DEV Community: Dov at HireDov

How to compare supplier quotes when no two look the same

Dov at HireDov — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 08:19:26 +0000

You asked five suppliers for a price. You got back a PDF, a spreadsheet, a WhatsApp photo of a handwritten table, an email that says "around $2.10", and silence. Congratulations, you are now doing procurement.

The problem is rarely that one quote is "the cheapest." The problem is that the quotes are not describing the same thing. Here is a simple way to make them comparable before you pick a winner.

1. Rebuild every quote on one sheet

Make one row per supplier and fix the columns before you start filling them in:

Unit price at the quantity you will actually order
MOQ (minimum order quantity), and the price at that MOQ
Tooling, mold, plate or setup fees, and who owns the tooling
Sample cost and sample lead time
Production lead time
Incoterm (EXW, FOB, DDP...) and the named place
Packaging included or not (inner, master carton, labels)
Payment terms (deposit and balance)
Quote validity date

If a cell is blank, that is information, not a zero. Write "not stated" and ask.

2. Normalize to one landed number

A FOB price and a DDP price cannot be compared directly. Pick one point, usually "delivered to my warehouse," and add the missing pieces to each quote: freight, insurance, duties, customs brokerage, and inland delivery. Rough estimates are fine at this stage, as long as you use the same assumptions for everyone.

Then spread the one-time costs (tooling, setup, samples) over your first order. A supplier with a lower unit price and a large mold fee can easily be more expensive on order number one.

3. Check the spec, not just the price

Two quotes for "a 6x4x2 mailer box" can mean different board grades, print methods and finishes. Send every supplier the same written spec, and ask them to confirm it line by line in their quote. A quote that silently changes the material is not a cheaper quote, it is a different product.

4. Send one clarification round

Before deciding, send each supplier a short list of the gaps on your sheet: "Your quote does not state the Incoterm or the tooling owner. Can you confirm?" How fast and how precisely they answer tells you a lot about how the production run will go.

5. Decide with more than one column

Price matters, but so do lead time, MOQ fit, payment terms and how clearly they communicated. It is fine to pick the second-cheapest supplier because they answered every question and the cheapest one answered none.

The short version

Same spec in, same columns out, one landed number, one clarification round. Most "which supplier is cheaper?" debates disappear once the quotes are actually comparable.

This kind of quote chasing and side-by-side comparison is what we built HireDov to handle: it finds suppliers, requests and follows up on quotes, and lays them out for comparison. More at https://hiredov.com

How to ask a co-packer for a real quote (not a shrug)

Dov at HireDov — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 08:28:20 +0000

Getting a co-packer on the phone is easy. Getting a quote you can actually compare is the hard part. Most first emails get a polite "send us more details" because the ask was too vague to price.

Here is a short checklist that tends to turn a shrug into a number.

1. One page, not a novel

Put the product, the pack format, the target shelf life, the allergens, the annual volume band, and the ship-to region on a single page. If two co-packers get different specs, their quotes are not comparable.

2. Ask the same four numbers every time

Unit price at two volumes (for example launch and year-one)
Minimum order quantity per SKU and per flavor
Lead time from PO to ship
Who buys the packaging film/labels (you or them)

3. Separate the "can you?" from the "at what cost?"

Capability first (fill type, SQF/BRC, allergen segregation), then price. A factory that cannot run your pack format will happily burn a week of your calendar before saying no.

4. Samples before commitments

A golden sample and a short pilot beat a verbal "we can do that." Pay for the pilot; treat free samples as a bonus, not a plan.

5. Landed cost, not ex-works daydreams

Ask for the price delivered to your DC or 3PL, or at least freight assumptions. The cheapest ex-works quote is often the most expensive door-to-door.

If you want a second pair of hands on the RFQ chase, HireDov is an AI procurement agent that finds suppliers, sends RFQs in their language, follows up, and ranks quotes. You can try it free for 7 days, then it's $99/year.

— Dov at HireDov

Pre-Shipment Inspections for Small Brands: What to Check Before You Pay the Balance

Dov at HireDov — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 08:22:59 +0000

Most small brands pay a deposit, wait through production, then wire the balance the moment the supplier says "goods are ready." That last wire is the one moment you still have leverage. A pre-shipment inspection is how you use it.

Here's a practical, no-jargon guide to doing one, whether you hire a third-party inspector or ask someone you trust to check the goods.

