A quote request form for IT and managed services providers
A managed services quote is priced per user, per device or per site, and shaped by what the client runs on and what keeps breaking. A request form that collects those before the first call lets you send a range, or know which calls are worth taking.
What should IT and managed services providers ask first?
| Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| How many people need support, and how many computers and phones do they use? | Most managed services are priced per user or per device, so this is the core of the quote. |
| How many offices or sites, and does anyone work remotely? | Sites mean network equipment and visits; remote staff mean managing devices you will never see. |
| What do you use for email and files today? | The platform the client is on decides most of the setup work and which of your plans fits. |
| Who looks after IT now: an employee, another provider, or nobody? | Taking over from another provider means a handover. Taking over from nobody means a cleanup. |
| What went wrong most recently, and what did it cost you? | The last outage is usually why they are asking, and the first thing your proposal should answer. |
| Do any of your clients or contracts require a particular security standard? | A requirement written into the client’s own contracts changes the scope, so you need it before you price. |
| When does your current arrangement end? | A contract end date tells you when the decision will be made. |
If an answer would not change what you do next, leave the question out. Each extra question is one more reason for someone to stop before they finish.
Which answers come back too vague to use, and what do you ask next?
The answers that cause a phone call are rarely missing. They are present and too loose to act on. A narrower follow-up, asked straight away while the person is still there, usually settles them. Offering likely answers shows the person the level of detail you need.
| What comes back | The follow-up that settles it |
|---|---|
| “About twenty people.” | Does each person have their own computer, and are there shared machines, servers or printers to look after too? |
| “The internet keeps going down.” | Is that at one office or everywhere, and is it the connection itself or the Wi-Fi inside the building? |
| “We need better security.” | Is something prompting that: an incident, an insurer’s questionnaire, or a client asking how you protect their data? |
Follow up once per gap, then move on. If an answer is still unclear after one follow-up, flag it for whoever picks the request up rather than pressing.
When is a call or a visit still the right move?
An office with its own servers, a network nobody has documented, or a takeover from another provider usually needs an assessment before a firm price. The written request decides whether that assessment is worth scheduling, and means it starts from the head count, the platform and the problem instead of discovering them on site.
How do you set this up from the Quote request template?
Acquainto has a Quote request template to start from. After you sign up, open Browse templates, pick Quote request, and it lands in the editor as a draft you can change before anything is published.
The template asks what the quote is for, a rough budget, a date, whether the person has another quote, and where to send yours. For managed services, keep “How many people would be using this?”, because it is your first pricing number, and add the device count and sites after it. Turn the first question into who looks after IT now, and add the most recent problem as an open question.
Acquainto runs it as a short written conversation instead of a form. It:
- asks a follow-up when an answer is incomplete, and asks for clarification when one is vague;
- uses a structured choice where precision matters and open conversation where detail matters;
- shows the person every answer before it is sent, so they correct their own mistakes;
- hands back one clean value per question, delivered to your own systems by webhook.
The person answering needs no account, and nothing has to be scheduled. Start free trial, see how it works, or compare plans.