Offer

Offer

Once a potential client has expressed interest in buying a product or service, the company prepares an offer. It includes a description of the service to be provided as well as the calculation of the price to be paid by the client if he decides to place the order.

Types of offers

In general, four different types of offers are distinguished:

Standard offer

The standard offer includes all service packages that the company typically combines in one offer. It does not include any special customer requests, discounts or other adjustments.

Special offer

The special offer is often associated with discounts. In fact, it often refers to particularly low prices that are below the level of the standard offer. However, special offers can also be distinguished from the standard offer by other conditions, for example in the form of better return conditions. By their very nature, special offers are usually limited in time.

Tender offer

Tender offers are made for public or partly public contracts in the service sector. Characteristically, certain framework conditions of the bid are defined in advance by the tendering party. Potential contractors must then base their bids on these framework conditions. Frequently, this severely limits the scope for bids and reduces the selection to the lowest price. In public sector tenders in particular, there are clear guidelines on the award procedure.

Decoy offer

The loss leader offer is a special offer aimed at attracting potential customers. It is usually priced particularly attractively and is intended to generate attention for the provider. Due to the high demand, loss-leader offers are often sold out very quickly. Nevertheless, the provider expects the signal effect to lead to increased sales of other products (cross-selling).

Legal aspects of the offer

The submission of a binding offer also gives rise to obligations: the provider undertakes to carry out the offered order as stated in the offer, provided that the customer has accepted the offer. In that case, the contract has been concluded in a legally binding manner.

As an alternative to a binding offer, the offer can be declared as "subject to confirmation" or "non-binding". As a rule, in addition to the description of the goods or services, offers also contain information on payment and delivery terms and a period of validity, the so-called binding offer period.

Structure of an offer

The structure of an offer is essentially the same as that of an invoice. This means that the sender's and recipient's addresses are at the top, followed by the salutation and a short introduction. The main part consists of the individual offer items. Here, care should be taken to ensure that quantities, prices and discounts are stated as transparently as possible. The final part is made up of a greeting and the contact details of the offeror.

Detailed offers contain up to four parts:

• A presentation of the provider's capabilities and qualifications, e.g. in the form of reference projects.
• An explanation of the procedure for the task defined in the offer
• A calculation showing different variants or optional components
• The general terms and conditions (GTC).