Most either love the idea or hate it. But few understand its full capabilities. They hear “auto” and immediately cast judgment, often stating they require personalization on every quote sent by their teams - even on an RFQ for one screw from a broker on the other side of the world who hasn’t sent a PO in three years. Here’s an outline of when and when not to use autoquote:
O-rings and washers and rivets, oh my!
When inboxes get flooded with dozens or hundreds of RFQs for consumables and expendables, quoting them is easy. Pricing is seldom negotiated unless it is for large quantities, where price breaks come into play, so the sales rep is often copying and pasting whatever is in the ERP or spreadsheet into an email. This leads to repetitive, mindless data entry that takes time away from being a salesperson, spending time on higher-value deals and customers that require more white-glove service.
RAM Aerospace grew its invoicing from expendables from $10,000/mo to $60,000/mo with this method. This gave them more time to focus on their high-dollar, rotable sales, which also saw an increase in POs won.
Why spend hours quoting PNs under $100 when you have $100,000+ PNs sitting in your inbox waiting to be quoted?
The OEM set their price. You added your markup. The price is the price.
As distributors, oftentimes you may be the exclusive vendor for a specific product line, meaning you see most, if not all, of the demand for new parts. You have leverage.
When companies send in RFQs, you may not be adjusting prices in line with what the market is charging, so it just becomes another copy-and-paste workflow that takes time away from more complex quotes, deals, following up, research, and business development.
One risk of autoquote is bad data in, bad data out (which we'll cover later). But for teams that invest in market research and maintain accurate pricing data, it becomes a powerful advantage.
With up-to-date pricing, tag and trace documentation, and customer-specific data in your ERP, you can deliver fully detailed quotes within seconds of receiving an RFQ, often hours before competitors even realize demand exists.
What may take them 3-4 hours to quote, you’ll have done in seconds, all without lifting a finger.
This one requires the 5 P’s: Prior planning prevents poor performance.
Now, if you don’t have confident pricing data and paperwork loaded into your ERP, autoquoting high-dollar rotables becomes risky.
If you haven’t updated pricing in a few months and autoquote something, one of two things may happen: the market has gone down for that unit, and now you’re pricing yourself out of the deal, or the market has gone up, and now you’ve left potentially thousands of dollars on the table.
Small win: You make your buyer look like a hero to their boss, and maybe they think they can get discounted prices from you in the future, so they send more RFQs.
Brokers don’t have the unit in stock, so they need to source it from various suppliers. Unless they are buying directly from the OEM or distributor, pricing is likely to change week over week or day over day (OEMs are also guilty of changing pricing daily).
With this volatility, it becomes incredibly difficult to use autoquote, as what you quote it out for may not be close to the price you receive from your vendor.
Most MRO averages change maybe once a year. For the most part, shops have their BC, RP, and OH averages in their ERP and change them at the end of the year based on how the market is moving.
This means that sales reps for an MRO are copying and pasting the average for the BC, RP, and OH over and over and over all day, on individual units.
Sales reps are hired to sell, not copy and paste data. Let them do what they were hired to do.
By automating averages, reps can spend more time following up with their customers while the orders roll into their inbox and crates roll into the shop.
Same as averages. If it’s the same price for everyone (contracts and agreements excluded), reps are just copying and pasting the same prices and lead times, respectively, to the unit requested.
Your reps have better ways to spend their time.
Averages are great for autoquote, but the post-inspection or formal quote isn’t as easy. The condition of the unit may be severely worse than initially indicated. This requires O&A fees to be added to the formal quote.
To get this price, many things need to be taken into consideration, including additional parts needed to complete the repair or overhaul, labor hours, and engineering requirements.
When each repair or overhaul can be vastly different, it becomes difficult to automatically quote.
For teams with established pricing or low-dollar parts that rarely require negotiation, autoquote can save hundreds of man-hours each year while increasing win rates through faster response times.
Many companies are using those saved hours to focus on what actually closes deals: follow-up. Instead of spending time building quotes, reps can immediately call buyers to discuss requirements, address objections, and negotiate while they still have the buyer's attention.
While competitors are still preparing and sending quotes, tech-forward teams have already delivered the quote and started the conversation. In many cases, that speed advantage is the difference between competing for the deal and winning it.
Good data in, good data out. Bad data in, well… you know the rest.
If you aren’t up-to-date on your pricing, stock levels, and paperwork, you may find yourself in trouble. As we mentioned earlier, if you haven’t updated pricing, you could price yourself out of a deal or leave thousands of dollars on the table.
It can be a lot of work to keep ERP data accurate and up-to-date, and it’s a project that never ends in a market that shifts daily.
For those who don’t have the resources to dedicate to this, autoquote may not be the best choice for them.
One of the big fears that automation strikes into the heart of sales reps is “automation is going to take my job,” when in reality, the goal is to allow those salespeople to do more of what they are good at - SELLING!
Many reps in aviation aren’t actually sales reps - they’re data entry specialists. By removing the manual data entry, screen swapping, and admin work, sales reps have more time to focus on following up with customers, building relationships with new clients and prospects, researching pricing, and so much more.
Reps are hired because they are great at selling, but without the proper tools in place, they may not be able to execute the duties you hired them to complete efficiently.
At the end of the day, automation is another tool. What matters is how you choose to use it.
What may not work today may work tomorrow. As AI capabilities and adoption increase, it may not be surprising to see companies fill today’s gaps with tools that can auto-source and auto-price units for which you have no data.
Aviation has always held pricing close to the chest, so it’ll be interesting to see where that pricing data comes from.
Rotabull has spent years refining autoquote to support the unique workflows of suppliers, distributors, MROs, and OEMs across the aviation aftermarket.
Every day, companies use autoquote to respond faster, save their sales teams time, and capture better data for reporting and analytics.
Suppliers automatically quote various unit options, not just solely what is requested, giving buyers more options while ensuring quote data is synced back to the ERP. Pricing rules are customized by customer or customer category, ensuring the right price is sent every time.
For MROs, autoquote sends out averages and flare rate pricing, allowing teams to spend less time building quotes and more time serving customers, providing order updates, and developing new business.
No matter how you use it, autoquote helps your team send more quotes in less time, respond faster to customers, improve ERP data quality, and free up valuable time for higher-impact sales activities.
To learn more about Rotabull, email sales@rotabull.com or visit www.rotabull.com
