Notes for owners · Sales management
Pricing a custom job: telling the buyer what drives the quote
Show a buyer the material, set-up and quantity breaks behind a custom-job price, and the talk can move from your rate to the order size. Includes a quote layout and a worked example.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
On this page
Show the buyer what moves the price. Material, set-up, running time and finishing, with the price at two or three quantities. Once the buyer sees why fifty pieces cost more each than five hundred, the request to sharpen a number can turn into a choice of quantity. Some of the haggling goes, because the argument moves from your rate to the order size.
Why a single number invites a fight
A bare total gives a buyer nothing to hold. The total cannot be tested, so the buyer tests you: "Can you do better?" Whatever you say next sounds like a concession, and the buyer has learned to ask again.
A quote with its drivers visible changes the conversation. The buyer can see what they control (the quantity, the material grade, the finish, the delivery date) and what is fixed. Questions turn from "why so much?" into "what if we take a plain finish?" Those are questions you can answer.
The five drivers
For most custom work the price rests on five things. Name the ones that apply to your job.
| Driver | What to state | What the buyer can change |
|---|---|---|
| Material | Grade, form (bar, sheet, resin, board), and that the rate moves with the market | Grade, or a stated alternative |
| Set-up | One-time cost of programming, tooling, jigs, a die or a mould | Nothing, but spreading it over more pieces lowers the cost per piece |
| Run time | Hours or cycles per piece, on which machine | Tolerance or complexity |
| Finishing | Plating, painting, polishing, heat treatment, packing | Spec of finish |
| Delivery | Where, how often, and who pays freight | Place and schedule |
Do not invent a driver to pad the quote. A line the buyer can see through costs you more trust than it brings in rupees.
Lay the quote out with quantity breaks
Put the one-time cost on its own line and show the per-piece price at three quantities. The figures here are illustrative.
| Quantity | Per piece | One-time set-up | Total for the lot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | ₹420 | ₹12,000 | ₹33,000 |
| 250 | ₹360 | ₹12,000 | ₹1,02,000 |
| 1,000 | ₹335 | ₹12,000 | ₹3,47,000 |
The buyer reads this and sees the set-up fixed at the top, the per-piece cost falling as material is bought in bulk and the machine settles into a run. Add one note under the table. "Material is quoted at today's rate and confirmed at order. A change beyond a stated percentage is shared."
Build your own break points from your own costing. Do not offer a break you cannot afford at the top quantity.
Say what the price depends on, in writing
A quote should state the conditions it rests on, in a few plain lines:
- the drawing revision it is based on;
- the material grade and who supplies it;
- how long the price holds;
- what is not included, such as inspection reports or special packing;
- the payment terms.
Each line saves an argument later. When a revised drawing arrives and the price must change, the buyer can see which line moved. Our note on explaining a quote by machine hours or part price shows a way to put the run time into words a purchase officer can follow.
When the drawing changes after the quote
Custom work often moves off the first drawing. A buyer sends revision B a week after you quoted revision A, with a slightly different hole pattern or a thicker section. Decide in advance how you will treat this and say it in the conditions. A simple rule: the quote holds for the revision named on it, and a new revision gets a new quote, with any new set-up charge shown as its own line. Tell the buyer that a revised drawing resets the price, and say it as a courtesy, early, not as a penalty after the dies are cut.
The rule protects you from absorbing a design change you never priced. It protects the buyer too, because a revision becomes a decision with a cost, and the buyer may choose to keep revision A.
An invented case: a racking maker in Bhiwadi
Take an invented unit in Bhiwadi making powder-coated steel racking and bins for warehouses and parts stores. A buyer asked for a custom bin with a lip and dividers, a hundred pieces, and got a single price. The buyer replied that a rival was cheaper and asked for ten per cent off.
The owner checked the sheet. The rival's rate may have left out the bending die, which the owner's quote had spread across the hundred pieces without saying so. A second quote went out. The die appeared as a one-time line, the sheet steel as its own line with the thickness stated, and the price per piece at one hundred and at four hundred. The buyer saw that an order of a hundred carried the whole cost of the die. The order went up to two hundred and fifty, not four hundred, since the buyer's store could not hold more, and the per-piece price fell without any cut to the rate. The buyer still pressed for three per cent, and got a shorter payment period in exchange instead.
The mistake was giving a single total. The remedy cost a clearer sheet and an extra hour of the owner's time.
When not to open the quote up
Skip the full breakdown for a small repeat job at a known rate. A buyer who has ordered the same bracket six times is unlikely to want a lecture on set-up. Quote the price, reference the last order, and move on.
Also be careful with buyers who treat any visible cost as a target. If a buyer has shown a habit of picking lines to attack regardless of reasons, give the quantity-break table and the conditions, and keep the cost build-up to yourself.
Rebuild your last three quotes
Take your last three custom quotes and rewrite each with the drivers visible and three quantity points. Check that every set-up cost is on its own line and that the conditions are written down. If you want the quote format rebuilt with you, pricing and packaging strategy is the service, the manufacturing hub has more for factories, and you can tell us what you need.
