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Biz: A customer's three-line email. Three priced options, and a finished proposal. And it caught a line that was selling at a loss. Doors open, bell's ringing. Let's see who's walking in.
Biz: Quick honesty first. I'm Biz, an AI host. My voice is made by a computer, and Kit, a real person, runs the workshop and checks what I say. And full disclosure: we make this app. So I'll show you what it does, and what it won't.
Biz: But first, a story. In my story, I'm seventeen, running my own table at the Brooklyn Flea. Framed prints. Very professional. I had a cash box and everything. A lady who runs a little café comes by. She wants twelve prints framed for her walls. My biggest order ever. So I grab a napkin, do the math in my head, and say: twelve frames, and I'll do them for the price of ten. Because I'm a closer. She says deal. We shake on it. I'm walking on air. That night I show my grandmother the napkin. She reads it. Puts on her glasses. Reads it again. And she says, baby, where's the glass? I forgot the glass. Twelve frames, no glass, and a discount on top. I wasn't selling frames. I was buying that café twelve frames. My grandmother laughed so hard she had to sit down. Then she made me keep my word. I framed every one of them. And she pinned that napkin above the register. It's still there. Under it, in her handwriting: know your costs before you give a discount.
Biz: And that's the problem with quoting. It takes an evening. You're tired. You round a number, you give a discount to win the job, and you don't find out what it cost you until the job's done. And the proposal goes out late, in a plain email, while somebody else's lands first and looks the part.
Biz: So here's my question. What if you pasted in your customer's email, and a few minutes later you had three honest options, good, better and best, priced from your own price list, every margin checked, and a proposal letter ready to read? Before your coffee's cold?
Biz: That's this. Kitson Quote and Proposal Builder. App number two in Biz Maxxing Sales. And its motto? Price it fair, say it clear. First thing it tells you. Every figure is worked out in code, from your own price list. The AI only writes the words. And your costs and margins never leave your computer. You give it your price list, with your costs and your volume prices. Then your rules. The most you'll discount without a second look. Your minimum margin. Your deposit. And how long the quote holds. Then you paste in the customer's email. And before anything goes anywhere, you see exactly what's sent. The email, phone number and street address are taken out. Just item codes, names and units. No prices, no costs. You see roughly what it'll cost on your own Anthropic account. You tick the box that says you'll check every figure and every word. And go. It reads the email and suggests lines from your price list, for three options. Good, better and best. And it asks the questions a good seller would. Is there side access to the back garden? Does your town need a permit? Nothing is priced until you confirm it. You fill in what the email didn't say. Six footings. Eight post lights. Done.
Biz: So I gave it a made-up carpentry business. A customer named Jordan wants a new deck. A basic price, a nicer low-maintenance price, and could we do fifteen percent off? Three options. Volume prices where the quantity's big enough. Tax. A deposit, and a payment schedule. All worked out in code, not by the AI. And then this. The composite decking in the better option. At fifteen percent off, that line is two hundred and eighty-eight dollars below cost. That's my napkin, right there. Except this time, somebody remembered the glass. It also flags every line under your minimum margin, and every discount over your limit. So you take a second look before you say yes. And here's my grandmother's lesson, in numbers. To pay for that fifteen percent off, the better option would need about twice the sales. It's right there, on your internal sheet. So you change that line's discount, confirm again, and the loss warning clears. That step's free. No AI needed. Then it writes the proposal letter. The scope, the assumptions, what's not included, and the three options in plain words. And the only deadline in it is the one you set: the day the quote runs out. Every amount in the letter is checked in code against the app's own figures. No costs, no margins, no pressure words. And it gives you a list of what's still missing, before this goes out. Then take it with you. A Word proposal for the customer, with the priced tables. A spreadsheet of the lines. And a separate internal margin sheet, just for you. The customer copy never shows your margin. Price it fair, say it clear!
Biz: Now, the honest bit. What it won't do. It won't send or sign anything. You read the proposal and send it yourself. It won't invent a price. Every priced line comes from your own price list, and the numbers come from code, not the AI. It can't promise you'll win the job. It helps you quote clearly and on time. The rest is you. And the only deadline in your proposal is the one you set. No fake urgency.
Biz: You'll need Node.js, a free program, your price list as a CSV file, and your own Anthropic API key with a little credit. A Claude chat subscription doesn't include API credit. A whole quote on our sample cost us about twenty cents.
Biz: So here's the thing. Every quote you send late is a job somebody else gets. And every discount you guess at could be a napkin of your own. Some sellers will set this up tonight and send their next quote tomorrow morning. Some will mean to, and miss them. Know your costs. Tap the link, and get your next quote out today.
Biz: Keep your promises, and keep your customers. I'm Biz. See you at the counter.