What is a qualified RFQ?
A request for quotation (RFQ) is a buyer asking a supplier for a price. According to Wikipedia, October 2026, it is a process in which a company or public entity requests a quote from a supplier. The page adds that an RFQ often lists item specifications and may ask for payment terms, quality levels or contract length.
The Government of India's Manual for Procurement of Goods (Department of Expenditure, 2024) uses the word quotation as another name for a bid. It defines a bid as an offer to supply goods, services or works, made under the terms of a document that invites bids.
Qualified RFQ (our own definition, not an industry standard). A request for quotation that names a product or specification, a quantity, a delivery place and a time, from a buyer who can decide or pay.
Most enquiries are not RFQs. A student asks for a catalogue. A trader asks for your lowest rate. A dealer checks a price. All of them are useful, but they are different. An agency that reports all of them as "leads" hides the number you care about.
Say a maker of industrial valves gets 60 enquiries in a month, and 9 of them name a size, a quantity, a town and a date. Those 9 are qualified RFQs. The numbers are made up. Ask your agency to report the 9 every month, next to the 60.
In-house, specialist or full-service: how to choose
Use the table above with three questions.
- How long is your sales cycle? If a deal takes months, someone must stay close to your sales team. That can be your own staff, or an agency that agrees to meet your sales head every month.
- How many kinds of work do you need at once? One need, such as RFQs from search, suits a specialist. A launch with search, LinkedIn, dealer meets and print asks for a wider team.
- Who on your side will own it? Any agency needs one named person at your firm who answers within a day. Without that person, every option slows down.
Many firms mix. An in-house person keeps product facts and sales follow-up. An agency runs search, LinkedIn and dealer work. Write down who owns each job, so nothing falls between the two.
How to compare two or three quotes
Prices are hard to compare when the work differs. Ask each agency to quote the same scope and answer the same points.
- What is included, and what is extra, such as ad spend, tools, photo and video shoots, and print.
- The minimum period, the notice period and who owns the accounts.
- The report: its format, how often it comes and who presents it.
- The people: names, roles and how much of their time your account gets.
- The first 90 days: what will be done and how it will be counted.
A qualified RFQ checklist for your side
Agencies do better work when the brief is clear. Fill this in before the first call. If you do not know an answer, write that down. It is a useful finding.
- Products. The exact names, models or specifications that buyers use, not only your catalogue headings.
- What counts as qualified. For each product line: the smallest quantity, the places you serve and the lead time you can meet.
- Who buys. The job titles of the people who ask, decide and pay. In a plant that may be a purchase manager, an engineer, a plant head or the owner.
- Where you sell. The states or cities you serve, and the ones you do not.
- Your sales cycle. For your last ten orders, the days or months from the first enquiry to the order.
- Who answers an RFQ. One named person, the time they take to reply and who follows up after the quote.
- Last 12 months. Enquiries by source, qualified RFQs, quotes sent and orders. Say so where you have no record.
- Dealers and distributors. A list of them, the areas they cover and what they need from you.
- Proof. Plant photos, test papers and customer names, shown only where the customer has agreed.
Seasons and sales cycles for industrial buyers
Industrial buyers do not follow a shopping season. They follow plans, budgets and tenders. We could confirm only a few public facts, so the table lists those, with the source and the date we read it. Anything else about timing on this page is our view and says so.
