An instant quote that is just a number is a missed opportunity in both directions: the buyer cannot tell whether to trust it, and you cannot tell why they left.
Here is what a quote should carry.
The part, visibly
Show them the part you are quoting. Not a thumbnail - the actual geometry, rotatable, in the orientation it will be made in. This does two things. It confirms you received what they meant to send, which catches the “wrong file” problem before it becomes a wrong order. And it makes the quote feel like an answer from a shop rather than output from a form.
The assumptions, stated
A quote rests on assumptions. Which process. Which material. What layer height. What infill. Whether it is hollow. What orientation. If those are invisible, the buyer will compare your number against a competitor’s number that assumed something else entirely, and one of you will look expensive for no reason.
State them, and make them editable. A buyer who can switch from 0.2 mm to 0.28 mm and watch the price fall has just had a conversation with you that you did not have to be present for.
Enough breakdown to be credible
You do not owe a buyer your cost base. But a single number with nothing behind it invites haggling, whereas “material €9.57, production €25.70” invites a decision. Grouped lines are usually the right amount: enough that the price is legible, not so much that it becomes a negotiation about your machine rate.
The one thing to be careful about is what a breakdown can leak. Rates, costs, overhead and margin should be structurally incapable of reaching a buyer-facing payload - not filtered out by a rule someone remembered to write, but unable to get there at all.
The quantity curve
Show what happens at 5, 10, 50. This is where instant quoting genuinely beats e-mail: a buyer who was going to order three and sees that ten costs only 40 % more often orders ten. Quantity breaks are not a discount you are grudgingly giving; they are your cost structure, and showing them is honest.
A lead time you will keep
A date, not “3–5 days”. And it should be computed from the actual work - including cooling on powder processes, which is real and which buyers do not know about. A lead time you miss costs more goodwill than a longer one would have cost you in orders.
Anything wrong with the part
If the wall is too thin, say so now. Show where. Say what would fix it. A buyer who is told their 0.4 mm web will not survive depowdering is being given useful engineering advice, and they remember it. A buyer who finds out from a broken part is being given a refund and a reason to go elsewhere.
What happens next
Can they order it? Do they need to ask you? Is it saved so they can come back tomorrow? A quote that ends with nothing to press is a dead end. Even “this needs a human - we will reply within four hours” is an answer, and a far better one than silence.
And what should never be in it
- Your machine hourly rate.
- Your material cost.
- Your overhead percentage or your margin.
- Your risk allowance.
- Anything that would let someone reconstruct the above.
Not because your margin is shameful - because it is yours, and because a competitor reading your network tab should learn nothing.
See a quote with all of this in it →
Quotometry prices every part from your own machines and rates, on your website, in seconds.