Winning RFQs
The RFQ board and its columns, and the one thing that surprises every new seller: you price an RFQ by editing its Bill of Materials.
Requests arrive on the RFQs board, one card per request, arranged in seven columns by where it has got to. The one thing to know before anything else: you price an RFQ by editing its Bill of Materials, not by filling in a quote form.
The seven columns
| Column | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Requested | A new RFQ. Open the design files and work out your price. |
| Awaiting review | You have sent your price. The buyer is deciding. |
| Customer countered | The buyer has asked for a change — a different price, quantity or specification. Your move. |
| Proposal Ready | A final price is agreed and the buyer can convert it to an order. |
| Authorized | The buyer has confirmed. Move to Orders to begin production. |
| Declined | Turned down, by you or by the buyer. |
| Archived | Closed and kept for the record. |
Pricing an RFQ
Open the request and you get the buyer's files, quantity and requirements on the left, and the conversation on the right. Under Bill of Materials & Processes you build the price up in lines: the material, the machine time, any finishing or secondary operations. Save it, and the total is your quotation.
If the request came in through a Part with one of your Rate Cards attached, the BOM is seeded from that card and you are adjusting a starting point rather than typing from scratch.
The same page carries the delivery timeline — set a date you can actually hit, since it is half of what the buyer is choosing between — and, where the buyer wants you to ship, a shipping estimate calculated from the package weight through Shiprocket. Line items also carry HSN/SAC codes, which is what makes the eventual invoice correct.
Writing a quote that wins
- Answer quickly. Buyers usually accept within a few days of asking. A quote that arrives on day five is competing against a decision already made.
- Break the price down. A single number invites haggling; lines showing material, machine time and finishing invite a conversation about scope.
- Quote a date you will hit. Being a week slower and right beats being fast and late — the second one costs you the next order too.
- Say what you would change. “If this fillet were 2 mm rather than 0.5 mm I could drop ₹400 a part” is the message that turns a price comparison into a relationship.
- Decline clearly when it is not for you. An ignored request is worse for both sides than a one-line no.
What locks when the buyer accepts
Acceptance fixes the price, the quantity and the specification, and the request becomes an order. From that point the work is managed in Orders, not here.
In short
Watch the Requested and Customer countered columns, price by editing the Bill of Materials, ask your questions in the chat, and quote a date you can keep. Next: running an order through production.