How to write an RFQ that gets useful quotations

A good RFQtakes you twenty minutes to write and saves you a week of back-and-forth with suppliers. A bad one drowns your inbox in clarifying questions and quotes you can’t compare. This piece is the actual playbook we use at QuoteLink — what to include, what to leave out, and the deadlines suppliers will actually hit.

Why most RFQs get partial answers (or none)

Suppliers are quoting for half a dozen buyers at once. Your RFQ competes for their attention. The ones that get clean, fast responses share three traits:

• Specific items.Brand, model, spec, and unit are non-negotiable. “Industrial valve” is not an item; “2″ ANSI 150 stainless ball valve, lever handle” is.
• A real deadline.A 3-day window with a specific time signals you’re a real buyer. An open end-date signals you’re shopping for fun.
• A clear delivery destination.Suppliers price differently for Jakarta vs. Surabaya vs. a Bekasi industrial estate. Without a destination they either guess high or ask — both slow you down.

The five fields every RFQ needs

Skip these at your peril. If your template forces you to fill them in, you’ll get useful quotes back the first time.

1. Item description with brand & model

Suppliers should not have to guess what you want. Spell out brand, model number, technical specs, and quality grade. “Or equivalent” is fine — but only if you describe what equivalence means (e.g. “IEC IP66 or better”).

2. Quantity and unit

Numbers without units cause real problems. “500 cable” could mean 500 meters or 500 reels. Always include the unit (pcs, meters, kg, sets, drums). If your items come in pack sizes, declare it: “100 pcs (5 packs of 20)”.

3. Required delivery date and location

Pricing changes with urgency and distance. State both the location (city or warehouse address) and when you need it on site. If you have a hard go-live date, share it — suppliers will work around stock-outs more aggressively for real deadlines.

4. Quotation submission deadline

Three to five business days is the sweet spot. Less and you’ll only hear from suppliers with the item on the shelf; more and the responses dribble in for weeks and you can’t make a decision. Include a specific time (e.g. “Friday 17:00 WIB”) so there’s no ambiguity.

5. Payment terms (and tax treatment)

State the payment terms you’ll accept upfront — Net 30, 50/50 deposit, full advance, whatever. In Indonesia, also clarify whether prices should be quoted including or excluding PPN (VAT). This single line eliminates the most common round of clarifying emails.

Three mistakes that waste a week

These are the ones we see most often when a buyer says “suppliers aren’t responding.”

1. Emailing each supplier separately.Three bad things happen: suppliers know they’re the only ones quoting and pad the price; you reply to one supplier with a clarification but forget to update the others; quotes come back in different formats so you can’t compare. One shared link to a structured form fixes all three.
2. Asking for total price only.If you ask for “total for all items,” you can’t pick a winner per line. Every RFQ should request unit price per line item — otherwise you’ll either award the whole basket to one supplier (probably overpaying) or do the unit-price math yourself from a PDF (annoying and error-prone).
3. No deadline, or a deadline three weeks out. Quotes have shelf life — raw material prices, freight rates, and exchange rates all move. A 3-week deadline means the early quotes are stale by the time you compare them. Tighten the window.

Copy-paste RFQ checklist

Drop this into your next request. If you can tick every box, your RFQ is ready to send.

The fastest way to send it

A spreadsheet attached to an email is the most common format and the worst. Suppliers fill it in inconsistently, quotes come back in different file formats, and you spend an hour normalizing the data before you can compare.

The version that actually works: a structured online form behind a single shareable link. Every supplier opens the same form, enters pricing per line, attaches any reference PDFs they want, and submits. You see all responses lined up side by side — with the lowest price per item highlighted automatically — on one screen.