What Is a Request for Quote (RFQ)?

Request for Quote: A request for quote (RFQ) is a formal request a buyer sends to one or more suppliers asking for pricing, lead time, and terms on a specific product or service before making a purchase decision.

In Plain Terms

Most industrial purchasing starts with an RFQ. A buyer — an engineer, a purchasing manager, a maintenance lead — knows roughly what they need, whether that's 5,000 stamped brackets, a replacement motor, or a custom fabrication job, and sends a request to one or more suppliers asking what it will cost and how long it will take.

A real RFQ usually includes a quantity, a spec or drawing, a target delivery date, and sometimes a budget range. The more complete it is, the faster a supplier can respond with an accurate number instead of asking a round of clarifying questions first.

Buyers rarely send an RFQ to just one supplier. It's normal to request quotes from three or more shops on the same job and award the work based on price, lead time, and how easy the supplier was to deal with — which is exactly why how a website handles an incoming RFQ matters as much as the price quoted back.

Example

A purchasing manager at an OEM needs 5,000 stamped brackets to a tight tolerance, delivered within eight weeks. She emails the drawing and spec to three metal stamping shops she found through a Google search and asks each for a quote. The shop that replies first, with an accurate price and a clear lead time, has a real edge before the other two even respond.

Why It Matters for Manufacturers

For most industrial suppliers, the website's real job is capturing that RFQ the moment a buyer is ready to send it — not just describing capabilities in general terms. A site with no clear way to submit specs and quantities, or one that routes everything through a generic "contact us" form, loses RFQs to competitors who made it easier to ask.

How MFG Web Design Handles RFQs

We build RFQ capture into the site itself — forms built for the specs a buyer actually needs to submit (drawings, quantities, tolerances, deadlines), not a generic contact box. See the full approach on the Industrial Web Design page, or check how your current site scores on RFQ capture with the free RFQ Scorecard.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between an RFQ and an RFP?

An RFQ asks mainly for price and lead time against a well-defined spec. An RFP (request for proposal) is broader — the buyer wants to see how a supplier would approach the work, not just what it costs, and is more common on complex or custom projects.

Why do so many RFQs never turn into an order?

Buyers routinely send the same RFQ to several suppliers at once and pick based on price, lead time, and how easy the supplier was to work with during the quoting process itself. A slow or confusing quote response loses jobs a shop was otherwise qualified to win.