CNC Machine Shops
Stop letting quoted jobs die in the inbox.
Your estimator is buried. RFQs keep coming in. Quotes go out. Then too many of them sit there with no second touch. Not because your team is lazy — because nobody owns follow-up after the quote is sent.
Watch the quote-recovery system work a pipeline like yours.
Inside the shop
- RFQs come in by email with drawings attached.
- The estimator is the only person who can price half of them.
- Good RFQs sit behind bad RFQs because the queue is not sorted.
- A quote goes out and nobody knows who owns the second touch.
- Open quotes live in email threads, spreadsheets, CRM notes, or somebody's head.
- The owner asks, "What happened to that quote?" and nobody has a clean answer.
- Win rate is guessed, not tracked.
- Follow-up happens when someone remembers — and most weeks, nobody has time to remember.
Why this happens
Your people are not the problem. The follow-up system is missing.
Most job shops are built around getting the next RFQ priced and out the door. That makes sense — the estimator has to keep up. But once the quote is sent, the process often falls apart: no clean list of open quotes, no quote aging view, no follow-up owner, no second-touch schedule, no way for the owner to see what is stuck.
The quote may not be dead. It may just be unworked.
What you get
A simple board your owner, estimator, and sales team can actually use.
You do not need another complicated system. You need a clean view of which quotes are still open, how old each one is, who owns the next touch, and what it's worth.
| Quote | Value | Age | Last touch | Score | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apex Metalworks — enclosures | $27,800 | 121 d | Feb 10 | Recoverable | Approve draft email |
| Riverside Machining — brackets | $22,500 | 64 d | Apr 8 | Recoverable | Call after reply |
| Summit Plastics — fixtures | $11,900 | 160 d | Jan 2 | Long-shot | Hold — review Friday |
| Midwest Tool & Die — gauges | $8,400 | 52 d | Apr 20 | Dead | No contact — archived |
If the owner cannot see open quotes in one place, follow-up will always depend on memory. This is the machine-shop version of the sprint: Quote Recovery Sprint for Machine Shops .
Where it hits hardest
The three leaks, ranked for your shop
- #1
The Silent Quote — the biggest leak in most job shops
Estimating hours go into every quote. The quote gets sent. Then the estimator moves to the next RFQ, the customer goes quiet, and the job sits there. A second touch at the right time can bring some of those jobs back into conversation. But if nobody owns the second touch, the quote dies by default.
- #2
The Slow RFQ
When the queue is deep, good RFQs wait behind bad ones. The buyer may have sent the same drawing package to four shops — the first credible quote back often has the advantage. RFQ triage sorts inbound requests by fit, value, urgency, and response target, so your estimator works the right jobs first.
- #3
The Lapsed Reorder
Repeat jobs matter. But in many job shops, repeat work depends on personal relationships and customer memory. That works until the buyer changes, purchasing rotates, or a competitor follows up first. Reorder capture flags accounts that should be ordering again before they quietly drift away.
Where to start
Recommended starting point
Hero product
Quote Recovery Sprint
A fixed-price sprint for CNC machine shops that want to find open quotes, clean up follow-up, and see which quoted jobs are still worth chasing. We clean the open-quote list, score what is likely still worth a touch, mark dead quotes as dead, draft follow-up your team approves, and hand over a rhythm your team keeps. You end with a live open-quote board in 10–14 days.
$1,497 fixed
RFQ Triage & Speed-to-Quote
For shops where the estimator is buried and good RFQs wait behind bad ones. We parse inbound RFQs, flag fit and value, and help the estimator quote the right jobs first.
from $8,000Sales Command Center
For owners who want pipeline truth instead of gut feel. Track open quotes, quote aging, follow-up status, RFQ response time, win rate, and next actions in one weekly view.
from $2,500 setup + $750–1,500/moGround rules
No AI nonsense. No black box. No spam.
- — We do not replace your CRM.
- — We do not send automatic emails without approval.
- — We do not need access to your drawings.
- — We do not pretend every old quote is worth chasing.
- — We do not add more work to your estimator's day.
We help your team see what is open, decide what is worth touching, and follow up in a controlled way.
Reading
From the insights desk
CNC Machine Shops June 8, 2026
RFQ Triage: How Job Shops Quote Faster Without Hiring Another Estimator
Your estimator isn't slow — your RFQ queue is unsorted. A triage workflow with a fit/value scoring grid that gets the right quotes out the door first.
CNC Machine Shops May 26, 2026
The Real Cost of Unfollowed Quotes: A Machine Shop Math Walkthrough
A step-by-step worksheet for putting a dollar figure on silent quotes — quotes per month, average value, silent rate, recoverable share — with honest caveats.
CNC Machine Shops May 12, 2026
Why Machine Shop Quotes Go Silent (and the 7-Day Window to Save Them)
Most silent quotes aren't dead — they're unworked. Here's why shop quotes go quiet, plus a day-by-day follow-up protocol your estimator can actually run.
FAQ
Common questions
We quote out of email and spreadsheets. Is that a problem?
Not for the sprint. A clean spreadsheet or inbox export is enough to find open quotes, score them, and start follow-up. If you later want a permanent system, we can help set up HubSpot, Pipedrive, or a simple CRM layer — but you don't need that first.
Will this annoy customers who already said no?
No. Dead quotes get marked dead and we do not chase them. Follow-up only goes to quotes that went quiet and still look worth a second touch — and your team approves every message before anything goes out.
Our estimator is already overloaded. Will this add more work?
It should take work off his plate. The system does the sorting and drafting. Your estimator reviews a batch instead of trying to remember which quote from three weeks ago needs a call.
We compete against instant-quote platforms. Can this really help?
Yes — but not by pretending you can quote everything in 60 seconds. Quote recovery stops you losing jobs you already quoted. RFQ triage helps the speed problem by sorting inbound RFQs into a priority queue.
Do you need our drawings?
No. For the Quote Recovery Sprint we usually need quote metadata: customer, quote date, value, status, last touch, and contact information. We do not need drawing files to run the sprint.
Do you write directly to our CRM?
Not without sign-off. For the sprint we can work from exports. If we build an ongoing system later, every write-back or automation is approved before it goes live.
Is this only for shops using HubSpot or Pipedrive?
No. The sprint can start from spreadsheets or inbox exports. HubSpot or Pipedrive becomes more useful if you want an ongoing quote recovery or RFQ triage system.
What size shop is this for?
Shops that send enough custom quotes for follow-up to become messy — usually 20+ quotes per month, on email, spreadsheets, HubSpot, Pipedrive, or a basic CRM, without a clean open-quote view.
Next step
Want to see it work before you spend a dollar?
Book a 30-minute live demo. No deck. You watch the system find money in a pipeline like yours — then we run your numbers.