes minimum, often longer if you want it to look polished.
Internal review and approval
If you have a multi-person team, quotes often sit in someone's inbox waiting for sign-off. The estimator finishes Monday afternoon, the owner reviews Wednesday morning, it finally goes out Thursday. The prospect has moved on.
The Quoting Time Tax
If producing a quote takes 90 minutes of combined effort and you do 40 quotes monthly, that's 60 hours spent on paperwork instead of selling, installing, or servicing. At $100/hour, you're burning $6,000 monthly on quote generation alone.
How Automation Accelerates Quoting
Modern quoting automation doesn't replace your expertise—it eliminates the busywork. Here's what changes:
Real-time pricing integration
Connect your quoting system to distributor APIs. Select equipment from a searchable catalog that auto-updates with current pricing and availability. No more tab-switching.
Pre-configured packages and templates
Build quote templates for common scenarios: small conference room, large boardroom, training space, home theater tiers. Start with the template, customize as needed. Quote time drops from 90 minutes to 15.
Automated labor calculations
Set labor rates per equipment type or project complexity. The system calculates install hours based on your historical data and applies current labor rates automatically. Consistent, accurate, instant.
One-click proposal generation
Once the line items are in, the proposal generates as a PDF with your branding, terms, and custom messaging. Send it directly from the system or download for review. Either way, you're delivering same-day quotes instead of next-week quotes.
Speed matters in AV sales. The integrator who quotes fast doesn't just save time—they win trust, control the conversation, and close more deals. If your quoting process is still manual, you're competing with one hand tied behind your back.
Related Articles
Start delivering same-day quotes
See how automated quoting works for AV integrators.