Supplier Quote Requests on WhatsApp, Prepared for Sales
This recipe takes a quote request, typed or pasted as a list, matches each line to your product codes, applies your minimum order quantities, collects the delivery details and creates a draft quote in your accounting or ERP system for sales to price. Part of the B2B supplier workflows.
What happens today
A buyer sends a list of 30 items on WhatsApp. Some lines use your product codes, some use their own, and three just say “same as last time”. Your salesperson spends 40 minutes matching lines, messaging back to ask what “white cable tie big” means, and checking which lines are below the minimum. The quote goes out the next day, by which time the buyer has prices from two other suppliers.
Most of that time is matching and checking, not pricing. Pricing is the part that needs your salesperson.
The flow that works
- The buyer sends a list. AeroChat checks they are a contact on a customer record.
- It matches each line to a product code in your system, and asks about any line it cannot match with confidence.
- It checks each quantity against your minimum order quantity and tells the buyer where a line falls short.
- It asks for the delivery address, the date needed and any project reference.
- It shows the matched list back to the buyer to confirm, then creates a draft quote in your system, notifies sales, and tells the buyer when to expect the quote.
AeroChat prepares the quote. Your sales team prices it, so margin decisions stay with people.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a buyer asks for a quote, follow these steps.
- Check whether their phone number or email belongs to a contact on a customer record in our system. If it does not, ask for their company name and pass them to sales as a new trade account enquiry, then continue collecting the list.
- Read every line of the list they send. Match each line to a product code in our system. If a line could match more than one product, or none, ask the buyer which product they mean and show the closest options with codes.
- Check each quantity against our minimum order quantities, for example 50 units for fasteners and 10 cartons for packaging (examples). Tell them which lines are below the minimum and ask whether to raise them.
- Ask for the delivery address, the date they need it, and any project or PO reference.
- Show the full matched list back to them with product codes and quantities, and ask them to confirm.
- When they confirm, create a draft quote in our system for their account, or for the new company, with the lines, contact, delivery address, date needed and reference, and leave the prices for sales to set. Notify their sales rep. Tell the buyer their quote will come from their sales rep by the end of the next working day (example).
Never give a price for a quote. If they ask for a discount, credit terms or a special price, include it in the note to sales. Reply in the buyer’s language.
Change the example minimums and response time to your own before you paste it. If you want AeroChat to send list or tier prices for small quotes, add that rule and the value limit.
What to connect
- Your accounting or ERP system. Xero, QuickBooks Online or Oracle NetSuite connect through their APIs. For Xero or QuickBooks Online, approve AeroChat’s access to your company when AeroChat asks. For NetSuite, your administrator creates an access token for AeroChat and pastes it in when AeroChat asks. AeroChat matches lines against your products and creates draft quotes there, so sales sees every open quote in the system they already use.
- Your buyers’ own product names. A document in the AeroChat knowledge base with the common names buyers use for your products, and your minimum order quantities.
- Email. Connect Gmail or Office 365 so quote requests sent by email are handled the same way and sit in the same inbox as WhatsApp.
- Your online store. If your catalogue is on Shopify or WordPress, both are built in, and AeroChat matches lines against your products there.
If you run a small operation from a Google Sheet of products and quotes, connect your Google account and approve the access.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- Whether AeroChat ever prices a quote, and up to what value.
- Your minimum order quantities and what to do with lines below them.
- The response time you promise for quotes.
- Which sales rep gets quotes from new contacts.
The result to expect
Quote requests reach sales already matched, checked and confirmed by the buyer. Your salespeople spend their time on price and the relationship, and quotes go out sooner. Every open quote is a draft in your system, so none are forgotten.
Measure it with your own numbers: time from request to quote sent, and quotes won, for a month before and after you start.
Next: order placement and sales rep handover.
Prepare your first quote in chat
Connect your accounting or ERP system, paste the recipe and send your own number a ten-line list with a few lines in your buyers’ own words.
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On Shopify? Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store.