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RFQ readiness scorecard.

Twenty questions about your website, scored out of 100 the way an engineer, a quality reviewer, and a buyer read it.

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  • 20checksAcross four groups
  • 4minutesTypical time to complete
  • 100pointsWith the specific gaps named

What is an RFQ readiness score?

An RFQ readiness score measures whether a manufacturer's website carries the specific facts a buying group needs to shortlist the supplier without making contact. An RFQ is a request for quote. The score weights twenty checks across capability content, quality and certification, the quote path, and findability.

You answer each question yourself, about your own site, so the score is only as candid as your answers.

The heaviest weights sit where the decisions are made. A specifying engineer filters on process, material, and tolerance. A quality reviewer filters on certification scope. Procurement filters on whether they can send you a request at all.

Black and white close up of a vernier caliper resting on a machined metal plate, with a steel rule and hand tools on a dark bench.

The scorecard

Capability content

This is what a specifying engineer reads to decide whether you can make the part.

  • Does a page name the specific processes you run?

    A buyer searches for the process they need, such as wire EDM or surface grinding. A page offering precision manufacturing solutions matches nothing anyone types.

  • Do you publish the materials and grades you actually work in?

    Material is one of the first filters a buyer applies. A shop that machines Inconel and one that machines mild steel are different suppliers.

  • Do you publish a tolerance range you hold in production?

    Tolerance is the number that decides most shortlists. If you publish what you hold on your best day instead of on an ordinary Tuesday, the result is a failed first article and a lost customer.

  • Do you publish your size envelope or capacity limits?

    An engineer with a part larger than your machines will leave without asking, and you never learn that it happened.

  • Is your equipment list published and current?

    The equipment list is how a buyer confirms that the capabilities you describe are real.

  • Do you state the lot sizes or volumes you are set up for?

    A shop tooled for prototype runs and one tooled for fifty thousand a month are different suppliers, and a buyer who guesses wrong wastes both sides a quote.

  • Is the process shown in the order a lot actually moves through it?

    A buyer is trying to picture their part going through your shop. A list of capabilities in alphabetical order makes them do that work themselves.

Quality and certification

This is what a quality reviewer checks before you can be approved as a supplier.

  • Do you state the standard, revision, registrar and scope of each certification?

    Scope is the part a quality reviewer checks. A certification logo shown only as an image carries none of that information.

  • Do you state which facility or operating company holds each certification?

    A certification held by one operating company in a group does not cover the others. Buyers who have been through an audit know to ask.

  • Do you publish the work you decline?

    A short list of work you do not take on saves both sides a wasted inquiry, and buyers read it as a sign of a shop that knows its strengths.

  • Do you explain what is inspected, how, and on what equipment?

    A quality reviewer is deciding whether to trust your numbers. Naming the gauges and how often you check answers that better than a certification logo does.

  • Do the photographs show your own floor, equipment and parts?

    Buyers recognize stock photography, and once they spot it they start wondering what else on the page is generic. Photographs of your own floor are evidence that costs nothing to produce.

The quote path

This is what procurement needs before they can send you a request.

  • Can a buyer send a drawing file without emailing you first?

    Industrial inquiries arrive as drawings. A contact form that only takes a message adds an extra step at the moment the buyer is most ready to send.

  • Does your quote form ask for quantity, material, tolerance and target date on one screen?

    Those four fields decide whether a quote can be produced. Asking for them later costs a round of emails, and often the job.

  • Do you publish lead times or typical turnaround?

    Lead time is frequently the deciding factor when two suppliers are otherwise equal.

  • Do you state how quickly a quote request will be answered?

    An unanswered request is the most expensive thing on this list, and a stated commitment is the only part of it a buyer can see before sending one.

  • Does a phone number appear on every page, tappable on a phone?

    Plenty of industrial buying still starts with a call, and a number that only exists on the contact page loses the caller who was ready on the capability page.

Findability

This is whether search engines can find the pages above, and whether AI assistants can quote them.

  • Are your specifications published as web pages, as well as PDFs?

    A PDF has no reliable heading structure, no links to your other pages, and no schema, the hidden labels that tell Google what a page describes. Search engines read PDFs poorly, and AI assistants rarely quote them.

  • Does each process or part family have its own page?

    One page listing twelve processes ranks for none of them. Twelve pages can each rank for their own.

  • Is your Google Business Profile complete, verified and recently updated?

    It is often the first thing shown when somebody searches the company name, and Google reads it as a signal that the business is active. Most manufacturers complete it once and never return.

How is the score calculated?

Each check carries a weight between 5 and 10 points, adding to 147, and your score is the share of those points you earn, out of 100. The heavier weights sit on the facts that most often decide a shortlist: the processes you name, the tolerance you hold in production, and the scope of your certifications.

What each score range means for your site
ScoreBand
85 and aboveQuotable. A buyer can evaluate you without picking up the phone. The next gains come from more depth on each process page and from being mentioned on other sites.
65 to 84Mostly readable. The structure is right, and some specific facts are missing. The gaps below are the ones most likely to be costing you a place on shortlists.
40 to 64Brochure. The site describes the company and leaves the technical questions unanswered. Most manufacturer websites are here, and the gaps below show where to start.
0 to 39Invisible. There is little for a search engine to match or an AI assistant to quote. Start with one process page written properly, and build from there.

Send us your result and we will put the fixes in order.

Paste your score and the gaps into an email. We will send back the order we would fix them in and what each one takes, which is useful whether you do the work yourselves or hire someone.

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