Solution

Since some materials and finished products are purchased monthly, you may not need to go back and forth with multiple suppliers for multiple source communication, but you still have to conduct inquiries and price comparisons to ensure that your business gets the best value for money, and this is the best time to use  Quick Quote.

Quick Quote is designed to speed up the quotation process. It can help you:

Ensure complete information is provided to suppliers

Quick Quote ensures that you provide your suppliers with complete, organized and understandable information. It may look different for each product or service, but at least offer the following information to suppliers during your first interactions so that they can quickly start quoting:

• Product Image
• Product name
• Product attachment
• Request quantity
• Supplier
• Sales volume
• Gift amount
• Unit
• Unit price
• % deviation from the benchmark price based on historical prices
• Remark
• Quote attachment
• Status
• Is the best offer

Enable suppliers to see the big picture

Quite a few suppliers have experienced the following similar incidents - when RFQs come in, they rarely ask questions and quote at face value. Later, when they followed up with the buyer, the buyer would tell them the price was too high. Suppliers know they should be competitive and start by asking questions, but they don’t. Then they will find out they should cite something different, but it is too late. They waste time and lose business opportunities, and buyers may miss out on better value for money. This happens when suppliers can’t see the big picture.

Quick Quote allows your suppliers to see a reasonable overall situation. For example, when a supplier knows that the 200 items you asked them to quote are part of a 12-month package order that is delivered monthly, they may price the item’s potential more aggressively due to scope and longevity. They can also give you the best price up front, avoiding back-and-forth delays and trying to adjust the offer later. Enabling your suppliers to see a reasonable overall picture will help you in your price comparison.

Avoid common mistakes

An often-overlooked factor that delays the quoting process is the loss of supplier support. In fact, to respond quickly to a quote request, you need someone on the other end who is motivated to take care of you. However, if you treat them unreasonably, you may find that your requests are always at the bottom of the request heap. Here are some common mistakes buyers make to alienate suppliers:

Inappropriate request

As mentioned earlier, it is unreasonable to expect buyers to know everything. However, if the supplier’s website, promotions, and all the talk tells you that they are experts in producing sheet metal fabrication, don’t send him a request for a quote for plastic thermoforming (or die casting, drop forging, etc.).

Excessive number of interruptions

When a product is released, it is not always certain what the exact number of orders will be. Due to economies of scale, there are advantages to placing orders based on certain price breaks. However, by asking suppliers to quote from 1 to 1000 (1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 100 ... 1000), you will certainly feel bad. Not to mention, a request for a quote like this would not be a priority.

These are the main differences that suppliers see between amateur buyers and professional buyers. Professionals consider the feelings of the other party, prepare information well and share the big picture. They avoid mistakes that alienate suppliers and always get a quote faster.