You’ve sent the supplier a concept for your product and now they’re quoting a concept. The range of effort goes from half-hearted quoting to quoting to the best of their ability, but either way, the supplier’s quoting a CONCEPT.

Just because a bag factory makes bags doesn’t mean they have a top-notch preciseness when quoting your design.

The supplier effort in quoting a product is 1-part experience, 1-part calculation, 1-part how serious of a client you seem and 1-part guesswork.

Even if you think the quote should be a no-brainer, for example you’re only making a slight change to an existing product, there may be something in the structure that you didn’t consider or that THE FACTORY didn’t consider.

Quoting a product is a process

Everyone hopes that quoting a product will be an exact science. That’s the ideal but seldom the reality.

Failing to recognize the flow of the quoting process causes disappointment and misunderstanding of what’s being discussed. It’s is a process, not a 1-time bullseye shoot.

Once the quote comes out, buyers have trouble discerning between an estimated reference spec and what’s in-stone confirmed. Judging between the tentative and the exact.

Recognize that a reference image or even a spec sheet from the supplier, may have differences than what you want.

Analyze information that’s been sent back to you and approach detail, specifications and visuals knowing that something is going to be “off” from what you envision.

That’s OK.

It doesn’t necessarily mean the supplier is incapable, it means that you’re still in the process, via data and visuals, of concreting the product idea.

Why didn’t the factory tell us earlier?

“Hey, everything the factory sent was great and I wanted to go with that? But it turns out, they cannot even do a product like what they offered!”

If you like what the factory’s given you as far as concept and quote, don’t assume it is certainly 100% without a doubt doable in this form or from this factory. Remember, we’re still talking reference specs here.

Realize what’s been sent is referral information.

The factory may not be able to tell the differences of the concept they offered and what product reality is going to be. The extent of differences may not be known by factory until after sampling.

The exact will come but not immediately.