Answering an RFQ in English when English is not your first language
A recurring and expensive misconception among shops selling into the US, Europe and Japan is that export email should sound formal. It produces long, ornate messages that take a buyer effort to decode — and effort is exactly what you are competing to reduce.
Buyers are not judging your English. They are judging how much work it takes to get an answer out of you.
Short and plain beats formal and long
Compare two replies to the same enquiry.
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you very much for your kind enquiry and for your interest in our company. We are very pleased to receive your valued RFQ and we would like to take this opportunity to introduce our company, which was established in 2009 and specialises in precision machining for various industries…
Nothing here answers anything. The buyer is now four sentences in with no information.
Hello Mark,
We can make this part. Two questions before I price it:
- Is the 718 solution treated, or solution treated and aged?
- Do you need a first article inspection report, or a certificate of conformance?
Assuming aged material and CoC only, I expect around USD [x] each at 50 pieces, EXW. Material is 6 weeks; machining 2 weeks after that.
I will confirm the price once you answer question 1.
Nguyen — Technical Manager
The second is shorter, easier to write, and wins. It answers, asks, commits to a number and a date, and gives a name.
Sentence patterns worth reusing
Confirming you can do it
We can make this part. / This one is a good fit for us. / We machine Ti-6Al-4V every week.
Declining well — declining clearly is a credibility gain, not a loss
This one is outside what we do well. We are strong on turned nickel alloy parts up to 200 mm diameter. If you have parts like that, please send them.
Stating an assumption
I have assumed ISO 2768-m general tolerance and certificate of conformance only. Tell me if either is wrong and I will revise.
Asking a question without stalling
Two questions below. Meanwhile, my price assuming [X] is [Y] — I will confirm once you reply.
Giving a date
Material 6 weeks, machining 2 weeks after material arrives. First parts [date].
Flagging a risk honestly
We have not run this alloy above 150 mm diameter. I suggest a first article before the full batch. I have priced it that way.
Suggesting a saving — the highest-value sentence available to you
The Ra 0.4 on face C roughly doubles finishing time. If Ra 0.8 works, the price drops about 15 %.
Rules that make the writing easier
One idea per sentence. Long sentences are where non-native writing becomes hard to follow, and they are unnecessary.
Use numbers and lists. A buyer skims. Three numbered questions get three answers; the same three questions inside a paragraph get one.
Put the answer first, the context after. Western business email is front-loaded. The conclusion goes in the first line, not built up to.
Do not apologise for your English. It draws attention to something the buyer had not been thinking about. If a message is clear, it is good English.
Skip the company introduction unless asked. Attach it if you like; do not open with it.
Sign with a name and a direct address. Not “Sales Department”.
Speed beats completeness
The most common thing that loses work is not a language mistake. It is a reply on day four.
Send something the same day, always:
Received, thank you. We can quote this. I will send a price by Thursday. One question meanwhile: is the material condition specified anywhere?
That takes two minutes and keeps you in a process that is otherwise closing around the shops that answered first. The reasoning is in why good shops lose quotes they should have won.
What the buyer is reading for
Not fluency. They are checking whether you read the drawing, whether you will tell them bad news early, and whether you will still be answering in week six — the same five things covered in the ninety seconds before your quote is read.
Clear short English signals all three. Ornate English signals none of them.
If you cut hard, tough, heat-resistant alloys as routine work and can answer a technical email inside a business day, that is most of what our shop audit standard asks. Shops in our network receive purchase orders from us and never deal with the foreign buyer: join the manufacturing network.