Most job shops and fabricators are good at making parts and slower at chasing the quotes that win them. RFQs arrive in one inbox, quotes go out as PDFs, and nobody tracks which ones became purchase orders. Here's why quotes go cold, and what a simple RFQ-to-PO pipeline looks like.
RFQs sit in one inbox and quotes go cold
A buyer at an equipment manufacturer sends the same drawing package to four shops. Your estimator turns the quote around in a few days and emails a PDF. Then the shop gets busy. Two weeks later the buyer has placed the PO with a shop that called to confirm material and lead time.
Your price might have been better. The buyer never found out.
Why quotes go cold in small shops
- RFQs come in everywhere. The general inbox, the estimator's email, the owner's cell, a customer portal.
- Quoting and selling are different jobs. The estimator's job ends when the PDF goes out. Nobody owns what happens next.
- There's no record of quote status. Open, revised, won, lost or expired, they all sit in Sent Items.
- Repeat customers get taken for granted. A long-time account stops sending RFQs, and nobody notices for months.
The pipeline, stage by stage
A pipeline is a set of stages every opportunity moves through, so you can see where each one stands. A simple version for a job shop or fabricator:
- RFQ received. Customer, buyer, part or project, drawings attached, date received, due date.
- Under review. Questions to the buyer, material and outside-process checks.
- Quote sent. Quote number, revision, amount, date sent, valid-until date.
- Follow-up. Next follow-up date and who owns it.
- Won (PO received) or Lost, with the reason.
- Repeat and reorder. Accounts that ordered before, and when they usually order again.
What you can see once it's running
When every RFQ lives in one pipeline, you can answer questions most shops can't: how many quotes are open right now, what they're worth, which buyers have gone quiet, which quotes expire this week, and which customers haven't sent an RFQ in months.
Start simple
You don't need a dozen stages on day one. Start with the six above, make sure every RFQ gets entered the day it arrives, and give each quote an owner and a follow-up date. Add detail once the habit sticks.
Why generic CRMs struggle here
Big-brand CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce are built around generic sales: leads, deals and contacts. HubSpot lists Sales Hub Professional at $100 per seat per month plus a required one-time $1,500 onboarding fee, and Salesforce lists Pro Suite at $100 per user per month, billed annually (both checked Oct 30, 2026; see Sources). Shops sell differently. You have drawings and revisions, quote numbers, valid-until dates, outside processes and repeat part numbers, and a generic setup has to be configured to hold all of that.
Custom CRMs are built around those details from the start, with your stages, your quote fields and your follow-up rules.
Where HSGA fits
HSGA's custom CRMs put every RFQ and quote in one pipeline, with reminders before a quote cools off and a clear view of which accounts are slipping. Your custom CRM is built in 2 to 4 weeks.
Sources
- HubSpot, Sales Hub pricing: https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/sales (checked Oct 30, 2026).
- Salesforce, Sales Cloud pricing: https://www.salesforce.com/sales/pricing/ (checked Oct 30, 2026).