From the book · Unleash Your Business With AI
Chapter 7: From enquiry to quotation
The 3 prompts from Chapter 7, ready to copy, with the chapter's mistakes to avoid and three tasks for this week.
Step 1: Capture the enquiry the same way every time
[Paste your business note from Chapter 5] Here is a new enquiry, with the customer's name, phone number and address removed: [paste the messages, or your notes from the call or voice note] Task: 1. Pull out: customer type, products asked for, quantity, needed-by date, delivery city, budget (only if mentioned) and any special requirement. 2. Where something is not stated, write "Unknown". Do not guess and do not fill gaps. 3. Rate the enquiry Hot, Warm or Cold, with one line of reasoning. Hot means a clear product, quantity and timeline. Cold means vague, or asking only for a rate. 4. Suggest the next action. Format: a short table, then the rating and the next action. Use only what is in the messages.
What you should get back: a small table that maps straight onto the columns of your log, several rows honestly marked "Unknown", a rating with one line of reasoning and a suggested next step.
Check: read the table against the original messages before it goes into the sheet. Look for an "around 50" that has become "50", or a size that has been read as a quantity.
That's the first one
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- Step 2: Ask all the clarifying questions in one message
- Step 3: Draft the quotation from the price list only
- Mistakes to avoid
- Do this week
Step 2: Ask all the clarifying questions in one message
[Paste your business note from Chapter 5] Enquiry summary, with personal details removed: [paste the summary from the previous prompt] Task: write one short WhatsApp message to this customer. Thank them, then ask only for the missing information we need to prepare an accurate quotation: product specification, quantity, delivery city and date, packing, payment terms. Leave out anything they have already told us. Maximum 5 numbered questions. Polite and warm, like a senior salesperson who respects the customer's time. Do not mention any price, discount, stock position or delivery date. If the customer wrote in [Hindi / Gujarati / other language], add a version in that language and mark it "TO BE CHECKED BY A NATIVE SPEAKER".
What you should get back: one message of 50 to 80 words with numbered questions that the customer can answer in a single reply.
Check: delete any question the customer has already answered, and make sure no number has slipped in. If you use the translated version, someone who speaks the language reads it first. Chapter 9 covers replies in the customer's language.
Step 3: Draft the quotation from the price list only
[Paste your business note from Chapter 5] Current price list, dated [date]: [paste the price list: product code, description, unit, rate, minimum order, GST rate] Standard terms: - Payment: [for example, 50% advance, balance before dispatch] - Delivery: [for example, dispatch within 7 working days of advance, subject to stock] - Freight: [for example, extra at actuals] - Validity: [for example, 15 days from the quotation date] Customer's confirmed requirement, with personal details removed: [paste the items, quantities, delivery city and date] Task: 1. Draft a quotation table: item, code, quantity, rate, amount. 2. Use ONLY rates from the price list above. If an item, size or variant is not on the list, write [PRICE TO CONFIRM] in place of the rate and leave its amount blank. Do not estimate, and do not use a price from anywhere else. 3. Show the subtotal, then GST as a separate line at the rate the price list gives for each item, then the total. Show your calculation for every line so I can check it. If any line says [PRICE TO CONFIRM], state clearly that the total is incomplete. 4. Do not apply any discount or change any term. If you think the order may qualify for something, tell me in a note after the quotation, not inside it. 5. Below the table, write a short covering message for WhatsApp and a short covering email. Do not promise a delivery date beyond the standard term. End with a list of everything I must check before sending.
What you should get back: a quotation table with the working shown line by line, a GST line, a total, two short covering notes and a checklist addressed to you.
Mistakes to avoid
- Asking for a quotation without pasting the price list. The AI will produce rates anyway, and they will look convincing.
- Using an undated price list. If nobody knows which version was pasted, nobody can check the quote against it.
- Pasting the customer's name, number and address. The AI does not need them to draft questions or a quote. Add them back at the end.
- Trusting the total. AI can lay out a table perfectly and still add it up wrongly. Recalculate every time.
- Waiting to reply until the quotation is ready. Send the clarifying message first. Speed belongs to the first reply.
- Letting enquiries stay in personal chats. If it is not in the log by closing time, the business has not received it.
Do this week
- Create the enquiry log with the columns in this chapter, and enter every enquiry that is open today, with an owner and a next action date for each.
- Put a date on your current price list, save it where the sales team can copy it, and name the one person who will update it.
- Save the three prompts in a shared document. Run them on one real enquiry with personal details removed, and take the draft through the eight checks before you send it.