Video title: Reduce Quote Turnaround and Gain More Revenue with Steelhead's RFQ
Date published: [06-12-2025]
Duration: 7:28
Video type: Overview / Demo
Audience: Admin, End User
Steelhead's Request for Quote (RFQ) feature lets you receive, manage, and convert customer quote requests into quotes in minutes from a centralized dashboard. The requests come through the customer portal, your website, or even a forwarded email — so you can respond first and win more jobs.
What this video covers:
This video walks through Steelhead's RFQ feature end-to-end. It covers receiving and converting incoming quote requests with a click, customizing and branding the RFQ form with your shop's processes and specs, and enabling customer self-service quote requests through the customer portal. It also shows how to forward emailed quote requests directly into the RFQ dashboard, configure notification colors and default email messages, and share or embed the form on your website.
Problem it solves:
If quote requests are buried in email inboxes and your team is re-entering specs and customer details by hand for every quote, you're losing time — and jobs. 78% of buyers award business to the first company that responds. Slow quoting means lost revenue.
Key capabilities shown:
- Color-coded RFQ notification system (green/yellow/red urgency thresholds, configurable in Domain Settings)
- Quick RFQ-to-Quote conversion with full detail carry-over
- Customizable, brandable RFQ form with process, treatment, and spec selection
- Customer portal self-service RFQ submission and real-time status tracking
- Email-to-RFQ forwarding via a dedicated email address
- Embeddable form for website integration or shareable link for sharing your form externally
- Full traceability from Quote back to original RFQ (linked in Quote detail and History tab)
- Decline workflow with optional customer email and restore-to-Active capability
- Default 'decline' and 'confirmation' email messages (configurable in Email Settings)
- Internal RFQ form entry for phone-in quote requests
Workflows shown:
Convert an RFQ to a Quote:
1. Receive notification of new RFQ submission
2. Open the RFQ dashboard and click View Details on the submission
3. Review customer details, add notes or additional information
4. Click to convert the RFQ into a Quote
5. Adjust pricing, quantities, or details on the Quote
6. Email the Quote to the customer
Customize the RFQ form:
1. Enable or disable the form
2. Set the form name, company logo, description, and file upload message
3. Assign an RFQ contact and configure email notifications
4. Add processes, toggle treatment options on/off, and add specs
5. Set notification color thresholds in Domain Settings
6. Configure default decline and confirmation messages in Email Settings
Share the RFQ form:
1. Copy the form link to share behind a button on your website or elsewhere
2. Or copy the embed code and adjust the size for seamless website integration
Forward an emailed quote request:
1. Forward the customer's email to your dedicated RFQ email address
2. The request appears in the RFQ dashboard
3. Open the submission and reference the forwarded email side by side while inputting quote details
Customer portal self-service:
1. Enable Submit Request for Quote permission in portal settings
2. Customer logs in, creates an RFQ with auto-filled details, selects parts, processes, and specs
3. Customer attaches images and submits the RFQ
4. Customer tracks RFQ and Quote status in real time from the portal
Taxonomy Tags
Steelhead product area: Quoting
Feature/module: Request for Quote (RFQ)
Job to be done: Receive and respond to customer quote requests faster to win more jobs
Workflow category: Daily use, Configuration
Skill level: Beginner
Related features: Quotes, Customer Portal, Email integration, Domain Settings, Email Settings
Full Transcript
[00:00] Faster quoting equals more sales. 78% of buyers award business to the first company that responds to a quote request. Being able to quote fast can be the number one deciding factor on whether you win a job or not.
[00:13] Steelhead has added a new feature called Request for Quote, or RFQ, a core functionality that is designed to reduce quote turnaround time and deliver more revenue to your business. And it's not just for you, your customers will get the benefits too. Let's look at how you can turn a request into a quote faster than your morning coffee brews, then we'll get into the essentials and a few hidden gems. And as we go through this, picture yourself being able to do it in your shop. What will you do with the time that you save?
[00:39] [navigates to RFQ dashboard] When a customer submits an RFQ, you'll receive a notification instantly, and also have the option to be notified by email. You can easily see how many RFQs have been submitted but haven't been converted to a quote or declined. Green is recently submitted, yellow is your nudge, and red, well it's time to act.
[00:58] You can adjust the color settings to your liking, which I'll get to shortly.
[01:01] [clicks View Details on an RFQ submission] Click View Details on any RFQ submission to see the customer's every wish, want, and wild idea. Just add in any other details or notes, and then instantly convert all of this into a quote with a click.
[01:12] [clicks convert to Quote; Quote screen opens] And here's your quote. Easily adjust pricing, quantities, or any last details as you need before emailing that quote to your customer. [clicks email Quote] Just like that, and you're done with that whole quoting process in a matter of minutes, leaving you extra time for important things like that second cup of coffee.
[01:35] [scrolls to RFQ link on Quote] Your quotes link back to its original RFQ for full traceability here, as well as in the History tab.
[01:41] [navigates to Quotes page; applies RFQ filter] Then, within the Quotes page, you can filter by RFQ and easily jump back to the RFQ dashboard from here.
[01:48] [navigates back to RFQ dashboard] Have you ever lost a job because it took too long to quote or it got buried in someone's inbox? With RFQ in Steelhead, you'll see every incoming request at a glance, full visibility and traceability.
[01:59] [demonstrates search and filter controls; opens Table Settings] Of course, you have search and filtering functionality, as well as table settings right here.
[02:05] [clicks Active tab, Converted tab, Declined tab] Active, Converted, and Declined RFQ tabs.
[02:08] [opens a submission from Active tab; clicks Decline] And if you open up one of these submissions and click Decline, you have the option to email that customer to continue the conversation. Maybe you need more details from them. Then customers can submit another RFQ, give you more information, or reply to your questions directly.
