The steel sales cycle isn’t just about price—it’s about pace. In a market where buyers expect rapid responses and supply chain decisions are made in hours, not days, the time it takes to move from RFQ (Request for Quote) to PO (Purchase Order) can make or break your close rate.

And yet, many sales teams are stuck in sluggish workflows: quotes that take too long to prepare, approvals that bottleneck deals, and follow-ups that fall through the cracks. If you’re a VP of Sales in the steel industry, accelerating the RFQ-to-PO journey isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a revenue multiplier.

Why Speed Matters More Than Ever

Your buyers are under pressure. They’re balancing fluctuating prices, limited inventories, and tighter construction schedules. If your team can’t deliver answers quickly, the buyer moves on to the next supplier who can.

In many cases, the first accurate quote in the inbox wins the job—not the cheapest one.

By speeding up the sales cycle, you:

Win more business before competitors respond

Reduce the chance of quote fatigue or cold leads

Free up your team to focus on higher-value selling

Improve customer satisfaction through fast, confident service

Step 1: Map and Measure Your Sales Cycle

Before you can speed up the process, you need to understand where time is being lost. Map out the average journey from initial RFQ to final PO. Identify every handoff, delay, and touchpoint.

Typical slowdowns include:

Manual quote building with outdated spreadsheets

Waiting for internal price approvals

Slow responses from inventory or mill sourcing teams

Unclear ownership of customer follow-up

Once you know where the friction is, you can fix it.

Step 2: Streamline Your Quoting Process

Manual quoting is a hidden cost center. It’s slow, inconsistent, and prone to errors. Your sales team should be equipped with digital tools that allow them to build and deliver quotes in minutes, not hours.

Look for quoting platforms that:

Integrate with real-time inventory and pricing data

Include configurable templates based on customer type or product

Suggest upsells, cross-sells, or faster fulfillment options

This not only speeds up response times, but improves accuracy and consistency—making you more reliable in your customers’ eyes.

Step 3: Set Clear Ownership and SLAs

Every quote request should follow a defined path—with clear accountability. Who owns it? What’s the expected turnaround time? What happens if a quote goes unanswered?

Setting internal SLAs (service level agreements) for response times helps establish urgency. If an RFQ hits the inbox at 9 a.m., there should be an expectation that the quote is out by noon unless there’s a complexity.

This kind of discipline doesn’t just boost efficiency—it sets a higher standard across the team.

Step 4: Automate the Follow-Up

Quotes without follow-up often die in the inbox. Many steel sales teams lose momentum because they don’t have a system for checking in after a quote is sent.

Set automated reminders or workflows that prompt reps to follow up after 24 or 48 hours. These nudges can be the difference between a closed deal and a missed opportunity.

Better yet, use CRM tools that track customer engagement—so reps can see when a quote has been opened and follow up at the right time.

Step 5: Cut the Red Tape Internally

Sales shouldn’t grind to a halt while waiting for approvals. If pricing flexibility is required, define thresholds where reps can act without management signoff. Or, use AI-based pricing tools to generate deal-specific guidance within guardrails.

You hired your team to close business—don’t bog them down with bureaucracy.

Step 6: Improve Cross-Department Communication

Much of the sales delay comes from silos. Sales reps wait on answers from inventory, logistics, or procurement—and often don’t know who to ask or how urgent their request is viewed.

Hold weekly alignment meetings between sales and operations. Create shared dashboards where everyone sees open RFQs, quote status, and next steps. Treat every quote like a live deal—not just a piece of paperwork.

Step 7: Track and Share the Wins

As you start to speed up the RFQ-to-PO cycle, celebrate the impact. Track win rates, average quote turnaround time, and deal conversion speed. Share those metrics with your team to reinforce how responsiveness drives revenue.

It’s not about being pushy—it’s about being present when the customer is ready to buy.

Final Thought: Steel Doesn’t Wait, and Neither Should You

In the steel industry, timing is everything. The buyers you’re quoting are managing deadlines, juggling suppliers, and trying to move fast. If you can meet them at their pace—or faster—you win more business. Period.

As VP of Sales, your role isn’t just to push your team for more calls or more quotes. It’s to build a system that helps them win faster. Remove the barriers, set the standards, and bring in the tools that make RFQ-to-PO a smooth, repeatable process.

Because in today’s steel sales environment, speed doesn’t kill—it closes.