Should You Turn Down That RFQ

Every shop gets them: the RFQ with vague specs, impossible tolerances, a material you don’t stock, and a deadline of “yesterday.” The instinct is to quote it anyway — what if it turns into a big account? But chasing the wrong work quietly erodes margin, clogs your schedule, and pulls your best people off profitable jobs.

Knowing when to walk away is a skill. Here’s a practical framework for evaluating RFQs fast so you only spend time on the ones worth winning.

Start With a Hard Filter

Before you open a CAD file or call a material vendor, run the RFQ through three binary checks. If any fails, decline or defer immediately.

• Capability match: Can your current equipment, tooling, and certified processes hit the spec without outsourcing critical steps?
• Capacity window: Do you have open machine time and labor in the required lead-time window without overtime or bumping committed work?
• Minimum margin threshold: At your target contribution margin, does the part geometry and volume allow a price the market will bear?

These take minutes. If the answer to any is no, you’ve saved hours of estimating time.

Score the Opportunity, Not Just the Part

An RFQ isn’t just a part — it’s a potential relationship. Score each opportunity on factors that predict long-term value:

• Repeat potential: Is this a one-off prototype or the first of recurring production runs?
• Strategic fit: Does it align with the materials, processes, and industries you’re targeting for growth?
• Customer maturity: Does the buyer provide complete data packs (STEP, drawings, BOM, inspection requirements) or will you chase revisions?
• Payment terms: Are terms Net 30 or better, or will you finance their float?

Weight these by your current business goals. A shop trying to break into aerospace might accept lower initial margin on a qualified AS9100 prospect. A shop maximizing cash flow this quarter weights payment terms higher.

Quantify the Cost of Quoting

Estimating isn’t free. Track what it actually costs you:

• Estimator time (including CAM programming for complex quotes)
• Vendor quote requests for materials or secondary ops
• DFM analysis and back-and-forth with the customer
• Internal review meetings

If your fully loaded cost to produce a complex quote is $400 and your win rate on similar RFQs is 15%, each won job carries $2,600 in hidden quoting cost. That changes your floor price.

Solvi’s instant quoting engine reduces this cost dramatically by automating geometry analysis, material pricing, and process selection — but the principle holds: know your cost to quote.

Use a “No, But” Response Template

Declining professionally keeps the door open for the right work. Keep a few templates ready:

• Capability gap: “Thanks for thinking of us. This requires [5-axis / EDM / specific cert] which we don’t run in-house. Happy to quote if you have 3-axis work or need a partner for secondary ops.”
• Timeline mismatch: “Our current lead time for this process is [X weeks]. If your schedule can shift, we’d love to quote. Otherwise I can recommend a shop with open capacity.”
• Volume/price misalignment: “At this volume, our minimum order comes to $[X]. If the program scales to [Y qty], we can sharpen the pencil significantly.”

Specific, honest, and helpful — not a generic “we’re busy.”

Review Declined RFQs Quarterly

Track every declined RFQ with: reason, estimated value, and customer. Quarterly review reveals patterns:

• Are you consistently turning down work in a process you should add?
• Is one customer sending low-fit RFQs that waste estimating time?
• Are your filters too tight (missing profit) or too loose (chasing noise)?

This data drives hiring, equipment, and marketing decisions — not gut feel.

Protect the Core

Your shop’s reputation, cash flow, and team morale depend on delivering good work on time at a profit. Every bad job you take crowds out a good one. The discipline to say “not this one” is what keeps you available for the next right one.

Want to spend less time on the wrong RFQs and more time winning the right ones? Solvi helps digital manufacturers automate quoting, manage production, and fill capacity with work that fits.