[02:22] [clicks Converted tab] Here in the Converted tab, you can see the RFQ we just responded to. Click into the quote or view the details of the request for the quote, and you can also create another quote from here.
[02:31] [clicks Declined tab] Then in Declined, you have all this information at a glance, and you can see the reason that was given to the customer for declining each quote. You have the option here to restore it if needed, bringing RFQs right back to Active.
[02:45] [opens RFQ form for internal entry] For customers requesting a quote by phone, you can open the RFQ form to fill it out yourself, and it'll show up as a submission in your main dashboard faster than you can say, "Hold, please."
[02:52] [navigates to RFQ form settings] Steelhead also provides you with ways to customize and brand the RFQ form so your customers see your shop's unique touch in every interaction.
[03:00] [toggles form enable/disable] Easily enable or disable the form at any time.
[03:04] [edits form name, toggles company logo, edits description and file upload message] For a branded experience, change the name of the form, choose to include your company logo, and add in your own description here, as well as a file upload message, which shows up down here.
[03:15] [selects RFQ contact from dropdown; toggles email notification] You can assign a specific team member as the RFQ contact, who will receive all follow-up emails for RFQs. And if you turn on this toggle, they will also receive the initial submission request notification by email, and other users with RFQ permissions enabled will also be able to see and reply to any RFQ emails.
[03:34] [navigates to process and treatment settings on the form] And then before I show you how easy it is to share and use this form, let's look at more customization that'll speed up your quote response. Give your customers the power to select exactly what they need by adding your shop's processes and specs to the RFQ form.
[03:49] [toggles treatment options on/off] And if there are options within the process, you can toggle those options on or off for customer visibility. Any treatments you're not currently running, just easily toggle it off or back on on one process, and it will turn off across any other processes that have that same treatment option. Your customers only see what you want them to see.
[04:05] [edits customer-facing treatment name] You also have the option to change the customer-facing name on each of these treatments.
[04:12] [adds and removes specs; clicks Select Specs > Add; toggles spec options] Add or remove specs just as easily, and if you want to add them all at once, it's very quick to do so. Select Specs, Add, and toggle the options.
[04:19] How much time could you save if your team never had to re-enter specs, processes, part numbers? Imagine what you could do with those extra hours.
[04:30] [navigates to Domain Settings > notification color thresholds] Here in the Domain Settings is where you can adjust the threshold for notification colors, and you can choose to see the colors on the RFQ table and from the homepage.
[04:37] [clicks Save] Save your changes.
[04:41] Every toggle, every option, every automation is designed to help you quote faster, win more jobs, and keep your customers coming back.
[04:48] [navigates to Email Settings > default messages] Including the ability to add in your own decline and confirmation default messages within the email settings. This will be used as the default when you choose to reply to an RFQ with the decline email, and this will be sent as an automatic response when an RFQ is submitted, along with the option to include your logo or not.
[05:03] [navigates to form sharing options] Once you've set up your form exactly as you like it, it's time to share it with your customers.
[05:06] [copies form link] You can copy the form link to share behind a button on your website or anywhere else your customers find you. [shows external form preview] And it'll look like this, a very professional experience for your customers.
[05:18] [copies embed code; adjusts embed size] Or embed the form on your website and adjust the size for seamless integration. [shows embedded form example] And here's an example of how that can look.
[05:24] One more way this form comes in handy.
[05:26] [shows email inbox] Let's say you receive an email from a customer requesting a quote. We don't want you to lose time hopping back and forth from your email to Steelhead.
[05:37] [highlights dedicated RFQ email address; forwards email] Take that email, forward it to this email address here. We would recommend saving this as a contact within your email so that it's easy to pull up and forward any future emails.
[05:45] [navigates to RFQ dashboard; forwarded email appears as submission] And that will bring it directly into your RFQ dashboard, where you can now quickly and easily turn it into a quote.
[05:52] [opens forwarded RFQ; references original email content while filling in details] Then you can easily reference that email here when inputting information so you don't miss a thing.
[06:00] Okay, now let's look at how happy we can make your customers with this workflow.
[06:03] [navigates to customer portal settings; enables Submit Request for Quote permission] With the Submit Request for Quote permission enabled on your customer portal settings, you can give your customers the self-service ability to submit RFQs.
[06:10] [switches to customer portal view] So picture this. Your favorite customer logs in, creates and submits an RFQ in under two minutes, and can track every update.
[06:18] [shows auto-filled customer fields on portal RFQ form] Several details are already auto-filled for your customers.
[06:22] [selects date from date picker; types in notes field] And they can select when they would like the order done by, put in additional notes here.
[06:30] [opens parts dropdown; selects parts] And select parts from the dropdown. And this list includes all parts that have been emailed to this customer from Steelhead.
[06:37] [selects processes, treatments, and specs] Then add any processes, treatments, and specs here as well.
[06:41] [attaches image files] And images can be attached here to help you quote.
[06:45] [clicks Submit RFQ] And then they click Submit RFQ. Can you see your customers loving how easy this is?
[06:52] [shows portal RFQ tracking view with status indicators] Your customer can track the status of every RFQ and quote in real time through the customer portal.
[06:58] [clicks Converted tab in portal view; opens linked Quote] Once you've emailed them a quote that came from an RFQ, they also have direct access to that quote from the Converted tab.
[07:01] Transparency builds trust and keeps everyone in the loop. Provide customers with an experience that gives you a competitive edge. How would faster quoting change your shop's win rate?
[07:14] Customer expectations are high. Become one of the top 5% of quoters using Steelhead's RFQ, then share your thoughts. We're all ears and automation. Steelhead is built for your success.