Industry By Lui Nobrega · Mar 25, 2026 · Updated Oct 26, 2026 · 5 min read

Making Manufacturing Websites That Win RFQs

Industrial buyers do not browse. They check you against a list. Your website has to pass that check first. Then it has to make asking for a quote easy. Here is a checklist for both, plus a careful note on drawings you may not be allowed to accept through a web form.

What buyers check before they ask for a quote

Buyers search for suppliers by capabilities, equipment, services and certifications. CONNEX Connecticut, the state's free supplier platform, tells manufacturers that buyers search it for exactly those things. Your own website should answer the same questions, with real numbers.

  1. A capabilities page. List your processes, the materials you work with, the part sizes you can handle, the tolerances you hold, and whether you do prototypes, production runs or both. "Committed to excellence" gets skipped. A real number gets saved and sent to a coworker.
  2. An equipment list. Name each machine with its make, model and work envelope. Include your inspection equipment.
  3. Quality and certifications. If you hold a quality certification such as ISO 9001 or AS9100, name it, the registrar, the scope and the expiry date, and offer a copy of the certificate. List only what you currently hold.
  4. The industries you already serve, with photos of real parts on your real machines. Buyers look for shops that look like the ones already doing good work for them.
  5. A clear "Request a Quote" button at the top of every page, not just a general contact form.
  6. If you are in Connecticut, build a CONNEX profile too, with the same capabilities, equipment and certifications as your site. See: CONNEX Connecticut (opens in a new tab)

The RFQ form: a field checklist

A quote form is a working tool, not a contact form. Ask for what you need to price the job, and nothing more. Nielsen Norman Group advises that every field you cut makes a form more likely to be sent. Mark the few optional fields as optional.

  1. Contact: name, company, email and phone. Required.
  2. Part number and revision, if the part already exists. Optional, so new designs are not blocked.
  3. Quantity. Let people enter more than one, for example 10, 100 and 1,000, so you can quote price breaks.
  4. Material and finish, with a "per drawing" choice.
  5. Critical tolerances or special requirements, again with a "per drawing" choice.
  6. File upload. Allow several files at once. Accept the formats your team can open, for example STEP or IGES models and DXF, DWG or PDF drawings. Say the accepted formats and the size limit right next to the button. See: input type="file" (accept and multiple attributes) (opens in a new tab)
  7. Dates: when they need the parts, and when they need your quote.
  8. One open notes box for anything else.
  9. After they press Send, show a page that says the request arrived, what happens next, and when you will reply. Send them an email copy too.

Helpful links

Keep the form working

  1. Send every request to an inbox that someone checks every working day, not to one person's address.
  2. Once a month, send yourself a test request with a real attachment. Make sure it arrives with the file.
  3. Reply quickly, even if the reply is a question. Say when the full quote will follow.

A careful note on controlled drawings

Some customer files come with legal strings attached. Under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), "technical data" includes blueprints and drawings needed to make defense articles. Federal rules also cover Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) that contractors handle, and NIST publishes security requirements for protecting CUI on company systems. If you do defense or export-controlled work, ask your customer and your compliance advisor how those files must be sent before you accept them through any website, and add a line to your form saying what not to upload there. This is general information, not legal advice.

Helpful links

Common questions

What file formats should my RFQ form accept?

The ones your team can open and quote from. STEP is an international standard format for moving product data, such as CAD models, between systems, so it is a safe one to ask for. Ask for a PDF drawing as well if you need the tolerances spelled out. List the formats and the size limit next to the upload button.

How many fields should a quote form have?

As few as you need to price the job. Contact details, quantity, material, a file upload and a needed-by date cover most requests. Cut what you can, keep only a couple of optional fields, and ask for the rest when you reply.

Is it safe to let customers upload drawings on my website?

For ordinary commercial parts, make sure the form uses https and the files go somewhere private that only your team can open. For defense or export-controlled work, ask your customer and your compliance advisor how files must be sent before you accept them through any website.

Sources and further reading

The takeaway

Real capabilities, a real equipment list, current certifications, and a quote form a busy engineer can finish in a minute. Get those right, and handle controlled drawings the way your customer requires.

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