Procurement teams issue RFQs with drawings and a clock. If your ‘submit bid package’ path is a generic mailbox, packets arrive incomplete. The form should ask for company, deadline, a spec URL, and enough location context to price freight.
CC sales, but let applications or estimating own the queue.
Those extra fields are why this pack is not a generic inquiry.
Link it from every capability page and from quotes you already sent.
No-bid in the dashboard so you are not ghosting procurement.
A request for quote is a structured invitation to bid against a defined spec, often with a deadline. US manufacturing RFQs may cite ASTM or part numbers; UK packets may cite BS EN drawings and Incoterms. The public form is how a buyer who is not yet in your portal dumps the packet on your desk with a date attached.
This is heavier than a casual quote request: you want a drawings link, a bid-by date, and a company name that matches the letterhead. You still do not want bank details on a marketing page.
Late or non-compliant bids usually fail because the spec never reached engineering, not because sales was rude.
State in the intro whether you bid in USD or GBP and whether you need NDA before opening drawings.
Ariba is the cathedral. Email is the bazaar. HTML sits between them.
Catches inbound RFQs from buyers who found you on Google, not only incumbents.
Required by large US and UK enterprises. Parallel to this form, not a replacement for inbound.
Works until a revision is missed. Force a single spec URL when you can.
Invisible when that rep is on leave. Dashboard rows survive holidays.
Job-shop sites are often static photo galleries. An RFQ form on /rfq is how engineering hears about work without a CMS.
If you quote both US and UK plants, ask which factory ZIP or postcode the goods should ship from so the wrong plant does not bid.
RFQ prices a defined spec. RFP asks how you would solve a problem. Use the RFP generator when the buyer wants an approach, not only a number.
Use a cloud link. Marketing-site file fields struggle with large CAD.
Add one on the form if your counsel wants it. Do not pretend it replaces a signed NDA.
Ask in the message. Do not hide EXW versus DDP in a tiny footnote.