You quote everything.You win the wrong ones.
Every RFQ gets two independent reads — can you win it, and should you want it — never a blended average. A dispositive economics gate forces NO-QUOTE on uncosted tooling or a missing margin path, whatever the scores say. The Dashboard totals the quoting hours sitting on RFQs you should never quote: that number is the engineering time you get back.
A quote desk that quotes everything is paying to lose.
Every RFQ response costs real estimating and engineering hours — and those hours come out of the RFQs you could actually win at margin. In the shipped sample, 30 of 51 quoting hours sit on NO-QUOTE work.
Quoting the unwinnable — you were column fodder from day one — and winning the unprofitable — the PO lands and the margin was never there. They are opposites, and one blended score hides both.
Nobody at the Monday meeting wants to be the one who says no to revenue. A deterministic gate says it for you — and shows exactly which fatal condition it saw.
Flip one fixture from uncosted to costed. Watch the gate release.
Two independent reads, never averaged. Try it: on Apex Rail, flip Tooling/NRE from 0 to 1 — the gate releases and STRONG / WORTH IT becomes QUOTE NOW. This demo runs the same math as the workbook and engine, in memory only — it resets on reload, invents no number, and grades RFQs, never people.
Runnable, zero-dependency, and verified before it shipped.
The exact output below is from the engine running against the shipped sample — reproduced independently by an exhaustive 6,561-combination verifier before packaging. Apex Rail is the teaching case: STRONG / WORTH IT on the numbers, NO-QUOTE on one uncosted fixture; the rev-B twin releases to QUOTE NOW.
RFQ BID/NO-BID TRIAGE GATE — RBT-079
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RFQ-1001 Meridian Valve Co QUOTE NOW
winnability 100 (STRONG) worth-winning 100 (WORTH IT) margin 25.0%
RFQ-1002 Apex Rail Systems NO-QUOTE [GATE: uncosted tooling/NRE — no recovery path]
winnability 100 (STRONG) worth-winning 75 (WORTH IT) margin 29.2%
fix first: Tooling/NRE exposure
RFQ-1003 Apex Rail — rev B (tooling costed) QUOTE NOW
winnability 100 (STRONG) worth-winning 88 (WORTH IT) margin 29.2%
RFQ-1004 Grover Fabrication NO-QUOTE [GATE: no margin path at target price]
winnability 88 (STRONG) worth-winning 75 (WORTH IT) margin 11.4%
fix first: Margin path
RFQ-1005 Statewide Utility (blind RFQ) NO-QUOTE
winnability 25 (LONG SHOT) worth-winning 100 (WORTH IT) margin 30.0%
fix first: Buyer relationship
RFQ-1006 Delta Conveyor QUOTE SELECTIVE
winnability 63 (CONTESTED) worth-winning 63 (MARGINAL) margin 16.2%
fix first: Margin path
RFQ-1007 Harbor Marine QUOTE SELECTIVE
winnability 100 (STRONG) worth-winning 63 (MARGINAL) margin 18.0%
fix first: Margin path
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QUEUE: QUOTING EVERYTHING (QUOTE NOW 2 / SELECTIVE 2 / NO-QUOTE 3)
Quoting hours on NO-QUOTE RFQs: 30 of 51 (58.8%) — hours to reclaim
Quote first: RFQ-1001Three rules the verdict never breaks.
Winnability and worth-winning are independent axes. QUOTE NOW requires both in the top band; either in the bottom band is NO-QUOTE. A perfect margin cannot buy back a hopeless relationship, and a perfect fit cannot buy back missing economics.
Uncosted tooling with no recovery path, or no path to your floor margin at the target price, forces NO-QUOTE regardless of both scores — and releases the moment the trigger clears. It never promotes.
The margin path is computed from your target price, your estimated cost, and your own floor. No industry multiplier, no invented win-probability, no benchmark anywhere in the tool.
A triage decision, not a proposal writer.
- The decision before anyone opens CAD: does this RFQ get hours at all?
- Two independent 0–100 reads per RFQ, a pairing verdict, and the one signal to fix first.
- A queue rollup that names the hours to reclaim and the RFQ to quote first.
- Deterministic and offline — engine and workbook compute identical results.
- Not a proposal writer — the RFP & Proposal Response Engine drafts; this decides.
- Not a pricing tool — it sets no price and invents no benchmark.
- Not a win-probability model — no statistics are conjured from your marks.
- Not a grade on any estimator, salesperson, or buyer — it scores RFQs, never people.
Honest boundary: this system is a deterministic opportunity-triage aid. It grades RFQs as artifacts and economics — never people — sets no price, and connects to nothing. It is not financial, accounting, or legal advice; bid decisions remain yours.
Built for the desk that decides where the hours go.
The rest of the sell-and-close desk.
Once an RFQ clears the gate, run the full Shipley-method response — shred, compliance matrix, themes, draft — with a verifier that catches the missed requirement.
The same discipline one step earlier in the funnel: PURSUE NOW / NURTURE / DISQUALIFY on every inbound lead before it ever becomes an RFQ.
The after-the-fact check on the same promise: sweeps your booked deal book for realized margin below floor — the jobs the gate would have caught.
Straight answers before you buy.
Because the two classic bid-decision failures are opposites: quoting the unwinnable (you were column fodder from day one) and winning the unprofitable (the PO lands and the margin was never there). One blended score hides both — a great margin buys back a hopeless relationship, a perfect fit buys back missing economics. This gate scores Winnability and Worth-winning independently and the verdict is the pairing: QUOTE NOW only when both clear, NO-QUOTE when either is in its bottom band.
It forces NO-QUOTE on either of two fatal conditions — uncosted tooling/NRE with no recovery path, or no path to your floor margin at the target price — regardless of both scores. The shipped sample proves it does distinct work: Apex Rail reads STRONG / WORTH IT on the numbers (100 / 75) and still gates to NO-QUOTE on one uncosted fixture; the rev-B twin with the fixture costed reads QUOTE NOW. The gate worsens only and releases the moment the trigger rises above 0.
From you, computed — never marked by feel. You enter the target price, your estimated cost, and your own margin floor; the workbook and engine compute the margin and derive the mark. Exactly at your floor reads thin; a cent under reads no-path and fires the gate. No industry multiplier, no invented benchmark anywhere in the tool.
A runnable zero-dependency Python engine with a config.json and a worked 7-RFQ sample, a workbook that reproduces the engine exactly (Start Here, Dashboard, RFQ Triage tabs — opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers), a Bid/No-Bid Facilitator Playbook for running the weekly triage meeting, and a Quote-Desk Discipline Runbook with a 90-day rollout arc. Engine and workbook compute identical results from identical inputs.
That system drafts the response — shred, compliance matrix, themes — the Shipley way. This gate is the decision before anyone drafts: should this RFQ get hours at all? Run the triage first; send only QUOTE NOW and shored-up QUOTE SELECTIVE work into the response process. The Dashboard totals the quoting hours sitting on NO-QUOTE RFQs — that figure is the engineering time you reclaim.
No. It grades RFQs as artifacts and economics — capability fit, spec maturity, margin path, tooling exposure — never a person. It's deterministic and offline: it connects to nothing, reads no CRM, and computes only from the numbers you enter. It's an opportunity-triage aid, not financial advice, and overriding it is always your call — the playbook just asks you to log the override.
Stop quoting everything.
Start quoting the right work.
One purchase, lifetime access, 12 months of updates. $79, once.
Honest boundary: an opportunity-triage aid, not financial advice — it grades RFQs and their economics, never people.
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