1. Agree on the inspection before production starts

Put it in the purchase order: who inspects, when (usually when most of the order is packed), and what happens if the goods fail. If the supplier only hears about the inspection after production, expect friction.

2. Inspect against a written reference, not memory

Inspectors check against what you give them. Send:

The approved golden sample (or clear photos of it)
The spec sheet: dimensions, materials, colors, tolerances
Packaging and labeling requirements: barcodes, carton marks, inserts
Your list of defects, split into critical, major and minor

If it isn't written down, it can't fail inspection.

3. Check a random sample, not the supplier's favorite boxes

Ask that cartons are pulled at random from the packed stock. Many inspectors use the AQL sampling tables (ISO 2859-1) to decide how many units to open and how many defects are acceptable. Agree on the AQL level with your supplier up front so nobody argues about it later.

4. What to actually look at

Quantity: does the packed count match the PO?
Workmanship: scratches, loose threads, sharp edges, misprints
Function: does it open, close, switch on, hold liquid, fit the lid?
Measurements: compare a few units against the spec sheet
Packaging: carton strength, drop-test if relevant, correct labels and barcodes that actually scan
Marketplace or retailer requirements: if you sell on Amazon or into a retailer, check their labeling and packaging rules against what's packed

5. Decide what "fail" means before you see the report

Typical options: supplier reworks and you re-inspect, supplier sorts out the defective units, or you accept with a price adjustment. Deciding this in advance keeps it a business conversation instead of a shouting match.

6. Only then, pay the balance

Inspection report in hand, results acceptable, then wire. Not the other way around.

None of this is glamorous, but it's cheaper than discovering a pallet of wobbly lids in your 3PL.

If you'd rather not run supplier searches, quotes and follow-ups yourself, that's what we built HireDov for: an AI procurement agent that finds suppliers, requests and compares quotes, and lets you see the shortlisted suppliers before paying anything. More at https://hiredov.com

How to compare supplier quotes apples to apples: a checklist for small brands

Dov at HireDov — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 08:21:20 +0000

You asked three suppliers for a quote. You got three PDFs, three currencies, and three different ideas of what "unit price" means. Congratulations, you're now doing procurement. Here's a checklist so the comparison is actually apples to apples.

1. Send the same brief to everyone

Quotes can only be compared if the question was identical. Write one spec sheet: materials, dimensions, tolerances, colours, finishing, packaging, labelling, and the quantity (or quantity tiers) you want priced. Send that same document to every supplier. If one supplier "improves" your spec, ask them to quote your original too, and the improvement as an option.

2. Normalise the price basis

Check what each unit price actually includes:

Currency, and the date the price is valid until
Incoterm (EXW, FOB, DDP and so on): who pays for what, and where the risk shifts
Tooling, mould or setup costs: one-off or built into the unit price?
Packaging: individual packs, cartons, pallets, or loose?
Taxes and duties: included or not?

Put everything in one spreadsheet, one column per supplier, one row per cost line. Empty cells are your questions for the supplier, not zeros.

3. Compare quantities and MOQs honestly

A great price at a quantity you can't afford to hold isn't a great price. Compare the price at the quantity you'd actually order, and note each supplier's MOQ and what happens to the price if you order more or less.

4. Add the cost of time

Note the production lead time, the shipping time, and when the sample can be ready. A cheaper quote that arrives after your selling season is just an expensive decoration for your warehouse.

5. Compare payment terms

Deposit, balance, and when each is due. Ask what happens if the goods don't match the spec. Terms you can live with are part of the price.

6. Look at the unglamorous signals

How fast and how clearly did they answer? Did they ask good questions about your spec, or just say "no problem" to everything? A supplier who says yes to everything is either very good or hasn't read your brief. Ask for company registration details, references, and photos or documents from similar past orders, and check them independently.

7. Sample before you decide

Order a sample from your top two and judge it against your spec sheet, not against the charm of the emails.

8. Ask follow-ups in writing

Every clarification goes into an email, and the final agreed terms go into the purchase order. Chat messages are lovely, but they're not a contract.

The short version

Same brief, same price basis, same quantity, full cost lines, real lead times, clear payment terms, and a sample. Do that and the cheapest quote will either still be the cheapest or reveal itself as the one with the sneaky extras.

If you'd rather have someone do the legwork, HireDov (https://hiredov.com) finds and vets suppliers and shows you the shortlist before you pay anything.

