How draw up request for quotation?
A request for quotation often causes a lot of problems. Those responsible for drawing them up omit many of the parameters necessary for the correct calculation of the price of the service to be rendered or the cost of the product. It happens that we too receive incomplete requests for quotation with regard to the cost of printing a book that need to be finalized before going ahead with the quote.
Customers send imprecise requests for quotation that sometimes are impossible to answer. It is difficult to calculate the price of producing a book without knowing, for instance, the planned size of the run or the number of pages in the publication. Below is a brief guide as to what should be included in a request for quotation addressed to a printing house.
To prepare a quote, we will need:
format of the publication: in millimetres (where the first measurement is the width of the book, and the second one represents its height)
inside: number of pages / colours (black or coloured) / type of paper, including its weight (where the client fails to identify a specific type of a substrate, we ask for a descriptive indication of what paper the product is to be printed on)
cover: black or coloured / glossy or matte foil / other enhancements
binding: hardcover thread sewn / hardcover perfect bound / softcover thread sewn /
softcover perfect bound / softcover saddle stitched /spiral bound / flexo binding / open-spine binding / swiss binding
packaging: foil wrapped individual copies / cardboard boxes / pallet / other requirements
approval: electronic proof / proof print for approval
advance copies: are we to send advance copies from the print run, e.g. to an address other than that stipulated for the entire order
delivery: country of delivery (yes, it does sometimes happen that a customer writing to us in English, for instance, fails to stipulate where the books are to be delivered, and this is an important detail when it comes to calculating the cost of transport), delivery of the entire order to one address or to several different locations
currency: currency in which we are to issue the invoice
print run: number of copies
