A request for quotation (RFQ) is a document or message a buyer sends to one or more suppliers asking for a price on specified goods or services. It states what the buyer needs, in what quantity, and invites the supplier to respond with pricing and terms.
A request for quotation is the buyer's formal ask for a price. It lists the products or services required, with quantities and specifications, and expects each supplier to return a quotation. RFQs are central to B2B purchasing, where buyers frequently compare quotes from several suppliers before ordering, and they arrive in many forms: structured templates, free-text emails, spreadsheets, and, in construction, bills of quantities.
For the supplier receiving it, an RFQ starts the quoting workflow. Someone must read the request, identify the products, look up pricing and availability, and produce a quote, often under time pressure and often competing against other suppliers responding to the same request. The speed and accuracy of that response affects how often the supplier wins the resulting order.
A customer emails a supplier: "Please quote 500 units of the DN50 stainless steel flange connector, delivery to Berlin by month-end." This free-text RFQ has no product code, so the supplier must interpret the specification and match it to a catalog item before pricing it.
A construction contractor sends a supplier a bill of quantities in GAEB format as an RFQ, listing hundreds of positions to be priced. In both cases, quotation automation can read the request, match the products, apply pricing, and generate a draft response for review.
The difference is commitment: a request for quotation asks a supplier for a price and creates no obligation to buy, while a purchase order is a commitment to buy at agreed terms. An RFQ comes first and invites a quote; a purchase order follows once the buyer decides to proceed. Responding to an RFQ produces a quotation, not an order.
Suppliers respond most competitively to RFQs when they can process them quickly and accurately regardless of format, including free-text emails and requests without product codes. Automating RFQ intake, so requests are read, matched, and drafted into quotes for review, lets a supplier respond to more requests faster, which matters because the first accurate quote often wins the order.
The request for quotation is the starting point of most B2B sales, and the speed of the supplier's response is a competitive variable. Automating RFQ processing turns a manual, time-pressured task into a fast, consistent one.
