Automate Quotes: HubSpot Workflow for Approvals & Revisions

HubSpot is a solid option for revenue operations improvements and business process automation because it comes with a plethora of tools to enable streamlined solutions that unify teams around one source of truth. We’ll show you how it works with one fairly ubiquitous process that tends to get hairy despite being a core building block for business growth: creating, revising, approving, and sending quotes.

Clash of the Strategies: RevOps vs. Business Process Automation in HubSpot

What is the difference between business process optimization & automation and revenue operations?

HubSpot is a great revenue operations tool, but the term “RevOps” masks a lot of different concepts and actions. Yes, HubSpot can align your teams around revenue with data visibility, putting everyone's eyes on the same goals, metrics, and OKRs that spell success for your business.

However, there is more to HubSpot. If you only see HubSpot as a RevOps tool, you’ll be missing out on a lot of what the platform can do to improve your day-to-day pursuit of those revenue-focused goals.

Opening your eyes to business process optimization enables your RevOps success, while also giving you automation opportunities for things like handoffs.

How do we choose between RevOps and business process optimization?

You can opt for just business process automation, or you can go the RevOps route with business process automation. Ultimately, the decision depends on the stage of your business and how well your different departments mesh at the moment. Ask yourself:

• Is it an objective of yours to align marketing and sales and service?
• Are you already having operational conversations that connect your teams?
• How well do sales and marketing work together now?

If you’re not seeing synergy - or at least the beginnings of it - between your teams, then business process automation will be a good place to start. These changes will allow your teams to begin working with and understanding one another, dismantling silos that pit teams against each other amid conflicting goals.

Is HubSpot worth the hype for RevOps and business process automation?

This is an easy one: Absolutely.

Custom properties and workflows are what make HubSpot a superpowered platform for RevOps and business process optimization. You can condition and automate just about everything with if/then statements, variable triggers, and branching response trees that tailor your processes on an atomic level.

With these tools alone, you’re looking at saving hours of work every month. That’s time your team wins back for doing better business, instead of doddling on manual data upkeep.

So, What are HubSpot Workflows?

You’re probably already familiar with workflows, since they are the backbone of HubSpot automation. Just in case, though, here’s a refresher on what a workflow can do for you, in HubSpot’s own words:

"They save you time and energy by taking care of repetitive tasks, such as sending emails, creating reminders for reps, updating CRM data, and more. They take the manual work off of your employees' plates, so more time can be dedicated to marketing, selling, and servicing your customers. The best part is that once they're turned on, they work 24/7 to make your job easier."

The opportunities to automate your business processes are nearly endless when workflows are involved, and the triggers you can use to initiate those automations are limitless too. From deal stages and job titles to custom properties and content interactions, you can mix and match the circumstances that best fit your targeting strategy.

When to Use Workflows in HubSpot

Beyond content distribution and customer-facing communication, workflows are powerful internal tools for revenue operations and business process automation. You can use them to streamline your repetitive processes and get multiple team members collaborating on a project in one workspace.

For example, HubSpot workflows can help you get quote approvals from all the right people.  We’ll walk you through how that works so you can start using HubSpot to empower teamwork across your organization.

How to Automate Quote Approvals Using HubSpot Workflows

No quote is perfect the first time, and even if it were, a quote’s journey does not end with approval. There are multiple steps in the approval process from origination to distribution, and keeping every team member in the loop during the quote lifecycle can be tricky.

Automate it instead!

Start moving quotes along in a timely, organized manner. This workflow setup enables you to pass quotes between multiple approvers, bounce them back to the quote owner if revisions are requested, and create tasks for quote distribution once final approval is given.

Here’s how to do it:

The Simple Setup

To get started, turn on “Approvals Required.” This will automatically create 3 workflows that we can customize.

1. Assign the quote approver and create an approval task.
2. When changes are requested on a quote, you assign the changes to the quote owner.
3. When quotes are approved, create a task to send them out.

Once a quote is created, a task will be generated for the assigned approver. This will show up in that user’s task list, prompting them to put their eyes on the new quote and provide feedback.

Approvers will be able to add feedback to a quote, which creates another task for the quote owner. Assuming edits are needed, the quote owner can make the required changes before circulating the quote for another approval attempt.

Approvers will see the quote much the same way as they did in the first round. This time, it’ll be ready to go! Once the approver gives their official sign-off, a new task is created for the quote owner, reminding them to disseminate the quote to its final destination.

Accounting for Multiple Rounds of Revisions

If you’re anticipating more than one go-round of edits, then you can add a few steps to your automation.

• Re-enroll a Quote for Revisions - Sometimes, one round of revisions isn’t enough. You can set up a second editing stage using the same identifiers you used before, and using the quote’s status as a trigger. For example, For example, if a quote’s status is “Rejected” and the feedback contains modifiers like “second,” “2nd,” or the like, then another round of revisions will kick-off.
• Re-enroll a Quote for Approval - With more revisions, come more approvals. Much like the additional revision stages, you can use the same identifiers to add another layer of approvals to your workflow. Once again, use quote status, keywords, or other predictable indicators to launch approval-related tasks that keep everyone on track.

Adding Multiple Approvers

There’s no I in team! It’s common for companies to use a tiered approval system as quotes work their way through your hierarchy. Let’s see what that looks like when applied to our simple workflow, using a task queue.

• Identify Who Approves First - You can set this up based on user parameters, like what team a sales rep is on. Simply assign the desired user as first approver. Add if/then branches after the trigger to make sure it lands with the right team member first.
• Identify a Secondary Approver - Once you’ve set your first approver, you can add the next person in the chain. The first approver’s feedback would be sent over with the quote to whomever you choose for this secondary role. The first approver will also let the second know what they thought via a status of “Approved” or “Revisions.”
• Modify Second Rejection Actions - The second approver will pair their feedback with that of Approver #1 for the quote owner. In the event that both approvers have revisions, the quote clearly needs work and can’t move on to the sending phase. Ensure your workflow is prepared for this. Enable the automation to use two “Revision” or “Rejected” statuses as the basis for unchecking the approval stage.

Sending Quotes to Prospects

You’ve put all that work into compiling a perfect quote. Now, make sure it actually gets sent out. If you want to be sure a quote gets to your prospect, you can add these layers to your workflow.

• Set Up an Email Using Specific Keywords - When a quote gets approved and you send it out to a prospect, you can use specific keywords in the subject line or body of your email to help HubSpot - and your team - understand where that quote is in the pipeline. This will come in handy later when it’s time to verify if a quote was sent or not.
• Establish an Approval-Linked Delay - Take the headache out of remembering to send a quote with automation, too. You may not want the quote to leave internal hands the exact second it gets approved, so set up a delay that you’re comfortable with. We suggest 4 hours between final approval and automated email send.
• Verify Your Quote’s Departure - To make sure everything is running as expected, you can create an if/then branch to see if an email went out with the subject line or email body keywords you selected before. You can set your parameters to align with your approval-linked delay as well. For a 4-hour delay, set this to target profiles updated in the last .16 days.

Pull It All Together

See us setup quote approval automations with multiple approvers and multiple revision stages, all live on LinkedIn!

Need a HubSpot solution setup in real-time to streamline your business processes? Submit your quandaries for consideration and we’ll put a practical procedure in place on a live session.

More HubSpot Help is on the Way!

HubSpotters help each other out. No matter what you need to set up or how you use your Hubs, we can help you hash out your next HubSpot project. Find the way that works best for you; we offer:

• Tutorials
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Want something more 1-to-1? We do that, too.