Running a truss manufacturing plant is a high-pressure job. Tight deadlines, demanding clients, and endless tasks leave little room for inefficiencies. Yet, if you’re relying on manual quoting processes, like Excel spreadsheets or veteran know-how, you’re likely wasting hours and missing opportunities. You may even be designing jobs that will never make it to your to shop. Slow quotes, costly errors, and designers stuck on non value add tasks can quietly drain your profits. The good news? You don’t have to stay stuck. This post explores why manual quoting holds you back and shares practical tips to streamline your process, so you can save time, reduce mistakes, and focus on winning more jobs.
The Hidden Costs of Manual Quoting
Manual quoting isn’t just slow, it’s expensive. Here’s how it’s hurting your business:
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Wasted Designer Time: Designers often spend hours on quotes, plugging numbers into spreadsheets instead of working on awarded projects. If a designer earns $50/hour and spends 20 hours a week quoting, that’s $1,000 weekly—or $52,000 yearly—in lost productivity.
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Slow Turnaround: Legacy tools like Excel or outdated software take hours per quote. One manufacturer reported spending 2–3 hours on a single-family quote, delaying responses and losing bids to faster competitors.
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Errors and Inaccuracy: Without a centralized system, mistakes creep in. A miscalculated load or pitch can cost thousands in rework or lost trust, especially when quotes rely on inconsistent data.
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Institutional Knowledge Trap: Quoting often depends on unwritten rules known only to veteran team members. This makes training new hires difficult and scaling your business a challenge, as every quote risks missing critical details.
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Seasonal Volume: In today's environment, truss plants are quoting more than ever to win jobs and keep a healthy order file and with packed schedules, fixing a broken quoting process feels impossible. The thought of changing systems seems like a headache you can’t afford.
These issues aren’t just annoyances; they limit your growth and profitability. Understanding them is the first step to finding a better way.
Practical Tips to Improve Your Quoting Process
You don’t need a complete overhaul to start quoting smarter. Here are six actionable tips to address these challenges, even with a busy schedule:
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Centralize Customer Data: Keep client details (e.g., names, emails, project history) in one accessible place, like a CRM or quoting tool, to avoid re-entering data. This cuts setup time and ensures consistency.
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Standardize Job Inputs: Create a checklist for job details—quote number, job tag (e.g., “Smith Residence”), address, bearing, overhang, and loads (e.g., 40 psf snow). This reduces errors and speeds up quote creation.
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Use Templates for Repeat Quotes: Save common truss designs (e.g., 30ft span, 6/12 slope) as templates to reuse for similar projects, cutting quoting time by up to 50%.
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Organize Quotes for Easy Retrieval: Store quotes in a cloud-based system with tags (e.g., “Commercial,” “Smith Builders”) for quick access. This saves hours searching through files or emails.
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Streamline Quote Delivery: Prepare professional PDFs with your logo and clear pricing (e.g., per square foot) to impress clients. Email them directly to speed up approvals.
- Standardization: Document quoting procedure so that estimating can be performed by members of the team that are NOT designers. Designer time is too valuable to work on jobs that may not make it to the shop.
These steps can be implemented gradually, starting with small changes like a job checklist. Over time, they’ll save hours and improve accuracy, helping you win more bids.
How Technology Can Help
While manual improvements work, technology can take your quoting to the next level. Modern quoting tools, like TrussWise, streamline the entire process by automating calculations, centralizing data, and eliminating institutional knowledge. For example, one manufacturer cut quoting time from hours to minutes by using a tool that auto-generates quotes and stores them in the cloud. Another reported fewer errors, as the software ensured consistent inputs. Best of all, these tools often include guided onboarding, so busy teams can start quickly without disruption.
The key is finding a solution that fits your workflow and supports your team, not adds complexity. Look for features like mobile access, customizable templates, and easy archiving to maximize efficiency.
What Manufacturers Are Doing Differently
Real truss manufacturers have faced these challenges and found solutions:
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A Mid-Atlantic plant reduced quoting time by standardizing inputs, allowing their sales team to create quotes 6x faster.
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A Southeast manufacturer adopted cloud-based archiving, saving 4 hours a week searching for past quotes.
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Another team used templates for repeat designs, freeing designers to focus on complex projects, which boosted profitability.
These stories show that small, practical changes that, combined with the right tools, can transform your quoting process without overwhelming your schedule.
Take the Next Step
Manual quoting is holding you back, but you don’t need to tackle it alone. Start with one tip, like a job checklist, to see immediate gains. Want to explore how technology can amplify your efforts? Check out TrussWise for a simpler way to quote faster and more accurately. Visit our Features page (/features) to learn more or request a personalized demo to see how it fits your workflow.