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It’s Only Common Sense: Win the Sale Before the RFQ Arrives

There is an old belief in sales that the real competition begins when the request for quotation (RFQ) arrives. That may have been true once, but it is certainly not true today. By the time purchasing sends out an RFQ for a board or electronic assembly, many of the most important decisions about design, materials, production, delivery, and suppliers have already been made. At that point, the salesperson is simply pricing someone else’s solution.

That is why the best ones work months ahead of the RFQ. They understand that the sale is often won during product development, long before purchasing asks for a quotation. If the first time you hear about a new program is when the RFQ lands in your inbox, you are probably already late.

Get Involved During Product Development
You must develop relationships beyond purchasing. Get to know the designers and all the engineers, quality representatives, and program managers involved in bringing a product to market. Each of these people influences the final manufacturing decision.

For example, the designer determines the board’s basic architecture, while the electrical engineer establishes performance requirements. The mechanical engineer defines size, shape, and physical limitations. The component engineer influences availability and lifecycle risk, and the program manager controls schedules, budgets, and priorities.

Purchasing may issue the RFQ, but these people often determine what purchasing must buy. So, a good salesperson should regularly ask customers what they are developing for the next six to 12 months, even up to two years. What new products are entering design? Which existing products are being updated? Are they moving to higher speeds, greater densities, increased power, smaller form factors, or new component packages?

Those conversations uncover opportunities while there is still time to influence the outcome.

Early Involvement Creates Real Value
When a PCB supplier becomes involved early, its engineering team can review the design before expensive decisions become permanent.

A DFM review can identify many issues, including trace-width problems, inadequate spacing, difficult via structures, unnecessary tolerances, questionable copper distribution, material conflicts, and testing challenges. Correcting those issues during development is relatively easy. Correcting them after release can require redesigns, schedule changes, additional approvals, and substantial expense.

Early supplier involvement can also improve the PCB stackup. The right manufacturing partner may recommend a more readily available laminate, suggest a simpler construction, reduce the number of sequential laminations, or identify a cost-effective alternative that still meets the product’s electrical and mechanical requirements.

Instead of asking, “Do you have anything I can quote?” a better conversation is started by asking, “What are you designing, and how can we help make it manufacturable?”

Prevent Problems Before They Reach Production
Too many products are designed using materials, components, or manufacturing processes that look good on paper but create trouble in the real world. A specified laminate may have an extended lead time. A component package may require technology that limits the number of qualified PCB fabricators. A tolerance may be tighter than the application requires. A delivery expectation may be completely unrealistic for the board’s complexity.

These issues should be discussed before the RFQ is released, not after production is supposed to begin, and raising these concerns early is not creating obstacles. You’re protecting the customer’s schedule, budget, and product launch.

Customers remember suppliers who prevent problems. They also remember suppliers who quietly quote an impossible requirement, accept the order, and explain the problem three weeks later.

Help Write the Right Manufacturing Solution
When you participate in product development, you gain a deeper understanding of why the board was designed, what the product must accomplish, which requirements are essential, and where reasonable flexibility exists.

You are also helping establish the manufacturing strategy.

Perhaps the customer needs domestic PCB prototypes followed by offshore production. Maybe the program requires two qualified factories for supply-chain resilience. The product may need reserved material, scheduled releases, inventory support, or specialized testing. Those decisions are far more effective when made early.

You can become part of the solution, and when the RFQ finally arrives, your company is no longer just another name on the bidders’ list. You are the supplier who helped create a board that can be built reliably.

So, stop waiting for purchasing to invite you into the game. Build relationships with the people developing tomorrow’s products. Ask better questions. Bring engineering knowledge into the conversation. Help customers make good decisions before bad decisions become specifications.

The salesperson who arrives before the RFQ can compete on value.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.