A shop sending 30 quotes a week in 3 days and winning 30% of them would win about 140 more orders a year, $560,000 in revenue, by quoting in one. One shop’s study of 1,794 RFQs found more than half its wins came within three days of quoting.
You send 30 quotes a week, 3 days after the request, and win 30% of them. Quoting in 1 day lifts your win rate to 39%: about 140 more orders and $561,600 a year, and your estimators get 936 hours back.
- Gross profit on that revenue, per year: $140,400
- Extra orders won, per year: 140
- Win rate, quoting faster: 39%
- Revenue from quotes today, per year: $1,872,000
- Estimating hours today, per year: 1,560
- Estimating hours back with an agent, per year: 936
- Estimating cost back, with benefits and overhead, per year: $42,588
How the number is worked out.
The model prices two things: the orders a faster quote wins, and the estimating hours an agent returns by drafting the first pass. It does not price orders lost on margin from a wrong quote.
- 01Quotes a year. Requests per week times 52. We found no published average for quote volume, so the default of 30 is ours.
- 02Win rate today. Paperless Parts puts the average job shop near 30%. Modern Machine Shop’s Top Shops survey found a 51% quote-to-book median for most shops and 70% for the top fifth.
- 03How much faster quoting lifts it. Vendor data says quotes sent within 24 hours win about twice as often as quotes sent after 48. The default lifts the win rate by 15% for each day cut, capped so it can never double. Cutting from 3 days to 1 lifts 30% to 39%.
- 04What the extra orders are worth. Extra orders times the average order value of $4,000, and the gross margin of 25% on that for profit.
- 05Estimating hours returned. Quotes times estimating minutes, times the share an agent drafts: reading the drawing, pulling material and routing from the last similar job, producing a first pass a person corrects and sends.
The defaults.
Dials you change are marked in colour. The last column says where each default comes from and what kind of source it is.
| Dial | Yours | Default | Where the default comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quote requests per week | 30 | 30 | JRW, 2026 Our default |
| Average order value | $4,000 | $4,000 | JRW, 2026 Our default |
| Gross margin on an order | 25% | 25% | JRW, 2026 Our default |
| Win rate today | 30% | 30% | Paperless Parts, 2020 Vendor figure |
| Days to send a quote today | 3 | 3 | JRW, anchored on The Fabricator, 2026 Our default |
| Days to quote with an agent drafting | 1 | 1 | JRW, anchored on Paperless Parts, 2026 Our default |
| Win-rate lift per day saved | 15% | 15% | JRW, below Uptool, 2026 Our default |
| Estimating minutes per quote | 60 | 60 | JRW, 2026 Our default |
| Estimating time an agent takes over | 60% | 60% | JRW, 2026 Our default |
| Estimator hourly wage | $35 | $35 | JRW, 2026 Our default |
Sources.
The one measured study of quoting speed and wins is a single shop’s year of RFQs, reported in The Fabricator. Win-rate benchmarks come from a quoting-software vendor and from Modern Machine Shop’s shop survey, which is old but the largest on the question.
Our defaults. The lift per day is 15%, well short of the doubling vendors report, and it is capped. Replace the order value and win rate with your own. How we set defaults.
- JRW default. JRW, 2026. No public benchmark we trust. The number is a round figure in the range we see in engagements, chosen so the headline errs low. Replace it with your own. Source
- Job shop win rate and buyer expectations. Paperless Parts, 2020. A quoting-software vendor puts the average job shop win rate near 30% and found 67% of buyers expect a quote within 24 hours. Vendor material. Source
- Days to send a quote today. JRW, anchored on The Fabricator, 2026. No published benchmark for job shop quote turnaround. One shop's study of 1,794 RFQs found more than half its wins came within three days of quoting, so we start at three. Replace it with your own. Source
- Days to quote with an agent drafting. JRW, anchored on Paperless Parts, 2026. Paperless Parts found 67% of buyers expect a quote within 24 hours. With an agent drafting from the RFQ and a person approving, one day is our working figure. Source
- Win-rate lift per day saved. JRW, below Uptool, 2026. Vendor data puts quotes sent within a day at about twice the win rate of quotes sent after two, method not published. We use a much smaller lift, 15% per day saved, and cap it. Source
Also consulted
- Top Shops benchmarking survey, quote-to-book ratio. Modern Machine Shop, 2013. More than 450 shop principals: median quote-to-book ratio 70% for the top 20% of shops, 51% for the rest. A 2016 round found 61% and 50%. Old, but the largest shop survey on the question. Source
- 5 steps to faster quoting in the job shop. The Fabricator, 2019. One job shop's study of 1,794 RFQs over a year: more than half of its winning bids were received within three days of the quote going out. One shop, not an industry benchmark. Source
- Quoting speed versus win rate. Uptool, citing Optif AI, 2025. Vendor-reported: quotes sent within 24 hours win about twice as often as quotes sent after 48 hours; one dataset shows 32% closed for sub-five-minute responses against 7% after 24 hours. Method not published. Source
Where the days go.
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The drawing sits in the inbox
Most of the turnaround is time the RFQ spends waiting. An agent reads the RFQ when it lands, pulls the drawing and quantities into the quoting template, and tells the estimator what is missing. How we do it.
-
The estimate itself
Material, routing, setup, run time. The agent drafts it from the last similar job in your ERP or quoting history. The estimator corrects it rather than starting from a blank sheet.
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The follow-up
Many quotes go out and never get a follow-up. An agent that follows up on day two and day five, and logs the answer, wins back some quotes that were never lost on price.
Questions.
- Is a 30% win rate right for my shop?
- It is the vendor-reported average for job shops. Modern Machine Shop’s survey of more than 450 shops found a median quote-to-book ratio of 51% for most shops and 70% for the top fifth, so shops quoting repeat work run much higher. Use your own ratio from last quarter.
- Where does the lift come from?
- From the buyer’s side. Paperless Parts found 67% of buyers expect a quote within 24 hours. One shop’s study of 1,794 RFQs found more than half its winning bids came within three days of quoting. Vendor data puts quotes sent within a day at about twice the win rate of quotes sent after two. The default uses a smaller lift and caps it.
- Why is the order value only $4,000?
- It is a placeholder for yours. Job shop orders range from a few hundred dollars to six figures. Replace it with your average order from last year.
- Does the agent send quotes on its own?
- No. The agent drafts the quote, and a person checks the price and sends it. That is why the estimating saving is 60% of the minutes rather than all of them.
“Copy a link” puts your dials in the address, and we store nothing. A browser agent that supports WebMCP can run this calculator as estimate_quote_turnaround_cost. How the calculators work.
Have the first draft ready when the RFQ lands.
Tell us your ERP or quoting tool and where your RFQs arrive, and we’ll show you what an agent would draft for your estimators. Fixed price per automation. If the first one misses the scope we agreed, you don’t pay.
Book a call (opens in a new tab)Related: Quote turnaround in a job shop: the three delays · Quote turnaround statistics · AI quoting and order entry for job shops