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How Our Free Buyer Service Works
Quoting Without the Work
Our service is very simple. Send us your request-for-quote (RFQ) on the web, by phone or by fax and we make a summary visible to all the suppliers in our database that can do your job. On average, our database contains 90% of all the suppliers in a given vertical, i.e., machining. Suppliers are free to browse a summary of your job but your full RFQ details and contact information will only go to five that choose to quote your job based on their capabilities and ability to meet your schedule.
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Why Only Five?
The Magic Number
As former design engineers and purchasing professionals dealing in low to medium production volumes, we never had a need for more than five quotes per item. What we wanted was a handful of quotes from quality suppliers. Our target buyer’s are those sourcing low to medium size production runs like we did. While they’re cost sensitive, they’re more focused on quality and repeatability than beating suppliers up on price.
What Does It Cost?
Free Buyer Service
Our service is completely free for buyers. Suppliers self-select based on your RFQ summary whether or not they can and want to quote your job.
How We Differ From Other Services
Skin In the Game
Other services sell subscriptions to suppliers in exchange for access to a pool of RFQs. The problem with this [from a buyer’s standpoint] is that you get inundated with questions about your RFQ from dozens of suppliers, but your RFQ only has visibility to suppliers paying for access to the pool. It’s like a lot of smoke but no fire.
We reverse that by making a summary of your RFQ visible to everyone and charging an access fee to suppliers that can do your job. The access fee, or as we like to call it “skin in the game”, weeds out most of the bad vendors. Additionally, suppliers build a transaction history over time based on buyer feedback that further helps to qualify vendors.Information Safety
Total Assurance
Your intellectual property is safe with Qualified Vendor. We individually approve each supplier that gets quotes through our system. Your part files and drawings are all encrypted and are only accessible through dynamic links through the supplier’s account manager.
Want To Know More?
We Want To Hear From You
Have questions? We’d be happy to talk to you in person. Feel free to call or email us anytime: 888.392.3885. You can also use our contact form or visit our Buyer FAQ page.