Field guide
RFQ to quote with Claude, with the estimator in charge.
Claude can take an RFQ from the inbox to a draft quote in four steps: intake, extraction, similar-job lookup and estimator approval. It does the reading and the searching. A named estimator checks the assumptions and sets the price. This guide walks through each step and includes a free checklist to test how ready your process is.
By Gary O'Neill, Founder, Setanta. Published . Updated .
The whole workflow
What does an RFQ-to-quote workflow with Claude look like?
Four steps. Intake gets every RFQ into one place with a due date. Extraction pulls the parts, quantities and requirements into a standard sheet. Similar-job lookup finds past work. The estimator reviews the draft, adjusts it and approves the price. Claude handles the first three, and a person owns the fourth.
The order matters. Extraction is only reliable when intake is tidy, and the lookup only helps when the sheet is consistent. Teams that skip to the lookup tend to find that their old quotes are too thin to search.
This guide is written for fabricators, machine shops, steel service centers and other industrial companies that quote from drawings and emails. Our industry pages cover metal fabricators, heavy manufacturing and steel service centers. An equipment dealer quotes parts, service and rental machines from a serial number or a fleet list, which is a different set of documents: AI for equipment dealers.
Step one
How does Claude handle RFQ intake?
Intake means every RFQ lands in one shared queue, gets logged with the date it arrived and the date the quote is due, and is acknowledged. Claude can read incoming email, log each request, draft the acknowledgement and flag a due date that looks tight. Nobody has to remember which inbox held it.
RFQs reach a shop through a sales inbox, an estimator's own address, a customer portal and the occasional phone call. The first useful change is often not AI at all: a shared queue and a due date on every request. Claude works much better once that exists.
Claude drafts the acknowledgement and the first reply with any questions. A person sends them. We would not let a customer-facing message go out unreviewed.
Step two
How does Claude pull the details out of an RFQ?
Claude reads the email, the drawing text and any spreadsheet, then fills one standard intake sheet: parts, quantities, materials, finishes, tolerances, certifications and due dates. Where the sources disagree or something is missing, it says so in the sheet. The estimator starts from the sheet and does not hunt through attachments.
Drawings are the hard part. Claude reads the text on a PDF drawing reliably, including title block, notes and callouts. It reads geometry less well, so dimensions that drive cost get checked by a person. CAD files such as STEP or DXF depend on your setup, and we would test your real files before suggesting anything.
The most useful behavior is honesty about gaps. A field marked unknown is better than a plausible guess, because an estimator can ask the customer about an unknown and cannot see a wrong guess.
Step three
How does similar-job lookup help an estimator?
Claude searches your past quotes and finished jobs for parts like the new one, matching on material, process, size and quantity. It shows what each job was quoted at, and what it actually took if you recorded that. The estimator uses them as a reference. Claude does not set a price from them.
This is where a second estimator gets closer to the first. The experienced person remembers a similar part from three years ago. A searchable history lets everyone find it.
It depends on the records. If past quotes do not record what the job actually took, the lookup shows what was quoted but not what happened. That is worth knowing early, and it is one of the questions in the checklist below.
Step four
Why does the estimator still approve the price?
Price depends on things Claude cannot see: machine load this month, a customer's history, material availability, and how much you want the work. Those sit with the estimator and the owner. Claude drafts the quote with its sources, so the estimator can check the reasoning quickly and change anything.
We set up every workflow so a named person approves what reaches the customer, and we write down who that is. If a quote is wrong, you should know whose desk it crossed.
We also turn down briefs that are really about replacing estimators. Their judgment is what the shop sells, and the aim here is to give them back the hours they spend reading and searching.
Free tool
Is your RFQ process ready for Claude?
Eight yes or no questions about how requests arrive, how they are logged and how quotes are approved. The result says where to look first. It runs in your browser: nothing you answer is sent, saved or emailed, and there is no sign-up.
Free tool · RFQ readiness checklist
Eight yes or no questions. Nothing you answer leaves this page: it is not sent, saved or emailed.
- 1.Every RFQ lands in one shared inbox or queue, not only in people's own inboxes.
- 2.Each RFQ is logged with the date it arrived and the date the quote is due.
- 3.Quantities, materials and required certifications are checked before anyone starts the estimate.
- 4.Drawings, specs and quantities are copied into one standard intake sheet.
- 5.Past quotes and the jobs they became can be searched by part, material or process.
- 6.More than one person can quote a typical job without asking the one expert.
- 7.A named estimator approves every price before a quote goes out.
- 8.You record why each quote was won, lost or never answered.
0 of 8 answered
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Speed
Does quoting faster win more work?
One survey links faster quoting to higher win rates, though it shows a correlation and not a cause. Modern Machine Shop's 2026 Top Shops data compares win rates for shops that turn quotes around within a day with those that take longer. We did not measure this ourselves.
Modern Machine Shop's 2026 Top Shops survey reports that shops that turn quotes around within a day report a 51% win rate on new business, against 41% for shops that take longer (source). It is a survey of machine shops and a correlation. We did not measure it, and we do not claim it as a Setanta result.
Whatever your shop's numbers are, the useful measure is your own: the time from an RFQ arriving to a quote going out, written down before you change anything. That is the baseline we ask for at the start of any work.
Where to start
Pick one customer group and a few weeks of real RFQs.
Start small. Take one customer or one product family, run real RFQs through intake and extraction side by side with your current process, and compare the time and the errors. Improve the instructions together before widening the scope.
Setanta has no published client for this workflow yet, and we do not claim results. Our one published story is THG Insurance, where the pattern was the same: documents in, a person deciding. If you want to talk it through, read how we work or contact us. Where the quote is a part, a service estimate or a rental machine, see AI for equipment dealers.
Questions
More questions about quoting with Claude.
Does Claude send quotes to customers?
No. Claude drafts the quote and the replies. A named person reviews and sends them. We write down who that is when we set the workflow up, so nothing reaches a customer unseen, and the estimator's approval is part of the workflow and not an afterthought.
What happens to my answers in the RFQ readiness checklist?
Nothing. The checklist runs in your browser. Your answers are not sent anywhere, stored or emailed, and there is no sign-up. Close the tab and they are gone. It does not ask for your name or company, and there is no email gate.
Which companies is this guide written for?
Industrial companies that quote from emails and drawings: steel service centers, metal fabricators, machine shops and similar manufacturers. Equipment dealers quote parts, service and rental machines from a serial or a fleet list, and that page describes its own version. Freight is different again.
Do I need to clean up my old quotes first?
It helps, and you do not need to finish before starting. Similar-job lookup improves as records improve, especially records of what a job actually took. We would look at what you have in the Diagnostic and say what is worth fixing first, and what can wait.
What is the free Operating Diagnostic?
A free call (book a time) that looks at how your team works today. It finds where Claude would move your numbers first and the process worth fixing first, and says which package fits. If it is not the right time, we say so.
Quote from emails and drawings? Tell us where the wait is.
We will say what we would build first, or that it is not time yet.