Writing quotes is one of those jobs that sounds quick until you're actually doing it. You pull up a blank doc, type the client's name, stare at the screen for longer than you'd like to admit, piece together the scope, second-guess your pricing, and eventually send something that took 45 minutes and still doesn't quite capture the conversation you had on-site.
With Claude, that process takes five minutes. Here's exactly how to do it.
What you'll need
- A free Claude account — claude.ai — takes two minutes to set up
- Your notes from the client conversation — even rough dot points are fine
- Your standard pricing and any specifics about the job
That's it. No software integration, no complicated setup. Just a browser tab.
Step 1: Give Claude the context
Open Claude and start a new conversation. Paste in your notes from the client discussion — even if they're messy. Then tell Claude what you need. Here's a prompt you can use directly:
Claude will generate a structured quote within seconds. It will have a proper introduction, a scope-of-works section, a pricing table placeholder, and a professional close. It's not magic — it's pattern recognition. Claude has processed enormous amounts of professional business writing and knows what a good quote looks like.
Step 2: Review and fill in the numbers
What comes back isn't a finished quote — it's an 80% draft. Read through it. You'll notice it has captured most of what you said and put it in a logical order. Fill in your actual pricing figures. Check that nothing important was missed.
This is where your expertise still matters. Claude doesn't know your margins, your lead times, or the specific nuance of what this client actually needs. You do. Your job now is to review and refine, not to write from scratch.
Step 3: Adjust the tone
If the language doesn't quite sound like you — maybe it's more formal than you'd normally be, or there's a phrase that feels off — just ask Claude to adjust it. Tell it:
Or, for a more formal client:
Claude will rewrite accordingly. You're having a back-and-forth with a very fast, very patient writing assistant who doesn't take feedback personally.
Step 4: Copy it across
Once you're happy, copy the text into your usual quoting template or document. Add your logo, your ABN, your payment terms — whatever your standard format requires. Send it.
The whole process — pasting your notes, reviewing the draft, adjusting the tone, copying it across — takes between five and ten minutes once you've done it a couple of times.
What this actually saves you
If you write five quotes a week and each one currently takes 40 minutes, that's three hours and twenty minutes. With Claude handling the drafting, you're looking at 30 to 50 minutes total for the same five quotes. That's two and a half hours a week back in your pocket. Over a year, that's more than 100 hours.
Beyond the time, there's a quality consistency benefit. When you're tired or busy, your quotes suffer. Claude's don't. The structure is always clean, the language is always professional, and nothing gets left out because you were rushing.
A few things to watch for
Claude occasionally adds clauses or language that doesn't apply to your situation — always read the output before sending. It also can't calculate your pricing for you; that still comes from your knowledge of the job. And if the client conversation was complex or technically specific, give Claude more detail in your initial prompt — the quality of the output reflects the quality of what you put in.
That said, for most standard quotes and proposals, what Claude produces on the first pass is better than what most people produce after forty minutes of staring at a blank document.
This same approach works for proposals, scope-of-works documents, and client update emails. Once you're comfortable with the quoting prompt, try adapting it for the next piece of writing that's eating your time.