Suppliers triage RFQs in seconds. A vague enquiry gets a templated reply from a junior salesperson; a specific one reaches an engineer.
Lead with quantity and timeline
Suppliers price on volume and capacity. An RFQ that omits both forces them to guess, and they guess conservatively — meaning high.
Specify the standard, not just the part
"M10 bolts" invites fifteen different answers. "M10 x 60 hex bolts, A4-70, DIN 933, EN 10204 3.1 certification" invites four comparable ones.
State your Incoterm and destination port
Without it, half your quotations arrive FOB and half CIF, and comparing them requires work you should not have to do.
Say what you will do with the quotation
"We are shortlisting three suppliers for a trial order this quarter" changes the priority of your enquiry. So does honesty about being early in the process.
Ask one technical question
It costs you nothing and immediately separates the manufacturers from the resellers.
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