Quote response time statistics 2026
The best public data says buyers expect quotes fast: in a 2020 Paperless Parts survey, 67% of part buyers expected a quote within 24 hours, and a 2011 Harvard Business Review study found firms that contacted leads within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify them. At the same time, Québec still had 14,900 vacant manufacturing jobs in Q2 2026, and only 12.7% of Québec businesses reported using AI in 2025. Below are 19 entries from 10 publishers, each checked against its original page in October 2026.
How fast do buyers expect a quote?
Speed is part of the product. Paperless Parts' 2020 Part Buyer Survey found that 67% of buyers expect a quote in less than 24 hours, up from 53% in 2019. In its 2022 survey of more than 600 U.S. manufacturing professionals, 47% said the speed of response directly affects their decision to work with a shop, and 85% said they turned to new vendors when current ones fell short.
The older but still widely cited HBR study on online sales leads points the same way: firms that contacted a lead within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited longer. It measured sales leads, not RFQs, so treat it as a signal about speed, not a quote benchmark.
Quote response time and B2B buying statistics
| Statistic | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 67% of part buyers expect a quote in less than 24 hours (up from 53% in 2019) | Paperless Parts, Part Buyer Survey | 2020 |
| 47% of buyers say speed of response directly affects their decision to work with a shop | Paperless Parts, Custom Part Buyer Survey (600+ U.S. respondents) | 2022 |
| 85% of buyers turned to new vendors when current ones fell short (54% in 2020) | Paperless Parts, Custom Part Buyer Survey | 2022 |
| Firms contacting leads within an hour were nearly 7x as likely to qualify them | Harvard Business Review, "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads" | 2011 |
| 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience; 45% used AI during a recent purchase | Gartner (survey of 646 B2B buyers, Aug to Sep 2025) | 2026 |
| 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience; 73% avoid suppliers with irrelevant outreach | Gartner (survey of 632 B2B buyers, Aug to Sep 2024) | 2025 |
| B2B customers use an average of ten interaction channels, up from five in 2016 | McKinsey, B2B Pulse Survey (nearly 4,000 decision makers) | 2024 |
| More than half of B2B buyers say they are likely to switch suppliers over a poor cross-channel experience | McKinsey, B2B Pulse Survey | 2024 |
| Sales reps spend 70% of their time on non-selling tasks | Salesforce, State of Sales (5,500 respondents) | 2024 |
| One distributor's median quote response time was three to four hours before automation (single anonymised company) | InstaLILY vendor case study | 2025 to 2026 |
The InstaLILY figure comes from a vendor's case study of one customer, not independent research. We include it as an example of a measured baseline, not an industry average.
Labour shortage statistics for Québec and Canada
Inside-sales capacity is hard to add. Québec's vacancy count has eased since 2022, but manufacturing vacancies went up between 2025 and 2026. For how this plays out on a sales desk, see the inside sales labour shortage.
| Statistic | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|
| About 14,900 vacant manufacturing jobs in Québec in Q2 2026; about 123,700 vacancies overall, a 3.1% rate | Institut de la statistique du Québec | 2026 |
| About 13,300 vacant manufacturing jobs in Québec in Q2 2025 | Institut de la statistique du Québec | 2025 |
| 375,000 private-sector vacancies in Canada in Q3 2026, a 2.6% rate | CFIB | 2026 |
| 39% of Québec SME owners refused sales or contracts because of labour shortages; 63% worked more hours | CFIB, Impact financier des pénuries de main-d'œuvre au Québec (n = 1,328) | 2022 |
AI adoption statistics for Canadian and Québec businesses
| Statistic | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 12.7% of Québec businesses used AI to produce goods or services in the 12 months before Q2 2025, up from 9.4% a year earlier | Institut de la statistique du Québec, from Statistics Canada's Canadian Survey on Business Conditions | 2025 |
| 26.1% of Québec businesses with 100+ employees used AI, vs 12.2% of those with 1 to 4 employees | Institut de la statistique du Québec | 2025 |
| 12.2% of Canadian businesses used AI to produce goods or deliver services, up from 6.1% in 2024 | Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, as reported by BetaKit | 2025 |
| Only 30% of Canadian SMEs use generative AI; 96% invested in digital technologies in 2025 | BDC (1,500 business owners, Feb 2026) | 2026 |
| 86% of businesses with 100+ employees use AI tools, vs 60% of smaller businesses | BDC (1,247 business owners, April 2024) | 2024 |
Statistics Canada's own pages were unavailable when we verified in October 2026, so the national 12.2% figure is cited through BetaKit's report, which links the Statistics Canada release. BDC notes its 2026 results are not statistically projectable.
