Keep the enquiry.Follow the proposal.Keep the customer.

A buyer can ask for the same product in different pack formats, order quantities and delivery windows. The CRM needs to preserve those differences before technical staff start developing a formula or sales sends a price. V5 connects the prospect and contacts with the RFQ workspace, so commercial requirements and technical work can be considered together rather than reconstructed from separate inboxes.

The working stages are received, requirements, formulation, ready for costing, quoting, sampling and awaiting decision. The commercial status is separate: open, won, lost, withdrawn or on hold. An enquiry can therefore be in formulation while its commercial status is on hold. A sample accepted by the customer is useful technical feedback, but it does not by itself mean the RFQ has been won or that an order is ready for production.

Agree who owns the enquiry and who supplies the technical inputs. Sales can coordinate contact and timing while formulation staff investigate the product. Keep the next action specific: a requirements call, a formula review, a sample follow-up or a quote review. The purpose is to make the next decision clear, not simply to move a card further along the pipeline.

The RFQ requirements workspace covers commercial and technical inputs, including product format, pack requirements, volumes, label or claim requirements and requested certifications. These are requirements supplied for review, not evidence that the product already satisfies them. Your team still checks which specifications apply, whether claims are appropriate and what evidence is needed before committing to the customer.

Formulation brings those requirements into a draft formula. The app includes checks for missing components, batch size or units, negative quantities, active ingredients without a label claim and inconsistent formula totals. These checks help expose incomplete draft inputs. They do not replace a qualified technical review, determine regulatory acceptability or prove that the proposed product will perform as requested.

For RFQ-0142, the useful question is whether the formula, pack format and quantity options are sufficiently defined to cost. If a specification is still being negotiated, record it as a question to resolve. Do not turn an estimated input into an agreed customer requirement simply because the enquiry has reached the next stage. Sales and technical staff should reconcile what is requested, what has been developed and what is actually being offered.

A quote can contain quantity options, charges and commercial terms. That matters when a one-off development run and a larger repeat order need different commercial treatment. The quote should make clear which quantity and packaging assumptions it uses, which charges are included and which terms apply. V5 keeps quoting settings alongside the commercial workflow; your team remains responsible for the prices and commitments it chooses to issue.

Before issue, review the proposal with the actual quote data and the selected branded template. Check the customer details, product description, quantity options, charges and terms as a single offer. The issued proposal design is frozen, so a later template or styling change does not silently alter the design selected for that issued quote. That is a record-control benefit, not a promise that the system negotiates contracts or automatically approves a margin.

Costing being near formulation is not the same as capacity-aware quoting. Confirm material assumptions and delivery feasibility through the appropriate planning and purchasing review. Do not assume that moving to the quoting stage reserves a production slot, commits stock or creates an approved work order. The commercial workflow and the operational handoff have related but different decisions.

Customer samples stay linked to their RFQ while carrying their own status and outcome. Preparation, shipping and feedback are separate parts of that story. The recorded outcomes include acceptance, rejection, a request to reformulate or a request for more samples; a missing response should not be treated as approval. Each sample record helps explain what was sent and what the customer said about it.

In the worked enquiry, the first sample prompts reformulation and a second sample is accepted. Keep the feedback attributable to the relevant sample instead of replacing the first result with the latest response. That gives sales and technical staff a clearer basis for deciding whether another iteration is needed and what the proposal should describe. Physical shipping still follows the dispatch process you use; a CRM status alone does not prove delivery or product conformity.

A customer may like the sample but reject the price, delivery window or minimum order quantity. Record the final RFQ outcome separately. Structured loss reasons include price, lead time, capability, capacity, minimum order quantity, quality concerns, certification, a competitor, no decision and project cancellation. Those distinctions are more useful than treating every lost enquiry as the same sales problem.

Customers can review and accept an issued proposal online. In the signing workflow, a customer signature and the subsequent counter-signature are distinct states. Your team must still apply its own commercial approval rules and confirm who is authorized to make the commitment. Recording acceptance is not the same as a quality-unit product disposition, a validated electronic signature for every regulated use or permission to ship material.

Use the accepted offer as the starting point for the sales-order review. Reconcile the customer and delivery details, product and quantity, agreed commercial terms and any remaining technical conditions before handing work to planning. Production readiness belongs with the appropriate formula, material and scheduling checks. A won enquiry explains the commercial decision; it should not be read as evidence that every operational prerequisite is complete.

The related sales and purchasing, formulation and Cost & COGS pages show those adjacent workflows. The enquiry guide below provides a more detailed review checklist. Together they help you evaluate the handoff rather than judging the CRM only by the appearance of its pipeline board.

The CRM forecast weights commercial value by probability and groups the result by expected close period. The app can use quoted value when available, otherwise estimated annual and one-time revenue. Review the value basis before comparing enquiries: an estimate and a current quote are not necessarily the same commercial measure. Expected close timing and probability also need regular review as the customer conversation changes.

Weighted pipeline value is a sales planning measure. It is not booked revenue, a confirmed production order or an AI demand forecast. A high-value enquiry can dominate a period even though its customer has not made a final decision. Look at the underlying stage, next action, sample feedback and age of the enquiry alongside the total rather than treating the total as a guarantee.

Tasks, meetings and activity records support that review. Calls, emails, meetings and notes give context to stage changes and quoting events. Email delivery and contact enrichment depend on the providers and permissions you configure. Do not assume that saving an activity means an email has been delivered, that contacts will be enriched automatically or that every provider is included in your plan.

A useful demonstration follows one enquiry all the way through instead of showing unrelated screens. Use a familiar product request and ask sales, technical staff and the commercial approver to agree what would count as a successful handoff. Start with incomplete requirements, then review how the team records the missing information, develops the formula, costs the offer and deals with a sample revision.

Finish by checking the issued proposal, the customer response and the final RFQ outcome. Review the losing path too: a lost enquiry should retain the reason and relevant activity. Confirm plan availability, provider setup and the relationship to your existing accounting and customer systems before deciding what to replace. Code-backed capabilities are not a promise that every connection or commercial plan is already enabled for your organization.