Managing B2B Inquiries (RFQ) & Sales Pipeline

For high-volume industrial purchases, full container loads (FCL/LCL), or custom engineering parts, overseas buyers rarely pay directly via credit card. Instead, international trade revolves around the RFQ (Request for Quotation) workflow.

SymbolFlow Appsuite transforms traditional vague “contact form messages” into structured commercial inquiries, complete with exact SKU part numbers, technical specifications, and purchase quantities.

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1. The Buyer’s RFQ Submission Flow

When an overseas buyer explores your website and configures an order, the standard RFQ process unfolds as follows:

1. Variant Selection: The buyer configures quantities directly within the product’s variant table (e.g., 2,000 pcs of VD30*20-M8*20).
2. Launch RFQ: Clicks Submit RFQ, triggering the quotation modal.
3. Buyer Background Form: The buyer inputs commercial procurement details:
   • Contact Name: Name of the purchasing officer or engineer;
   • Work Email: Corporate work email address (validated by the system);
   • Company Name: Registered business entity name;
   • Destination Country: Destination port or delivery country;
   • Phone / WhatsApp: Direct phone or messaging number;
   • Notes / Special Requirements: Custom tolerances, surface finishing, packaging, or inspection standards.
4. Order Generation: The system generates a unique international inquiry tracking number (e.g., RFQ-M3XYZ-4821) and confirms that a representative will respond within 24 hours.

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2. Viewing & Filtering RFQs in Payload CMS

All submitted inquiries are recorded in real time inside the Orders collection in Payload CMS.

How to Filter Inquiries:

1. Log into your Payload CMS admin panel.
2. Under Collections in the left sidebar, click Orders (订单).
3. In the top filter bar, add a filter condition:
   • Field: status (订单状态);
   • Operator: equals;
   • Value: Inquiry / RFQ (询盘报价) (inquiry).
4. The list now displays only active B2B export inquiries.

Field Name	CMS Display	Sales Rep Action
Order Number	orderNumber	Unique ID starting with RFQ-; use this as the subject line in correspondence
Order Status	status	Starts as inquiry; update to processing during negotiation
Customer Info	customer	Contact name, corporate email, company entity, destination country, and phone
Ordered Items	items	Explicit breakdown of every selected SKU, unit price, quantity, and line subtotal
Internal Notes	fulfillment.notes	Special engineering requests from the buyer, or internal notes logged by your sales team

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3. Standard Sales Pipeline SOP

To maximize lead conversion, export teams should follow this standardized operating procedure:

flowchart TD
    A["Buyer Submits RFQ on Website"] --> B["System Generates RFQ Order (status: inquiry)"]
    B --> C["Step 1: Verify Buyer Company & SKU Requirements"]
    C --> D["Step 2: Calculate Freight (FOB/CIF) & Production Lead Time"]
    D --> E["Step 3: Issue Formal Proforma Invoice (PI) via Corporate Email"]
    E --> F["Step 4: Update CMS Order Status to processing (In Progress)"]

Actionable Best Practices:

• Buyer Background Due Diligence: Use the company name and corporate email domain to look up the buyer on LinkedIn or Google. Determine if they are an OEM manufacturer, an equipment distributor, or an MRO repair supplier.
• Formal Proforma Invoice (PI): Take the exact part numbers (e.g., VD40*30-M8*23) and quantities, apply current currency exchange rates and shipping estimates, and prepare a formal PDF PI.
• Status Lifecycle Tracking:
  • Once the PI is dispatched, change the order’s status from inquiry to processing, and append an internal note: “2026-11-02 PI sent by Alice, FOB Ningbo”;
  • Once payment or contract signing is confirmed, progress the order to the next appropriate status.

This structured management ensures full transparency across the sales team and prevents missed leads during staff handovers.