Why quotes stall before 10 AM
Picture the inside sales desk at a steel service center at 7:30 in the morning. Overnight, the inbox filled with RFQs. One is a clean table. One is a forwarded chain with three revisions. One is a photo of a handwritten cut list. Each one has grade, gauge or thickness, width, cut lengths, quantities and a date the customer needs it.
The rep retypes all of it into the ERP. Then they check stock, think about substitutions and price it. While they type, the phone rings. A customer wants a status on yesterday's order. The rep picks up, loses their place and starts the line again.
That is the hardest part of the day. Most of the morning goes to typing what someone already typed, and the thinking only starts once that is done.
The owner sees it on the P&L. Quotes that go out after lunch lose to the shop that answered first. Margin slips when a rep in a hurry skips the substitution that would have worked. And the rep who knows every customer's habits becomes the only one who can quote the hard ones.
We want every rep to quote like your best rep. That is the whole point.
What a quote really requires
A good quote at a service center is more than a price. Your best rep does a lot in their head:
- Reads the RFQ and works out what the customer actually means, even when the spec is loose.
- Matches grade and size to what is on the floor or on order.
- Knows which substitutions this customer accepts and which they reject.
- Applies your pricing rules and the customer's history.
- Adds processing: cut to length, slitting, shearing, whatever the order needs.
- Sets a promise date they can keep.
Steps 1, 2 and the first draft of 4 and 5 are reading and matching. Steps 3 and 6 are judgment. That split is where Claude helps.
Where Claude reads and drafts
In your own accounts, Claude can read the RFQ email and its attachments, pull out each line, match it against your stock and pricing data, and draft the quote. It flags what it is unsure about: a grade it cannot match, a missing thickness, a quantity that looks off. It notes the substitutions your best rep would usually suggest for that customer.
The rep opens a drafted quote instead of a blank screen. They check the flags, make the calls and send. The phone still rings, but the rep's place in the work is saved.
| Step | Today | With Claude drafting |
|---|---|---|
| Read RFQ and attachments | Rep reads and retypes | Claude extracts lines, rep checks |
| Match to stock | Rep searches the ERP | Claude proposes matches, flags gaps |
| Substitutions | Rep remembers, if there is time | Claude suggests from past practice, rep decides |
| Price and processing | Rep builds it | Claude drafts from your rules, rep approves |
| Promise date | Rep decides | Rep decides |
Our RFQ to quote guide goes through these steps in more depth.
What the rep still decides
Claude drafts. A person decides. The rep owns the price exceptions, the substitutions, the promise date and the relationship. Nothing goes to a customer without their approval. That keeps the knowledge where it belongs and keeps your customers dealing with people they trust.
There are also cases where a tool beats us. If your ERP vendor already offers RFQ intake that reads your customers' formats well, try it first. If most of your RFQs come through a portal with structured fields, the typing problem may already be solved. We would tell you that.
How to test it on 20 real RFQs
Do not start with a demo. Start with your own mail.
- Pull 20 RFQs from last month. Include clean ones, messy ones and at least one photo.
- Write down what your best rep quoted for each, and how long it took.
- Run them through Claude with your stock and pricing rules.
- Compare line by line. Where did the draft match? Where did it miss? Would your best rep have caught it?
- Agree one number to move, like time from RFQ to quote sent, before you go further.
If the drafts are not close, stop. That is a fine outcome too.
Where we stand
We want to be plain about one thing. We do not have a client in this vertical yet. Our approved proof today comes from insurance work with THG, an independent agency in Wilmington, NC. At THG, an independent insurance agency in Wilmington, NC, comparing 150-page policies went from days to minutes, and a client proposal went from 5 days to 5 minutes. That is insurance, and we say so. The method is the same one we would use here: watch the best person, write down how they decide, and put that in every seat.
We are an Anthropic Partner. We work inside your systems, and we measure on your numbers. If you want to look at your own quoting first, start with our free Operating Diagnostic. You can also see how we think about the vertical on our steel service centers page.