What do these numbers mean for a distributor's quote desk?
Read together, the data describes a squeeze: buyers want answers within a day and are willing to switch, reps spend most of their week on non-selling work, and hiring more inside sales staff is slow. Most Québec businesses have not yet put AI to work, so speed is still a way to stand apart.
If you want to know where your own team stands, measure it. Our RFQ response time calculator estimates your median, and Quote Desk is how Merlin drafts quotes from your price sheet for a rep to approve. For practical tactics, read how to cut RFQ response time.
Public data on distributor quote turnaround specifically is thin. That is why we are running our own survey of Québec and Ontario distributors: see the Quote Response Time Report 2026.
Methodology and how to cite this page
Compiled from public sources, verified October 2026. We only included a statistic if we opened the source page and found the number on it. Each figure lists its publisher and the year of publication, and every source is linked below. We exclude statistics attributed to unnamed research. Survey populations differ (U.S. part buyers, global B2B buyers, Canadian SMEs), so do not combine them into one number.
To cite: Merlin, "Quote response time statistics 2026", merlin.work/quote-response-time-statistics, verified October 2026. Where possible, cite the original source as well. Found an error or a newer figure? Email hello@merlin.work.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good quote response time for a distributor?
There is no official benchmark. A 2020 Paperless Parts survey found 67% of part buyers expect a quote within 24 hours, so same-day is a reasonable minimum. Many teams track the median time from RFQ received to quote sent.
Is the 7x lead response statistic about quotes?
No. The 2011 HBR study measured how quickly firms responded to online sales leads. It shows that speed matters in B2B, but it is not a quote turnaround benchmark.
How many manufacturing jobs are vacant in Québec?
The Institut de la statistique du Québec reported about 14,900 vacant manufacturing jobs in Q2 2026, up from about 13,300 in Q2 2025.
How many Canadian businesses use AI?
Statistics Canada's survey found 12.2% of businesses used AI to produce goods or deliver services in the 12 months before mid-2025. In Québec, the ISQ reported 12.7%.
Can I reuse these statistics?
Yes. Cite the original publisher and year, and you may cite this page as the compilation, verified October 2026.
Sources
- Paperless Parts: 2020 Part Buyer Survey, via "The 7 fatal mistakes of quoting #3"
- Paperless Parts: 2022 Custom Part Buyer Survey press release (Dec 19, 2022)
- Harvard Business Review: The Short Life of Online Sales Leads (2011)
- Gartner press release (Mar 9, 2026): 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience
- Gartner press release (Jun 25, 2025): 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience
- McKinsey: Five fundamental truths: How B2B winners keep growing (Sep 12, 2024)
- Salesforce: State of Sales report news release (Jul 25, 2024)
- InstaLILY: How fast does a distributor have to answer a quote to win? (vendor case study)
- Institut de la statistique du Québec: job vacancies, Q2 2026 (Sep 16, 2026)
- Institut de la statistique du Québec: job vacancies, Q2 2025 (Sep 17, 2025)
- CFIB: Private sector job vacancies in Canada, Q3 2026 (Oct 15, 2026)
- CFIB: Impact financier des pénuries de main-d'œuvre au Québec (Aug 2022)
- Institut de la statistique du Québec: AI adoption and use by Québec businesses, 2024-2025 (Nov 28, 2025)
- BetaKit: StatsCan finds AI adoption has doubled in businesses (Jun 17, 2025)
- BDC news release (Jun 3, 2026): A $350B opportunity
- BDC news release (Sep 11, 2024): 27% of Canadian entrepreneurs don't know they're using AI
