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Quoting an RFQ from an email with ISA
How to use Intelligent Sales Assistant to quote and respond to RFQs

Your Stella Source Intelligent Sales Assistant (ISA) turns emailed RFQs into auto-generated quotes you can finalize and send.


Before you start

You will need a branded Stella Source email address for your internal sales team to forward email requests to. To get one, contact your Stella Source Support Rep. Your address will be in one of these formats:

 

What ISA matches against

ISA matches RFQ items to the stock material catalog in your online store. Catalog Items and non-standard materials you don't sell online aren't matched. Anything ISA can't match returns as Gap, and you add alternatives manually when finalizing the quote in Stella Source.

 

How it works

1.     Open the customer's RFQ in your email inbox.

2.    Add context to the email body if it helps.

3.    Forward the email and attachments to your branded ISA address.

 

You'll get a reply within a few minutes. The body text and the attachments are both parsed. The reply lands in the same email thread with a table of matches.


 

The response has four columns 

1.     Original Request: What the customer asked for.

2.    Standardized Request: the industry-standard version of the request.

3.    Your Item: Your description of this item in your product catalog.

4.    Your SKU: The SKU you have for this item

 

Each row is one of three match types

  • Exact match: the item you have mapped in your online store.
  • Substitution: no exact item, so the closest fit you sell. Substitutions are made based on:
    • Thickness
    • Length
    • Grade
    • Width
    • Material
    • Shape
    • Attributes (such as finish or film, e.g. GR50, P&O, Hot Rolled)
  • Gap: no match or reasonable substitution found. Gap items are not added to the auto-generated quote.

 

False positives and false negatives can happen. Review the table before you move on.

 

(Optional) refine the matches

1.     If a row looks wrong, or you have more context that would help, reply to the email thread.


A few examples:

  • "Use 304 stainless instead of 316 for row three."
  • "Customer wants 1/4 inch plate, not 1/8 inch."
  • "Swap the Substitution on row two for SKU ABC-123."


2.    You'll get a new response with an updated table. Repeat as needed. Your data and replies are not used to train our AI.

 

Auto-generate your quote

When the table looks right, click the Click to start a quote and edit further link in the reply to automatically generate a Stella Source quote.

 

 

The quote auto-generates inside Stella Source with every matched and substituted line item already added. Gap items aren't included because there's no match to pull. Add those manually if you want them on the quote.

Finalize your quote

1.     Review pricing, lead time, and the location

2.    Add any additional Stock Materials or Catalog Items if needed

3.    Quote any part files, and add any miscellaneous fees as needed.

4.    Send the quote to your customer.

 

Troubleshooting

ISA didn't reply

It may take up to 5 minutes to get a reply, this is due to ISA needing to do its work, your email server pulling new emails from the server on a cadence (not always in real time), or potentially a server delay. If you have waited a decent amount of time and havenā€™t received your response: Check your spam folder. If it's not there, confirm you sent it to your exact branded address (watch for typos in the company name or location). If both look right, contact your Stella Source Support Rep.

 

A row came back as a Gap, but I sell this item

The item may not be on your online store, or the mapping may be off. Reply with the correct SKU or item name to get a clean match. If requests for the same item keep coming back as Gap, contact your Stella Source Support Rep. to review your mapping.

 

I see Substitution where I expected Exact match

Substitution means the customer's request doesn't line up exactly with your available grades, or dimensions from what you sell online and it selected the next closest item. These are always good to double check to ensure the best substitution was selected.

 

A match looks wrong

False positives happen. Reply to the email thread with the correct item or SKU, or open the quote in Stella Source and update the line item manually

 

ISA matched a stock item, but I wanted a fabricated part

Today, ISA only matches against stock material in your online store. For fabrication parts, build the line manually.


Item came back as a Gap, but I sell this item

The item may not be on your online store, or the mapping may be off. Reply with the correct SKU or item name to get a clean match. If requests for the same item keep coming back as Gap, contact your Stella Source Support Rep. to review your mapping.

 

I see Substitution where I expected Exact match

Substitution means the customer's request doesn't line up exactly with your available grades, or dimensions from what you sell online and it selected the next closest item. These are always good to double check to ensure the best substitution was selected.

 

A match looks wrong

False positives happen. Reply to the email thread with the correct item or SKU, or open the quote in Stella Source and update the line item manually.

 

ISA matched a stock item, but I wanted a fabricated part

Today, ISA only matches against stock material in your online store. For fabrication parts, build the line manually.

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