Quote turnaround KPIs every distributor should track

Why measure quote turnaround at all?

Buyers have clear expectations. A 2020 Paperless Parts survey found that 67% of part buyers expect a quote within 24 hours. And Harvard Business Review reported in 2011 that firms contacting leads within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify them as firms that waited longer.

Most distributors believe they are fast. Few can say what their median turnaround was last week, or what share of RFQs waited more than a day. Without a number, ‘we need to be faster’ never turns into a specific fix.

Which quote turnaround KPIs matter most?

Keep the list short. Six KPIs cover speed, quality, effort and follow-through. Each one can be calculated in a spreadsheet from data most teams already have in their mailbox and ERP.

Why use the median instead of the average?

Averages are pulled around by outliers. Imagine five quotes with turnaround times of 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 48 hours. The average is (0.5 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 48) ÷ 5 = 54.5 ÷ 5 = 10.9 hours. The median, the middle value, is 2 hours.

Neither number is wrong, but they answer different questions. The median tells you what a typical customer experiences. The 24-hour rate and a list of the slowest quotes tell you about the outliers. Track both, and investigate every quote that misses 24 hours.

Worked example: one week of quoting KPIs

Here is an illustrative week for a mid-sized distributor. The numbers are invented for the example, but the arithmetic is the same you would use on your own data.

The team received 60 RFQs and sent 60 quotes. Of those, 42 went out within 24 hours, so the 24-hour quote rate is 42 ÷ 60 × 100 = 70%. Fifteen quotes became orders, for a quote-to-order rate of 15 ÷ 60 × 100 = 25%. Reps logged 1,200 minutes on quoting, so touch time is 1,200 ÷ 60 = 20 minutes per quote.

Thirty quotes were still open after 7 days, and 18 had been followed up, giving follow-up coverage of 18 ÷ 30 × 100 = 60%. Across 480 quoted lines, 36 needed a rep's decision, a flagged-line rate of 36 ÷ 480 × 100 = 7.5%. If you want to model how changes in speed affect these numbers, the RFQ response time calculator is a quick way to start.

How do you set up quote KPI measurement?

You do not need new software to start. A shared spreadsheet and two weeks of discipline are enough to get a baseline. The steps below are also listed as a how-to for quick reference.

1. Define the clock: the RFQ is received when it lands in the shared inbox, and the quote is sent when the customer receives it.
2. Decide between calendar hours and business hours, write it down, and never mix them.
3. Log every RFQ: received timestamp, customer, number of lines, rep, sent timestamp, outcome.
4. Calculate the six KPIs weekly, and list every quote that missed 24 hours with the reason.
5. Review with the team for 15 minutes each week and pick one fix at a time.
6. Set one goal, such as a median under one hour, and track it for at least a month.

Which mistakes distort quote KPIs?

• Starting the clock when a rep opens the email instead of when it arrived.
• Excluding the hard quotes, which are usually the slow ones.
• Counting requotes and revisions as new RFQs, which inflates volume and hides delays.
• Mixing business hours and calendar hours between weeks.
• Tracking win rate without speed, or speed without win rate.

How does Merlin help you track these KPIs?

Merlin's Quote Desk drafts quotes in minutes, 24/7, and keeps an audit log of every draft, approval and send, so the timestamps you need for turnaround are recorded as you work. Flagged lines are visible on each draft, which makes the flagged-line rate easy to watch, and the Quote Follow-up desk drafts follow-ups on the days you choose.

Our pilot is built around one success metric agreed in writing up front, for example a median quote response time under one hour. For industry context, see our quote response time statistics, and for chasing open quotes, read quote follow-up: when and how.