Having founded this company 29 years ago, I can say hiring sales reps is never easy. Unless you're poaching them directly from your competition (which isn't cool!), any new hire will have a steep learning curve. Whether it be products, processes, policies, or pricing, a new sales rep must learn them all in a production environment and never make mistakes. Factor other nuances like applicable sales taxes, quantity discounts, bundlings, and other such variables, and the task can be daunting for everyone involved.

This is why we've introduced some new guard rails with Link2quotes. Link2quotes is not only easier to learn than most professional quoting solutions, with the average new user being able to prepare a quote in the first hour of use, but it also features "Admin Approval," which requires the new sales rep to get approval from a supervisor before any quote can be released.

Think of it like training wheels for quoting, and it couldn't be easier to set up. Here is all that's involved.

1. The Admin goes into the Link2quote Settings, and Selects "Review Process"
2. Here they designate any sales reps that must get Admin Approval before sending quotes (see below)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Once that is set, the new sales rep prepares the quote as they would normally, but the "Send" button for them will be replaced with a "Submit for Approval" button (see below).
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. When they click on that button, the Admin will get an email with the quote link.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. They click the link in the email to review the quote details. If everything is satisfactory, they'll click Approve, and the sales rep will be notified the quote is good to go, and the "Send" button will appear in place of the "Submit for Approval" (see below),
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. If changes need to be made, the Admin can implement those edits immediately or review them with the sales rep. Once that process is complete, the quote will be approved and safe to send.

Letting new staff of any kind into a production environment is always risky, but allowing sales reps to play with "live ammo" is a different level of risk altogether. They deal with customers directly and can potentially bind the company to costly obligations with every quote they send. Link2quotes solves this problem by allowing new sales reps to sell and learn simultaneously, shortening the runway to when they can fly independently.

This approach also requires less supervision from the sales manager, who frequently has little time to spare.

Training wheels or not, Link2quotes is easy-to-learn
Aside from the new training wheels we've added, Link2quotes also provides a structured quoting environment that works with PC's, Mac's, and most mobile devices. It supports quoting boilerplates with standard product configurations, a library of email cover letters to select on the fly, quota tracking, automated quantity discounting, and an extensive easy-to-use product list with detailed product descriptions, images, and hyperlinks. Link2quotes also gives them visibility on click-through activity, so they know when their prospects view a quote, and how often. Moreover, it makes adopting Act! as their CRM even easier because every new quote creates a corresponding Opportunity in the Act! pipeline, and schedules automatic follow-ups in their calendar.

And if you're a company that sells in multi-languages, Link2quotes supports language-specific templates and multi-lingual products - eliminating the need to maintain a product database for each language.

Link2quotes not only makes hiring new sales reps safer for the employer but also accelerates their productivity path. For only $20/per user/month, can you afford to not implement Link2quotes in your business? Start your FREE TRIAL today.