How to turn a customer's enquiry email into an RFQ

It's the quickest thing to do, and it causes three problems:

• Every supplier reads it differently. Customers write loosely: "the usual bolts, maybe 500". One supplier prices 500, another prices a box.
• It tells suppliers who your customer is. Some will go to your customer directly next time.
• The replies don't line up. If each supplier answers a different version of the question, you can't compare their prices line by line.

A short request in the same layout for everyone fixes all three.

1. Read the whole email first, including the attachments. Customers often put the list in a PDF or a spreadsheet and the deadline in the last line.
2. Put one item on each line. For each one, write the description, the quantity and the unit as the customer gave them. Number the lines, so suppliers can answer "line 3".
3. Keep the customer's wording for specs. Grades, sizes, part numbers and drawing numbers go in exactly as written. You're changing the layout, not the words.
4. Mark anything vague or missing, and ask. Which bolts, what size, how many: write "to confirm" and ask your customer. A guessed line gets you a price for the wrong order.
5. Take out your customer's name. Check the subject, the lines and any notes for the customer's name, email address or phone number.
6. Add what suppliers need to quote. A deadline with a date and a time, the delivery address, payment terms and the currency. Ask how long their price stays valid.
7. Check it against the original email, then send the same request to every supplier. Three to five suppliers is usually plenty. How to ask several suppliers for quotes covers the sending and the comparing.

An RFQ template has the lines and the terms laid out for you.

1. Find your forwarding address. Open Inbox in the left sidebar. Before you've forwarded anything, it shows "Your forwarding address" with a copy button. After that, it's in the menu at the top of the Inbox page. It's also in your welcome email.
2. Forward the email yourself, from your mail app. Send it from the email address you sign in with, not from a shared inbox like sales@. If your plan has more than one seat, a teammate can forward too, from the address they sign in with.
3. Open the draft. It appears in Requests, usually within a minute or two. The Inbox shows each forwarded email and what became of it.
4. Check every line against the original. The top of the draft says how many lines were read, and who forwarded the email. It also names any attachments it didn't read, so you can add their items yourself.
5. Fill in the gaps. A quantity or unit the email didn't give is left empty for you to fill in. If your customer added or changed items in a later reply, add those yourself. If the customer gave a deadline, it's in the notes. Suppliers see the notes, so change or delete that line, and set your own deadline.
6. Check the title, the notes and the lines for your customer's name. Your customer's email is never sent to suppliers. They see the request title, the notes and the lines you send. The title usually starts as the email's subject, so change it if it names your customer.
7. Choose suppliers and send. Max prices start empty, and you only need them for a live auction. The draft uses your account's default currency, which you can change.

No email comes back to you when you forward. Everything shows in the Inbox.

• It reads the text of the email. Attachments, like PDFs and spreadsheets, aren't read yet. The draft names each one, so you know what to check.
• It copies the wording as written. Specs like grades and sizes stay with their line.
• It doesn't invent. A missing quantity or unit is left empty, and it never fills in a price.
• It reads enquiries in other languages, and keeps the lines in the language they were written in. It doesn't translate them.
• It removes email addresses and phone numbers from the email's text before the AI reads it. Names in the text aren't removed.
• One enquiry per email. Forward each customer's enquiry on its own.
• It reads your customer's first message. In a thread, a later reply that adds or changes items isn't read, so add those on the draft yourself.

Look at its row in the Inbox. It says what happened and what to do:

• "Sender not on your team": it was forwarded from an address that isn't a sign-in on your team, such as a shared inbox. Forward it from your own sign-in address.
• "Could not confirm sender": usually an automatic mail rule forwarded it. Forward it yourself from your mail app.
• "Buy AI credits": your AI credits ran out, so it wasn't read. Once you have credits again, open that row and press Retry now.
• "No items found" or "Nothing to read": it didn't find a list of items in the text. If the items are in an attachment, add them to the draft yourself.

Reading an enquiry uses a little of your monthly AI credits, which every plan includes. Forwarding an enquiry doesn't use an RFQ. Sending the request does.

SourcingHQ is a sourcing assistant that collects quotes from your own suppliers, with a live reverse auction you switch on when you want them to compete.

• Who to ask. It suggests suppliers from your own history, especially the ones who quote regularly. A new account has no history yet, so the suggestions get better as you use it. You can import your supplier list from Excel to start.
• Sending. Requests go out in your company's name, and you can see the delivery status of each one. Suppliers quote from an email link without creating an account, and reminders go to the ones who haven't.
• How suppliers quote. Each RFQ collects quotes by a deadline, and suppliers can change their quote before it closes. When you want them to compete, switch on a live auction, where suppliers bid against each other until it closes and see whether they're the lowest.
• Choosing. You compare every quote line by line in a comparison report, with PDF and Excel export, and award the whole order to one supplier or split it line by line.

The AI never sends, awards or contacts suppliers on its own. You decide each of those.

SourcingHQ has a free plan with 3 RFQs and 1 seat. It isn't a trial and it doesn't expire, and the 3 RFQs are a total, not a monthly allowance. Paid plans are a one-time payment that covers 12 months. Suppliers never pay, and every request can have as many suppliers as you like. Each request you send counts as one RFQ, live auction or not, and if you cancel it before it starts, you get the RFQ back. See plans and pricing.

Try SourcingHQ free with your next customer enquiry.