Leak 30 · Sales & Quoting - Low-probability quotes consuming excessive labor
A customer sends thirty RFQs a quarter and buys twice. Each RFQ takes an hour. Your quote desk is their free pricing service.
Diagnostic note. Symptoms, required records, an initial check, and possible fixes. This shorter note does not include a full worked example.
What is it?
Some RFQs are price checks, budget exercises, or three-bid requirements where the incumbent will win. Treating every RFQ as an equal opportunity spends skilled labor on quotes that were never going to convert, and slows the response to the ones that were. The leak is the labor, and the fix is triage, not refusal.
- Family
- Sales & Quoting
- Primary owner
- Inside Sales Lead
- Secondary owners
- VP Sales, CFO
- Primary impact
- EBITDA
- Typical data source
- ERP quotes by customer, quote effort estimates
- Detection difficulty
- 30-day measurability
Ask yourself
Do you know which customers request many quotes and rarely buy, and does your team treat their RFQs differently?
Yes, partially, no, or don’t know. “Don’t know” is the most useful answer, because it points at the test below.
What does it look like?
Warning signs. None of these proves the leak exists. They tell you where to look.
- Customers with quote counts far above their order counts.
- Quote desk overloaded while win rate falls.
- No record of quote effort, so nobody sees where the hours go.
What data do I need?
The minimum viable set. Most of it is already in your ERP.
| Field |
|---|
| Quotes and orders by customer for 12 months |
| Line counts per quote as an effort proxy |
| Win rate by customer |
The initial check
Start with a small sample. Gathering the exports, agreements, or observations is separate from running the check; agree that work with the person who owns the records.
- 1Export quotes and orders by customer for the last year.
- 2Calculate quote-to-order ratio and win rate by customer.
- 3List the customers with more than twenty quotes and a win rate under 10%. Estimate the hours spent at your average quote time.
Labor at risk = Σ over low-win customers of quotes × average quote hours × loaded rate
Then ask one question: For the worst three, is there a conversation to have about how they buy, or a lighter-touch way to quote them?
How much could it be costing us?
A conservative range, not a headline. The goal is a number management can trust enough to investigate.
Labor hours on low-probability quotes × loaded rate × share that can be redirected through triage or a self-service option
Common root causes
Fixes fall into three layers. Not every problem needs software, and almost none needs AI first.
- Process
- No triage of incoming RFQs by customer history.
- Data
- Win rate by customer is not calculated.
- Technology
- RFQ intake does not show customer history to the person quoting.
What should we do?
Start with the simplest intervention that could solve it. Move down the list only if the one above is not enough.
Level 1
Visibility
A quarterly quote-to-order report by customer.
Level 2
Triage
A simple rule for low-win customers: list price, a shorter quote, or a self-service portal.
Level 3
Workflow
Show customer win history at intake and route low-probability RFQs to a fast path.
Where AI helps
- Producing a fast, list-priced quote for low-probability RFQs with minimal human time.
Where AI probably doesn’t
The report and the triage rule come first. Automation makes the fast path faster, not the decision.
Before you call it a leak
- A low-win customer today may be a prospect you are trying to win. Check with the account owner before changing treatment.
Think this might be happening in your business?
Turn the finding into a next step.
If the numbers say there is something there, send us what you found and we will help you decide whether it is worth a full investigation. No transaction files needed for that conversation.
Related leaks
- Leak 28 · SalesSlow quote responseThe RFQ arrives at 9 a.m. The quote goes out two days later, after a supplier price check and a cross-reference hunt. The customer decided yesterday.
- Leak 06 · PricingSmall orders priced below their cost-to-serveA $40 order with $12 of gross profit costs $25 to pick, pack, invoice, and deliver. Multiply by thousands of orders a year.
- Leak 27 · SalesQuotes that are never followed upA quote goes out. Nothing happens. Nobody calls, because the quote is not in anyone’s queue. The customer bought from whoever called.
Let’s start with one thing.
What would better performance look like?
Bring a result you want to improve, a symptom, or a workflow you already understand. You do not need to know the bottleneck yet. We’ll help choose what to investigate first.
No transaction files needed for the first conversation.