At what point do you start including your costs of business in the cost of a quote for products or services? When it comes to the quote-to-cash process, the first step is really when you put together that pricing. It’s a great illustration of how holistically the cash-to-quote process is: from that quote through delivering the product or service, collecting the amount due, and finally evaluating what you learned about the process by a close look at your data.

               That’s unlike what’s happened in traditional process, where the sale was considered complete once the customer placed the order. In fact, business has learned that’s nowhere near the end of the transaction.

               What this quote-to-cash process also focuses on is breaking down each step and making sure it is measured correctly. Take the quote; it’s actually called configure-quote-price. What else goes into this end-to-end view of sales? This graphic helps explain it.