A drinkware RFQ gets a useful answer when it carries six things: the item, the quantity, the decoration, the packaging, the destination market and the date you need it. Without them the supplier can only answer with a range, and a range is not something you can approve internally.
The six fields
| Field | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Item or closest item number | Whether tooling is involved at all |
| Quantity | Where the order sits against the minimum |
| Decoration | The number of setups, and therefore the price |
| Packaging | The carton, the container plan and a second minimum |
| Destination market | Which documents are needed, and therefore what is achievable |
| Required date | Whether the answer is yes at all |
What to attach, and what not to
- Attach: vector artwork, a Pantone reference or a physical colour sample, and any dimension that matters — height, diameter, cup-holder fit.
- Attach: a photograph of a competitor product if that is what you are aiming at. It is faster than describing it.
- Do not attach: a low-resolution logo and a note to “make it bigger”. That is the single most common cause of a slow quotation.
How to compare the answers
Ask every supplier to quote against the same line structure — body, lid, decoration, packaging, freight — so the comparison is between suppliers rather than between scopes. A quote that arrives as one number cannot be compared with one that arrives as five, and the difference is usually not the price but what was left out.
Questions buyers ask
How long should a quotation take?
On a catalogue item with a clear brief, days. The delay is nearly always artwork or an unanswered question rather than factory time.
Should I send the RFQ to many suppliers?
Three or four is enough to establish a market price. Beyond that you are mostly collecting the same answer with different letterheads.
What if I do not know the quantity yet?
Give the number you expect to commit to and say it is provisional. A provisional number still produces a real price; a range produces a range.
Our enquiry form asks for exactly these fields, and the cost guide explains how each one lands in the price.
