What to Ask Before You Quote: The Label RFQ Information Checklist

The quote that was priced on a guess

An enquiry lands at 4:40 on a Thursday: "Need a price on 5,000 bottle labels, white film, four colour, like the last ones. Can you get back to me tomorrow?" You have a face stock in mind, a die that probably fits, and a feeling about the press. You open the workbook and price it.

Three weeks later the job is on press and the customer's real spec surfaces. "Like the last ones" meant a different adhesive, a spot-varnish pass, and a fifth colour that was a PMS match. The core size is not the one you assumed. The wind direction is wrong for their applicator, so the job has to be re-run or re-wound. Every one of those is a cost line that was not in your number, and none of them was a formula error. The formula was fine. The inputs were guesses.

This is the usual way label jobs get mispriced: a missing field, not a bad calculation. This post is a label RFQ information checklist, the fields an estimator needs from a phone call or email before costing anything, and how to chase each one. By the end you will be able to turn a vague enquiry into a complete, quotable spec, or know exactly what to ask when it is not.

Why an incomplete RFQ costs you more than a slow reply

Each field on an enquiry feeds a specific term in the cost build-up. Colour count drives the press-speed curve and the number of plates. Label size and shape drive the die, the web utilisation and the substrate area. Substrate and adhesive drive the MSI price. Finish adds a pass or a material. Quantity decides how far plate and makeready cost spread. If you do not know the input, you are inventing the term.

A single unknown, such as whether the label needs a laminate or a hot-foil pass, can change the job's route through the shop, not only a line on the estimate. "I'll assume the usual" is only right when the job is the usual job.

Excel will happily compute a price from whatever you type into the cells. It cannot tell you that a cell was a guess. The checklist is the control that does, and a short list of questions sent back at once usually reads as competence, not delay.

For the full costing sequence once the spec is in hand, see the label job estimating checklist and the walkthrough in how to estimate a flexo label job.

The label RFQ information checklist, field by field

Work through these in order. Most customers can answer them in one reply if you ask all at once.

1. Who and what for. Customer, contact, and the product the label goes on. The end use matters because it changes the material and sometimes the process: a label on a refrigerated bottle, a chemical drum or a food-contact pack has different requirements from a dry-goods carton label. Ask what the label has to survive: moisture, cold, oil, abrasion, sunlight, handling.

2. Size and shape. Width and height, stated as across the web and around the web, and whether that is the label or the die. Ask for the shape and corner radius. Then ask the question that decides the tooling cost: do you already have a die for this, or does a new one need to be made? Die amortisation spreads that tooling cost across the run, so a new die on a short job moves the per-label number a long way.

3. Colours. Count the colours, and ask which are process and which are spot. Ask for PMS references on any spot colour, and whether the job needs white (under-print on clear film, for instance) or a metallic. Each colour is a plate on flexo, and each extra station affects speed. On digital, the question changes: for UV inkjet the useful answer is how much of the label is covered with ink, and for LEP the click charge does not care about coverage. Either way you need the colour spec before you can pick the cost model.

4. Artwork status. Is the artwork print-ready, and in what format? Is this a new job needing plates, a repeat of an existing job where plates are on the shelf, or a changed repeat where one colour moved? Plate cost is per colour, so a repeat with a single edit can cost very differently from a new job, and you want to know which you are pricing.

5. Material. Face stock (paper, film, specialty), adhesive type (permanent, removable, freezer-grade, ultra-removable) and liner. If the customer says "same as last time", look up what last time was, and confirm it. If they do not know, ask about the surface the label is applied to and the temperature at application and in use, and propose a stock. Substrate cost enters the estimate as a price per MSI, so material choice is one of the larger levers; the label substrate price comparison shows how to compare stocks on a like-for-like basis.

6. Finish and converting. Varnish (gloss, matte, spot), laminate, hot foil, embossing, perforation, kiss-cut, die-cut and slit. Every one of these is a station or a pass on the press or on a finishing line. Ask for them explicitly. Customers often leave finishing off the enquiry because they think of it as part of "printing".

7. Quantity breaks and versions. Ask for the total quantity, the number of SKUs or versions, and the quantity per version. Then ask for the break points they would like priced. As a worked example, three SKUs at three quantity breaks is nine price points, and "5,000 labels" may mean 5,000 of each or 5,000 split across all three. Those are very different jobs. Ask whether this is a one-off or a repeating annual need, because that changes how plates and dies are justified.

8. Wind direction and unwind position. The wind direction (which way the label faces as it leaves the roll) must match the customer's applicator or hand-application method. Ask them to confirm against the wind on their current rolls. A wrong wind is a re-wind at best.

9. Core and roll specification. Core inner diameter, maximum roll outside diameter, and either labels per roll or the roll length. Applicators have hard limits on roll diameter, so this is a constraint, not a preference. It also affects how many rolls the job produces, and so the finishing and packing time.

10. Variable data. Barcodes, serial numbers, lot codes or versioned artwork can change the choice of press, because variable content favours digital routes.

11. Delivery, packing and proofs. Required date, delivery location, packing, and who signs off the proof. A tight date can change which press the job goes on, and proof rounds are real time even when they are not on the estimate.

12. Compliance. If the label is going on food, pharmaceutical or hazardous-goods packaging, ask which requirements apply and whether the customer has specified materials or inks. Treat this as a question to put to the customer and to the relevant regulator or standards body; do not assume.

What to do when the customer cannot answer

Some customers will not know their core size or adhesive. That does not stop the quote; it changes what kind of quote it is.

Split the fields into blocking and assumable. Blocking fields are the ones that change the route or the tooling: size and shape, colour count, substrate family, finish and quantity. If one is missing, do not price. Ask. Assumable fields, such as the core size for a hand-applied label, can be quoted on a stated default, written plainly into the quote as an assumption the customer can correct.

Writing the assumption down protects both sides. If the customer later changes the spec, the quote shows what it was priced on, and the change becomes a conversation about the difference and not an argument about what was agreed. Keep the assumption list short and specific: "Priced on a stated core size; confirm before order" is useful, while "standard specs apply" is not.

Sending the checklist back as a form

The fastest way to run this process is to stop asking questions one at a time. Reply to an incomplete enquiry with the full list as a single form the customer can fill in, and log what comes back against the enquiry. A form also builds your own quoting history: when the same customer asks again, you have the previous spec to confirm rather than rebuild.

If you want a ready-made version, the RFQ Intake & Job Specification Form Pack is built to turn phone and email enquiries into a complete, quotable job spec before anyone opens the estimate. If you would rather build your own, use the fields above and keep the blocking list at the top.

Once the spec is complete, the next decision is which press and process should carry the job, which is covered in which press for this job. The wider method, from enquiry to price, sits in the complete guide to label estimating.

A short version to keep by the phone

If you only keep one thing from this label RFQ information checklist, keep these seven questions, because they decide the route and the tooling:

1. What size and shape, and is there an existing die?
2. How many colours, and are any spot, white or metallic?
3. Is the artwork new, a repeat, or a changed repeat?
4. What face stock, adhesive and liner, and what does the label stick to?
5. What finishing is needed?
6. How many versions, and what quantity breaks?
7. What wind, core and roll limits does the applicator impose?

Everything else on the full list refines the number. These seven decide whether the number is real. An estimator who gets them before opening the workbook spends less time re-quoting and finds fewer surprises when the job reaches the press.