How to respond to an RFQ from a Saudi company, and raise your chances

Many replies fail because the supplier answered an RFQ it could not really win. Before you open a price sheet, read the whole request once and answer five questions.

Can you supply every line, or only some, and does the buyer accept partial offers? Can you meet the closing date and time with a complete reply? Can you deliver to the stated place on the stated dates? Can you live with the payment terms, for example payment 60 days after the invoice? Do you hold every document the buyer asks for, such as your CR, VAT certificate or product data sheets?

If two or more answers are "no", a polite decline with a short reason is often better than a weak offer. It keeps the relationship open for the next request.

If you decide to bid, put the closing time in your calendar with a reminder one working day earlier, and name one person who owns the reply.

Every unclear point is a risk you will price or pay for later. Typical gaps are a missing size or grade, a brand name with no "or equal", an unclear delivery address, or a quantity that does not match the unit.

Send all your questions in one numbered message to the contact named in the RFQ, early in the bid period. Quote the line number for each question. Keep the buyer's answers with your file, and reflect them in your reply.

Government buyers work the same way by law. The new Government Tenders and Procurement Law lets bidders send inquiries about the tender documents, and the government entity must answer before the period for receiving bids ends (Article 26). A private company sets its own rules, but most procurement teams expect questions in writing and before a cut-off date.

If the answer changes the scope, check that the closing date still works for you. If it does not, ask for an extension in writing.

A strong reply makes the buyer's check easy. Go through the RFQ line by line and say for each requirement: complies, complies with a note, or does not comply. Put this in a short table at the front of your reply.

If you offer an equivalent product, a different pack size or a longer delivery time, write it as a deviation on that line. Hiding it does not help: it usually surfaces at delivery, when it costs more.

Formal buyers often read the technical reply before the price. In government tenders with two files, the law says the technical offers are opened and examined first, and the financial offers of rejected technical offers are returned unopened (Articles 43 and 44). The Ministry of Finance publishes separate user guides for bids with one envelope and with two envelopes.

So attach exactly what was asked: data sheets, certificates and your company documents, each file named clearly. Missing papers can end your chance before anyone sees your price.

Price every line in the buyer's units and order, and show the total before VAT, VAT at 15% and the total including VAT. Our quotation guide shows the arithmetic with an example.

Put your full and final price in the original offer. The new government law is strict here: total prices, including fees and taxes, must be in the original bid, a discount sent in a separate letter is ignored even if it comes with the bid, and prices cannot change after submission except where the law allows negotiation (Article 40). Many private buyers follow a similar logic.

Write a validity period that matches the request. Government bids stay valid for 90 working days from the opening date (Article 39). Some formal tenders also ask for an initial guarantee, set at 1% to 2% of the bid value in government tenders (Article 41).

Submit through the channel the buyer named, before the closing time. Under the law, bids are accepted only within the set period (Article 36).

Ask for a short confirmation that your reply arrived complete. An offer stuck in a spam folder or an upload that failed counts as no offer.

Answer any clarification request from the buyer quickly and in writing, and do not change your price unless the buyer opens a negotiation round. If it does, our guide on negotiating in rounds covers how to prepare.

If you do not hear back, follow up once, politely, near the decision date. If you lose, ask what decided it: price, delivery time, a deviation or a missing document. In government tenders the entity must wait a standstill period of 3 to 10 working days after announcing the award, so bidders can object (Article 50); private buyers have no such rule, so feedback depends on the relationship.

Keep a simple log of every RFQ: date received, date you replied, price and result. Over time it shows which buyers and products are worth your effort.

On ENTEK, suppliers receive RFQs, submit bids and negotiate in rounds, with delivery options per line, and get purchase orders when they win. Each line has its own price and delivery option, which fits the line-by-line reply described above.

You can track win rate and response time for your RFQs. ENTEK calls this "Sales overview and RFQ performance". It replaces the manual log in step 5, without benchmark numbers or promises.

Your verified company profile holds your CR and VAT numbers, certifications, key personnel and official stamp, so the documents buyers ask for are ready in one place. ENTEK can also generate a stamped quotation and proforma.

What ENTEK does not do: it cannot promise that you will receive RFQs or win them, it does not answer the buyer's questions for you, and it is not Etimad or any buyer's own vendor portal. For government tenders, use Etimad and the rules of the new law.