Notes for owners · Industry playbooks
How plumbing distributors quote a builder's quantity list
A builder's quantity list is quoted line by line against the approved makes, with what each rate includes, a dispatch plan, a credit position and a named person who calls back.
The GullySales team · Updated 6 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
On this page
- What does a builder's list look like when it arrives?
- Which makes are approved, and who decided?
- What should the quotation carry besides rates?
- Who calls after the quote goes out, and when?
- For example: a CPVC and SWR distributor and a mid-sized apartment project
- What about the household enquiry that comes from a brand?
- What to do next
Quote the list line by line against the makes the consultant has approved, say what each rate includes, attach a dispatch plan and a credit position, and put one named person's phone number at the bottom. The rate is the part every distributor sends. What wins the order is everything around it, because the builder's purchase team can lay two sheets side by side and see which distributor has thought about the site. Then someone has to ring on a date that is written on the quote itself.
What does a builder's list look like when it arrives?
Usually it is a spreadsheet forwarded on WhatsApp or email by a site engineer or a purchase executive. It lists pipes, fittings, CP fittings and sanitaryware, tower by tower or floor by floor. Some lines name a make and a model. Some say "as per approved", which means a drawing or a schedule you have not seen.
The list is not the real brief. The real brief is the builder's schedule: which floor needs concealed work first, when the plumbers arrive, and when the sanitaryware has to be on site for the fitters. A distributor who asks for that in the first reply sounds like someone who has supplied projects before.
Which makes are approved, and who decided?
Builders rarely choose brands themselves. The architect or the MEP consultant names approved makes for each item, and the purchase team buys inside that list. Your first job is to match every line to an approved make, or to say plainly that you cannot.
This is where distributors lose lists without knowing. A line that says CPVC pipe of a named make and you carry another brand gets either dropped silently or priced as if it were equal. Neither works. Ask the site engineer for the approved-makes schedule before you price anything, and quote only what is inside it.
What should the quotation carry besides rates?
A rate column alone is a price list. A quotation carries the answers a purchase manager would otherwise phone to ask.
| Item on the quote | Why the builder wants it |
|---|---|
| Make and model against every line | Matches the consultant's approved list |
| Rate, with GST shown separately | The invoice must match the purchase order |
| What the rate includes | Delivery to site, unloading, packing |
| Validity of the rate, and the quantity it applies to | Prices move; so do quantities |
| Dispatch plan, floor-wise or tower-wise | Site storage is limited and plumbers wait for material |
| Credit terms and payment schedule | The accounts team decides, not the site |
| Breakage and short-supply handling | A broken basin on day three is the real test |
| Named contact with a direct number | Someone to ring when a pallet is short |
Keep it to a page or two. A sheet nobody can read at a site office table does not get passed up to the person who signs.
Who calls after the quote goes out, and when?
The most common failure is a quote priced on Friday that nobody mentions again. Builders buy when the site needs material, which may be next week or next quarter, and the distributor who is in touch when that moment comes gets the order.
So settle the next step before the quote leaves. Put it in the covering message: "I will call you on Thursday to take any changes to the list." Then put that call in a register your whole team can see, not in the salesman's head. If he is on route or has left, someone else makes the call.
On the call, ask one thing: is the list final, and who else is quoting? A builder who says the consultant is revising the sanitaryware is telling you when to ring next. Write the date down.
For example: a CPVC and SWR distributor and a mid-sized apartment project
Take a distributor in Hubballi who supplies CPVC hot and cold water pipes and SWR drainage. A builder sends a list for an apartment project on a Friday. The distributor prices it by Saturday, but the salesman is on his route the whole of next week. On Monday a competitor rings the site engineer, asks about the dispatch dates, and offers to send a revised sheet by evening. The builder never opens the first quote again.
The fix is not a lower rate. It is a covering line with a call date, a second person who owns the follow-up when the salesman is out, and a note in the register: list received, makes matched, quote sent, call due Thursday.
What about the household enquiry that comes from a brand?
Brands pass on families who are fitting out a bathroom, and these are not builder lists. They want a showroom visit, a quote for a full set and someone to answer on WhatsApp in the evening. Treat them as a separate queue, with their own owner, and do not leave them on the phone of the salesman who is out with builders. The plumbing distributor CRM page covers how to keep both queues in one place.
What to do next
Pull out the last five builder lists you quoted and mark each one: was the approved make confirmed before pricing, did the quote state dispatch and credit, was a call date written on it, and did anyone ring? That sheet shows where the lists went. For how this fits the rest of the work, read the plumbing and sanitaryware distributors page and the page on sales management. If you want it looked at with you, the free audit is a 90-minute call on how enquiries reach you, followed by a written report that ranks what to fix first.