Quoting a contract manufacturing enquiry: the details to collect before you name a price

A new brand owner sends two lines asking for a rate on a new range, and it is tempting to answer before lunch. Before you price a contract manufacturing enquiry, collect five things. You need the dosage form and composition, and the full pack down to the artwork. Then the first-order quantity against your batch size, who supplies the active ingredient and printed packing material, and the market. Each one moves the price. A rate sent without them becomes the number the buyer remembers, and every change after it looks like a price rise. Use an intake sheet, fill it on the first call, and quote only when the core fields are filled.

Why the first number sticks

A brand owner comparing three plants writes each plant's first figure on a sheet. If yours was low because you assumed your standard blister and a plain carton, it stays low on that sheet. When you requote for the printed monocarton and leaflet that were actually wanted, the brand owner does not see a corrected quote. They see a plant that raised its price.

So the intake is not paperwork. It protects the number you will be judged on.

Know who is asking first

The sheet below assumes the caller wants a product made under their own brand. A franchise trader or an agent collecting quotes needs a different reply, and our post on telling a brand owner from a franchise trader covers that first sort. Do it before you spend time on the sheet.

The intake sheet

Keep this as a one-page form for whoever answers enquiries, or as fields in your CRM. Fill it on the call; do not send it as homework.

CONTRACT MANUFACTURING ENQUIRY: INTAKE

Brand owner / company:          Contact and role:
City and state:                 Source of enquiry:

PRODUCT (one block per product)
  Dosage form:                  (tablet, capsule, syrup, ointment...)
  Composition and strength:
  Formula:                      buyer's own / our existing / to be developed
  Reference product, if any:

PACK
  Primary pack:                 (blister type, strip, bottle, tube, sachet)
  Pack size:                    (e.g. 10 x 10, 1 x 15, 100 ml)
  Secondary:                    monocarton? leaflet? plain or printed?
  Artwork by:                   buyer / us        Approved by:
  Printed packing material by:  buyer / us

QUANTITY
  First order per product:      Our minimum batch:
  Expected repeat:              (buyer's estimate, noted as such)

MATERIALS
  Active ingredient supplied by: buyer / us     Source specified?
  Any excipient or colour specified by buyer:

MARKET AND DOCUMENTS
  Market:                       domestic / export (country)
  Documents the buyer expects from us:
  Who applies for product permissions: (buyer's answer, not our advice)

COMMERCIAL
  First dispatch wanted by:
  Payment terms asked for:      Delivery basis:

STATUS:  firm quote / quote with assumptions / not ready

The formula line is the one plants skip. A buyer bringing their own formulation, one asking to use your existing product, and one asking you to develop something new are three different jobs. The third needs development work and time before any batch price means anything.

The "who applies for product permissions" line records what the buyer says. It is not where your sales team gives advice. Who applies for which permission, and what each market needs, differ by product and authority and change, so the buyer should check with their own regulatory adviser. Our post on replying without giving regulatory advice covers how to say that.

Firm quote, quote with assumptions, or no quote yet

Decide from the sheet, not from how keen the buyer sounds.

Firm quote when the product, pack, artwork route, first-order quantity and materials source are all filled, and the formula already exists in your plant. Send it with a validity date and the batch size behind every rate.

Quote with assumptions when one or two of those are missing. List each assumption as its own line at the top of the quote, not in small print: "Assumes alu-PVC blister, plain carton, active ingredient sourced by us". A buyer who reads the assumptions first cannot later say the price moved.

No quote yet when the formula is to be developed, or the market is an export country whose documents you have not handled. Reply with the next step instead, such as a technical call or a development discussion, and a date. A number given now would be a guess.

For example: an oral liquids plant in Changodar

Imagine, as an invented example, a plant in Changodar, on the edge of Ahmedabad, making oral liquids and tablets for brand owners. An enquiry arrives from a distributor in Jaipur starting an own brand: an antacid suspension and two tablets, "rate please".

The sales executive quotes the same afternoon, per strip and per bottle, assuming the plant's standard alu-PVC blister, a plain carton, and active ingredients bought by the plant. The Jaipur buyer is pleased and asks for the proforma.

Then the details come out. The buyer wants alu-alu blisters, a printed monocarton with a leaflet, and own artwork, which nobody has seen. One active ingredient also has a supplier of the buyer's choice. The requote is higher, and the buyer stops answering, because to the buyer the plant raised its rate after agreeing it. The executive's afternoon and a pending proforma are wasted.

The plant changes its routine. Every new enquiry now gets the intake sheet on the first call, filled by the executive while they talk. The next brand owner, from Lucknow, receives a quote headed by four assumption lines and the batch size. One assumption is corrected by return. The revised quote goes out the next day, and nobody feels misled, though the calls add about forty minutes to each enquiry and some buyers dislike being asked so much.

When a short intake is enough

A repeat customer adding a product in a pack you already make for them does not need the full sheet. Ask only what is new.

Nor does a buyer taking a product from your existing range under their own label, in your standard pack, with only the artwork changing. Quote from your range price list and collect the artwork details.

The full sheet is for new brand owners and new products. That is where wrong assumptions cost the most.

Hand the sheet to whoever picks up the phone

Print the intake sheet, or build its fields into your CRM, and give it to the person who takes the first call. Ask them to mark every quote as firm, with assumptions, or not ready. The pharmaceutical manufacturing hub covers how these buyers find a plant. If you want help setting up the sheet and the lead qualification behind it, tell us what you need.