RFQ is Request For Quotation, and working on RFQs is the basis of Purchasing job.
Potential Customers contact AdvaCare through the website and request to give products information, quotation, registration assistance, etc. RFQs might turn into Order or Registration, depending on the country requirements and Customer's needs. Success of any specific RFQ depends of efficiency of joint efforts from Salesperson and Purchasing Person. The more RFQs turn into Orders or Registrations, the faster the company will grow.
To handle every RFQ efficiently, Purchasing Person must follow the process below:
- Once a new RFQ task is received and assigned to Purchasing Person, Purchasing Person needs to start working on it IMMEDIATELY. It is very important that new RFQs are handled on the first day right after the task is assigned. Task description and products in the RFQ must be checked, and if there are any questions Purchasing Person needs to ask Salesperson responsible for the RFQ or Purchasing Dept. Manager. The questions must be asked on the same day, otherwise time will be wasted.
- Products from the RFQ must be sent to several Vendors to ask for quotation. Ask for FOB USD price (India: USD FOB Mumbai, China: USD FOB Shanghai), or RMB price with transportation included (transportation to Shanghai). At least 2-3 Vendors must be asked, the more the better. If Purchasing Person does not know which Vendors to ask, need to check Vendor Catalogs in the System (as described in the Vendor Catalogs in PO SOP), check file server for potential Vendors in Manufacturers folder, or search on the Internet for some new Vendors.
- If there is no reply from the Vendor for 2-3 days, Purchasing Person needs to follow up with the Vendor via email/WhatsApp/phone call and keep following up until quotation is received. Purchasing Person is responsible to provide the quotations from Vendors as soon as possible, within several days after the RFQ was assigned.
- When quotation is received, Purchasing Person MUST check all the information provided by the Vendor before it is handed over to Salesperson. If something is not clear, Purchasing Person must ask the Vendor to clarify - MOQ, product specifications, prices, packaging characteristics, printing fees, currency, etc. If some products were not quoted, Purchasing Person must find out the reason why (Vendor does not produce the product in general? Or this specific packaging/dosage? Is there no API available at the moment? Another reason?). Purchasing Person is responsible to provide full and accurate information to Salesperson. Get all the information at one time to avoid unnecessary back and forth between Customer, Salesperson, Purchasing Person and the Vendor.
- Check all the prices following “Evaluating Quoted Prices” SOP. Understand whether prices were quoted per pack or per piece (per ampoule/vial/etc.). If prices are not clear or do not seem to make sense, ask Vendor to clarify.
- Once quotation is received and processed, quote PO in ERP.
- All the files with prices from the Vendor must be saved in the appropriate folder in the file server.
- Once PO is quoted, send a task to Salesperson to inform to check the prices.
Below list of SOPs contain everything Purchasing Person needs to know to be able to handle an RFQ.