Inquiry-to-quote automation for a trading company has four stages: taking inquiries in, sorting and assigning them, asking suppliers for prices, and following up after quoting. The system reads each inquiry, pulls out the customer, brand or product, quantity and lead time, assigns it to the right salesperson and sends a confirmation; when the brand owner or factory has to be asked first, it reminds sales to ask and records the reply; once a quote is sent, it reminds sales to follow up if there's no reply after a set number of days, and again as the quote's validity date approaches. Sales no longer digs through inboxes or relies on memory, and only handles what needs judgment: whether to take it, how to quote and how to negotiate.
1. Why trading company quotes get stuck so easily
Factories mostly quote from their own costs and capacity; trading companies often have to ask someone else first. When a customer asks about an item, sales asks the brand owner or factory for price and lead time, waits for the reply, adds freight and its own terms, and only then answers the customer. If any step goes unrecorded, things stall. Common situations: inquiries are scattered across salespeople's own inboxes and LINE, so nobody knows how many there are; a supplier replies with a price and nobody notices; a quote goes out and nobody remembers to follow up; the same customer asks through two channels and two salespeople each send a quote.
2. Write down the process and who owns each part
Before automating, use one table to write down who handles what today. It doesn't need to be complicated; start with the common cases and send exceptions to a person.
| Sort by | Examples | Assign to |
|---|---|---|
| Brand or product line | Each brand you represent, each product category | The salesperson for that brand or product line |
| Region or language | Taiwanese customers, English inquiries, Japanese inquiries | The salesperson for that region or who speaks that language |
| Customer type | Existing customers, resellers, new customers | Existing customers go to their current salesperson |
| Urgency | The message says it's urgent or asks for a fast reply | Flagged as urgent, and the manager is notified too |
| Not an inquiry | Ads, job applications, vendor pitches | Moved to a separate folder, not assigned |
3. Four stages: what the system does and what people do
| Stage | What the system does | What people do |
|---|---|---|
| Take in | Collects inquiries from email, website forms, LINE and platform notification emails, and pulls out customer, items, quantity, lead time and attachments | Review inquiries the system isn't sure about, held in the needs-review queue |
| Sort and assign | Assigns by the rules and sends the customer a confirmation | Salesperson confirms they've taken it |
| Ask suppliers | Reminds sales to ask the brand owner or factory for a price, records who was asked and when, and reminds again if there's no reply after a set number of days | Sales asks suppliers and confirms price and lead time |
| Follow up after quoting | Records the quote date and validity; reminds sales if the customer hasn't replied after a set number of days, and again as the validity date approaches | Sales follows up and negotiates, then wins or closes it |
Don't let the system send quotes automatically; a person should always check them. The system records, reminds and organizes; judgment and negotiation stay with sales.
4. Prepare the data quotes need
What often takes sales the most time when quoting is finding information. At assignment, these details can be gathered in one place:
- Customer details: company, country, what they've bought before
- Item details: brand, model, specs, packaging
- Past quotes: how the same customer or item was quoted before
- Supplier replies: price terms, lead time and the date asked
- Attachments: spec sheets, images, reference material from the customer
If this data lives in an ERP, CRM or spreadsheets, whether it can be pulled in automatically depends on whether the system offers a way to connect, such as an API or data export. AI can help read emails and attachments and pull out fields, but it will get some wrong, so every record should link back to the original message for checking.
5. After the deal, order and shipping status stay in sync too
Once a quote is won, the question customers often ask is where their goods are. If order and shipping progress only lives in one salesperson's or assistant's spreadsheet, someone has to check and reply every time. Orders, shipping dates, sailing schedules and delivery progress can be gathered in one shared sheet, with the responsible salesperson notified whenever the status changes; if the delivery date is near and nothing has shipped, sales and the manager get a reminder. These flows can be built with n8n, connecting your inboxes, LINE, spreadsheets and systems.
6. Where to start and how long it takes
Pick the inbox or form that receives the most inquiries and start with taking in, sorting and assigning; run it for two to four weeks to check that sorting and assignment are right, then add asking suppliers and following up after quoting. A single workflow usually launches in 1–2 weeks, and cross-system integration usually takes 3–6 weeks. Before you start, record where things stand: how many inquiries arrive a week, how long the first reply takes, how long it takes to send a quote, and how many quotes go without follow-up. Measure the same way afterwards to know whether it improved.
The short version
Inquiry-to-quote automation hands the recording and reminders for intake, assignment, supplier requests and post-quote follow-up to the system, so sales spends its time on judgment and negotiation.
Frequently asked questions
- Do we need to replace our CRM or ERP?
- No. We connect the inboxes, LINE, spreadsheets and systems you already have; whether your CRM and ERP can be connected depends on whether they offer a way to do so.
- Can inquiries on LINE be sorted too?
- Messages to your LINE Official Account can be connected. Conversations on salespeople's personal LINE accounts can't be collected automatically, so we suggest asking customers to use the official account or email for inquiries.
- What if the AI sorts something wrong?
- Every record links back to the original message, and anything the system isn't sure about goes to the needs-review queue. After running for a while, the rules are adjusted based on the mistakes.
- How is pricing worked out?
- It's scoped to your needs: how many inboxes and systems to connect, how complex the sorting rules are and whether order and shipping status are included. We quote after a free 30-minute consultation.