| Public fact | Source and date | What it means for your brief |
|---|---|---|
| Central government buyers that follow the Department of Expenditure's manual are told to prepare an annual procurement plan for the coming financial year and to spread buying across the year. Open tender is the default method. It is advertised on GeM (the Government e-Marketplace) and on the Central Public Procurement Portal. | Department of Expenditure, Manual for Procurement of Goods, Second Edition 2024 (foreword dated 22 July 2024). Read 18 October 2026. | If you sell to government buyers, ask the agency what it knows about GeM and tenders. Ask whether it will help keep your catalogue and papers ready. |
| The same manual says bidders should normally get at least three weeks to prepare, and at least four weeks where international bidders may take part. It also lists faster routes for urgent buying. | Department of Expenditure, Manual for Procurement of Goods, Second Edition 2024, chapter 5 and chapter 8. Read 18 October 2026. | Keep catalogues, test papers and price data ready, so your team can answer in the time allowed. |
| Each central ministry, department and public sector unit is to set a yearly goal of at least 25% of its purchases from micro and small enterprises (MSEs). The page names sub-targets of 4% for MSEs owned by SC or ST entrepreneurs and 3% for women-owned MSEs. | Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Sambandh portal, page on the Public Procurement Policy. It names the 2012 order and shows no other date. Read 18 October 2026. | If your firm is an MSE, say so in your brief and keep your registration papers ready. |
| GeM's home page says catalogues not validated in the last 180 days will be deactivated by 15 November 2026. | GeM home page, which showed 17 October 2026 as its update date. Read 18 October 2026. | If you sell on GeM, name one person who owns the catalogue. Ask whether the agency will help. |
| A calendar of events in India for 2026 lists industrial shows through the year. Examples are GPEX Expo (4 to 6 June, New Delhi), Tools & Equipment Expo (16 to 19 September, New Delhi) and METEC India (30 November to 2 December, Mumbai). | Embassy of India, Astana, Calendar of Upcoming Events in India, 2026. The document shows no issue date. Read 18 October 2026. | Plan the follow-up before the fair, and agree how fair leads will be counted. Dates can change, so check with the organiser. |
| As a rule of thumb, up to 95% of business buyers are not in the market for a given product at a given time. In his example, firms change provider about every five years, so about 5% are in the market in a quarter. He says the figure is not a precise rule. | John Dawes, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, 2021. Read 18 October 2026. | A quarter's RFQs come from the few buyers who are ready now. Ask how the agency will keep your name known to the rest. |
Beyond these, we found no public figure on when Indian factories set marketing budgets or place orders, so we state none. Ask your own sales team. Count your last 24 months of RFQs by month and plan from that pattern. This is our advice, not a sourced rule.
Buyers who are not ready now may be ready in a quarter. Plan follow-up for them, such as a call, a catalogue or a plant visit. Our guide to trade show marketing shows how to count fair leads and the return on your spend. Our guide to dealer meet planning covers dealer events.
How the channels fit an industrial firm
Marketplaces. IndiaMART's help page lists a Post Your Requirement tool for buyers. For sellers it lists Buy Leads, Lead Manager and Manage Requirements. The page shows no figures on how leads are matched, sent or priced (IndiaMART, October 2026). Ask the agency how it will count marketplace enquiries next to enquiries from your own site.
Your own website and search. Buyers search by product name and specification. Google says to write for people first. It asks you to make clear who wrote a page, and to say how it was made when automation or AI played a large part (Google Search Central, October 2026). Product pages that answer a buyer's questions fit that advice. That is our reading, not Google's words.
Dealers and distributors. Where dealers close the sale, ask the agency how leads will reach the right dealer and how you will see who closed the order.
Trade fairs. A fair gives a burst of contacts. The follow-up is where the orders come from, so agree how it will be done and counted.
Warning signs when you meet an agency
- The report starts with reach, likes and followers.
- It will not give you access to your own ad and analytics accounts.
- It promises rankings or a fixed number of leads. Nobody can honestly do that.
- It cannot say who will do your work.
- It claims to rank first in India. Nobody can honestly say that.
- It asks for a long lock-in and offers no notice period.
- It sells you a package before it asks about your sales cycle.
Any one of these is a reason to ask more questions. It is not always a reason to walk away.
A first 90 days, in our own framing
- Month 1. Agree what a qualified RFQ is. Set up tracking in your own accounts. Gather your last 24 months of enquiries. Name the person who owns replies.
- Month 2. Fix the path from your website to an RFQ: product pages, a short enquiry form and a phone number that taps to call. Prepare a pack for dealers.
- Month 3. Review the numbers with your sales head. Keep what works and cut what does not. Set the plan for the next quarter.
Three months is short in a long sales cycle. Expect to see steps first, such as more RFQs that fit and faster quotes. Orders come later.
