Gamut
Quote & Estimate Follow-upManufacturing

Manufacturing Quote / Estimate Follow-up Agent

Follow up on every open RFQ in the estimator's voice so no booked job is lost to a forgotten quote.

Updated

Connects with

EpicorEpicorSlackSlackGmailGmailOutlookOutlook
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The problem it solves

Manufacturers send dozens of RFQ responses a week and quietly lose booked revenue because no one circled back. Estimators are buried in new bids, so open quotes go cold and tooling investment becomes unrecoverable. This agent watches every open quotation, drafts the right follow-up at the right time, and surfaces a clear win-rate picture so the pipeline never slips through the cracks.

Who it's for

  • Job shops and contract manufacturers sending 10 to 200+ quotes per month
  • Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers responding to OEM RFQ cycles
  • Estimating teams quoting at high volume without dedicated sales support
  • Sales managers who want win-rate visibility without building reports by hand
  • Owner-operators who personally quote and follow up on industrial work

What it does

  1. 1

    Pull every open quote

    It reads all open quotations from Epicor or SAP Business One (or an exported CSV) and captures quote number, revision, parts, value, and tooling cost.

  2. 2

    Categorize by status

    Each quote is sorted into awaiting first response, in evaluation, follow-up attempted, expiring soon, or expired, with won and lost removed from the queue.

  3. 3

    Flag manufacturing-specific risk

    It highlights tooling cost recovery at risk, annual program price-validity windows, multi-revision history, and large-volume quotes that need a capacity check.

  4. 4

    Prioritize outreach

    Open quotes are ranked by tooling cost at risk first, then expiring quotes, then by value and days since last contact.

  5. 5

    Draft estimator-voiced follow-ups

    It writes messages in the estimator's or owner's voice, referencing the specific quote number, part numbers, and send date, escalating in tone as the quote ages.

  6. 6

    Hold drafts for approval

    Every follow-up is presented for review and only sends once a person approves it.

  7. 7

    Report win rates weekly

    It delivers quotes sent versus won and lost, win rate by customer and part family, average days to decision, open pipeline value, and tooling cost at risk.

Key benefits

  • Recover booked revenue that would otherwise be lost to quotes no one followed up on
  • Protect non-recoverable tooling investment by escalating at-risk quotes first
  • Free estimators from manually tracking every open bid across the ERP
  • Send timely, specific follow-ups that reference real quote and part numbers
  • See win rate by customer and part family without building manual reports
  • Catch expiring quotes and annual program price windows before they lapse

Sample use cases

A $180K quote that included $40K of custom tooling has gone quiet two weeks before expiration.

The agent ranks it as top priority for tooling cost at risk and drafts an estimator-voiced check-in that references the quote number and asks for a decision before the date.

An estimator sent 60 RFQ responses last month and has no idea which are still live.

The agent groups all open quotes by status and queues prioritized follow-up drafts for everyone idle past the configured window.

A customer requested two revisions and the team is unsure which one is current.

The agent confirms the latest revision is the one in active follow-up and drafts the message against it, not an outdated version.

The sales manager wants a Monday read on the quoting pipeline.

The agent delivers a weekly report covering win rate by customer and part family, average days to decision, open pipeline value, and tooling cost at risk.

Key integrations

  • Epicor

    Manufacturing ERP the agent reads open quotations and quote details from.

  • SAP Business One

    ERP alternative the agent pulls open quotes, revisions, and customer data from.

  • CSV export

    Fallback for open quote data when an ERP is not directly connected.

  • Slack

    Channel where follow-up drafts and weekly win-rate reports can be delivered for review.

  • Email

    Delivers follow-up drafts and reports, and sends approved messages to buyer contacts.

Most manufacturers do not lose quotes because their pricing is wrong. They lose them because the estimator who sent the bid is already deep into the next ten RFQs and the open proposal slips out of view. A systematic follow-up rhythm, tied to quote expiration and tooling exposure, recovers jobs that were already won on merit.

Because the agent reads directly from Epicor or SAP Business One and understands how manufacturing quotes actually behave, its follow-ups stay specific and credible: the right revision, the right part numbers, and an escalating tone that matches how close the quote is to expiring.

Getting started

  1. Import the workspace — Add the Manufacturing Quote / Estimate Follow-up template to your Gamut workspace to get the agent and its skills.
  2. Run the onboarding skill — The agent interviews you to connect Epicor or SAP Business One, set your quote expiration policy and follow-up schedule, and capture your estimator voice and delivery channel.
  3. Give it a first task — Ask it to pull your open quotes and draft this week's follow-ups, then review the queue and approve the messages you want sent.

Frequently asked questions

Does the agent send follow-ups to customers without approval?

No. It drafts every follow-up message and presents it for review, and nothing goes to a customer until a person approves it. It also never changes quote prices or terms in your ERP.

Which systems does this manufacturing estimating software work with?

It connects to Epicor or SAP Business One to read open quotations, or works from a CSV export if your ERP is not directly connected. Drafts and win-rate reports are delivered through Slack or email.

How is this different from tracking quotes manually or with generic tools?

Unlike a spreadsheet or generic reminder tool, this manufacturing cost estimating software understands quote revisions, tooling cost recovery, and annual program pricing, and it writes follow-ups in your estimator's voice referencing the real quote and part numbers. It prioritizes by what actually puts revenue at risk rather than just by date.

How does it handle tooling cost recovery on open quotes?

Tooling investment such as molds, dies, and fixtures is not recoverable if a quote is lost, so the agent flags any open quote with tooling cost at risk and ranks it as the highest follow-up priority.

What kind of reporting does it provide?

It delivers a weekly or monthly win-rate report covering quotes sent versus won and lost, win rate by customer and part family, average days to decision, total open pipeline value, and tooling cost at risk in the pipeline.

Is this estimating software for manufacturing free to try?

The template is included with your Gamut workspace, so you can import it and configure it at no extra cost. You only need your own ERP or quote export and the contact list for your buyers.