Two quotes, same photo, 18% apart. Here is what is missing.
Quotations are sales documents, not cost documents. Each one is written to look attractive against whatever the buyer is likely to compare it with, which means the expensive lines get pushed off the page or folded into a single unit price.
The fix is mechanical: put both quotes into the same template, mark every missing line as missing rather than as zero, and compare landed cost instead of unit price.
The lines that get left out
| Line | How it hides | Why it changes the answer |
|---|---|---|
| Trade term | FOB vs CIF vs DDP | Freight, insurance, duty and clearance responsibility move between parties |
| Packaging | Poly bag vs colour box vs gift box | Unit cost moves, and so does carton volume, which moves freight |
| Certification | Excluded, or quoted separately later | A one-off four-figure amount that belongs in the first order |
| Tooling | Amortised into unit price, or billed once | Changes first-order cash flow and the true break-even volume |
| Spares | Silent | Two to five percent of order value on most categories |
| Payment terms | 30/70 vs 50/50 vs against documents | Changes how much capital you tie up for how long |
| Inspection | Who pays | Third-party inspection runs a few hundred dollars per man-day |
Normalise, then compare
Build one blank table with those lines, copy both quotations into it, and write not quoted in any empty cell. The discipline matters more than the tool: a missing line is not free, it is unpriced.
Landed cost is the only number that matters
Unit price times quantity is the first of nine terms. The full sum is: goods, packaging, tooling, certification amortised over the first order, inland freight to port, main freight, insurance, duty, last-mile delivery, inspection, and the cost of the capital tied up while the goods are in transit. Most buyers stop after the first term, which is exactly why quotes are written that way.
What a good supplier does differently
- Lists what is not included before you ask.
- Says which option they would not buy, and why.
- Offers two configurations rather than one price, so you can see the trade.
- States lead time in days from a named event, not from received deposit.
- Answers what they cannot do as clearly as what they can.
Red flags worth walking away from
- A unit price with no carton dimensions, quantity per carton, or gross weight.
- A lead time that names no number of days.
- A bank account whose name does not match the company name on the quotation.
- Refusal of a live video call from the production floor.
How to send an enquiry that gets comparable answers
Give every supplier the same five inputs: quantity for the first order, quantity for the expected repeat order, destination city and postcode, the trade term you want quoted, and the target retail price. Then ask all of them the same questions. Suppliers quote to the shape of the enquiry, so an enquiry that leaves room will be filled with whatever is cheapest to say.
Questions we get on this
Is the cheapest quote usually the worst?
Should I ask for DDP pricing?
How many suppliers should I ask?
What if the samples differ from each other?
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