How to send an RFQ to a builders' merchant

Why RFQs get ignored

Merchant trade counters and internal sales teams are pricing dozens of enquiries a day. An RFQ that lists "some timber, a few sheets of ply, some insulation" with no sizes or quantities gets pushed to the bottom of the pile, because it takes longer to chase you for details than it does to price a clear list. The fix is simple: do the measuring before you ask for the price, not after.

What a merchant needs from you

• Exact product specification

  Not "timber" — C24 treated carcassing 47x150mm at 4.8m lengths. Not "insulation" — 100mm PIR board, the brand if it's specified on the drawings.

• Quantities in the unit they sell in

  Number of lengths, number of sheets, number of packs or rolls — not linear metres or square metres left unconverted.

• Delivery address and postcode

  Delivery cost and lead time both depend on distance from the branch. Merchants often can't give an accurate price without it.

• Delivery date or window

  "As soon as possible" isn't a date. A specific week lets them check stock and haulage slots properly.

• Whether it's a one-off or an account order

  Trade account customers usually get different pricing and payment terms to one-off cash sales — say which applies.

• A single point of contact

  One name and number for queries, so the merchant isn't chasing three different people on the same order.

Group the list by stage or trade

Sending one enormous list covering groundworks through to second fix makes it harder for a merchant to price quickly and harder for you to compare against a second merchant later. Break the RFQ into sections that match how the job runs — substructure, superstructure, external envelope, first fix, second fix — so you can send each section out when you actually need prices, not all six months of the job at once.

Send to more than one merchant

Prices on structural timber, insulation and plasterboard can vary noticeably between merchants and even between branches of the same chain, depending on stock and local demand. Sending the same, identically specified list to two or three merchants and comparing like-for-like is the only reliable way to know you're not overpaying — but it only works if every merchant received the same specification and quantities. Inconsistent lists make the comparison meaningless.

Ask for the VAT-exclusive price and confirm CIS treatment

Merchant quotes are usually given excluding VAT — make sure you're comparing net prices, not a mix of net and gross. If you're VAT registered, this doesn't change your cash cost, but if you're pricing a zero-rated or reduced-rated job you'll want to confirm the merchant is aware, since materials VAT treatment can affect what you can reclaim. Materials supply-only from a merchant generally sits outside CIS — CIS applies to labour, not materials — but it's worth confirming if the merchant is also supplying and fixing.

A simple RFQ template

A clear RFQ email needs: your company name and account number if you have one, the site address and postcode, the required delivery date, then the material list itself with product, size, spec and quantity for every line, followed by any notes on access or delivery restrictions on site. Keep it as a table rather than prose — merchants price from lists, not paragraphs.