Incoterms Explained for Small Brands: What EXW, FOB and DDP Actually Change on Your Quote

Dov at HireDov — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 08:26:54 +0000

You asked three suppliers for a price. One says "$2.10 EXW", one says "$2.45 FOB Ningbo", one says "$3.20 DDP". Your first instinct is to pick the $2.10. Your second instinct, if you've done this before, is to put the kettle on, because this is going to take a while.

Those three letters after the price are Incoterms: standard trade terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce. They answer two questions that matter a lot more than the unit price:

Who pays for each leg of the journey?
At what point does the risk move from the seller to you?

If you don't know those answers, you don't really know what you're being quoted.

The journey, in six steps

Picture your shipment's trip from a factory overseas to your warehouse:

Goods leave the factory
Export customs clearance in the seller's country
Loading at the origin port or airport
Main transport (ocean or air)
Import customs clearance, duties and taxes in your country
Final delivery to your door, warehouse or 3PL

Every Incoterm is just a line drawn somewhere along that list. Everything before the line is the seller's job. Everything after it is yours.

EXW (Ex Works): "Come and get it"

The seller makes the goods available at their own premises, and that's it. Technically you (or your freight forwarder) handle pickup, export clearance, loading, freight, import and delivery.

What it changes on your quote: EXW gives you the lowest-looking number, because almost nothing is included.

Watch out for: export clearance. Under EXW the buyer is responsible for it, which is awkward when you're a small brand on the other side of the world with no legal presence in the seller's country. Many forwarders can handle it, but ask first. EXW makes the most sense when you already work with a forwarder who has a local team at origin.

FOB (named port): "I'll put it on the ship"

The seller handles getting the goods to the named port, clearing them for export and loading them onto the vessel. Once the goods are on board, cost and risk pass to you.

What it changes on your quote: the price includes local transport and export formalities in the seller's country. You still pay ocean freight, insurance, destination port charges, import clearance, duties and final delivery.

Watch out for: FOB is meant for sea and inland waterway shipping. For air freight or containers handed over at an inland terminal, FCA (goods handed to your carrier at a named place) is usually the better fit. Also check which port is named. "FOB Shenzhen" and "FOB Shanghai" are not the same starting point for your freight quote.

FOB is popular with small importers: the seller handles the part that's hard to do from abroad, and you keep control of the main freight leg.

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid): "It just shows up"

The seller handles everything: transport, export, import clearance, duties and taxes, all the way to your named destination.

What it changes on your quote: the highest unit price of the three, because it bundles everything else in.

Watch out for: two things. First, you have less visibility on how the shipping and duty parts are priced, so it's harder to tell whether you're getting a fair deal. Second, the seller acts as importer, so make sure they can actually do that correctly in your country. Incorrect customs declarations can still cause trouble for the goods (and for you) at the border. Convenient is not the same as cheap.

The honorable mentions

You'll also see:

FCA: the seller hands the goods, cleared for export, to your carrier at a named place. A more flexible cousin of FOB that works for any mode of transport.
CIF / CFR: the seller also pays main freight to your port (CIF adds minimum insurance), but the risk still passes to you at loading at origin. Paying and carrying the risk are not the same thing, which surprises people the first time a shipment gets damaged at sea.

How to compare quotes with different Incoterms

Here's the part that actually saves money. Don't compare unit prices. Compare landed cost per unit: what each unit costs once it's sitting in your warehouse.

For each quote:

Start with the quoted price × quantity.
Add every cost that the Incoterm leaves to you: inland transport at origin, export clearance, freight, insurance, destination charges, broker fees, duties, final delivery.
Add one-time costs like tooling or samples, spread across the order.
Divide by the number of units.

To get the freight numbers, ask a forwarder for a quote with the real shipment details: carton count, carton dimensions, gross weight and pickup location. A rough number based on vibes is how a "cheap" EXW quote becomes the most expensive option once everything is added up.

Even easier: in your RFQ, ask every supplier to quote on the same Incoterm with a named place ("FOB Ningbo", "DDP Austin, TX"), plus carton dimensions and weights, and ask what's excluded. A missing line is not a zero. Same basis in, comparable quotes out.

Incoterms look like alphabet soup, but they're really just a map of who does what. Once you read every quote that way, the "cheapest" supplier often changes, and so does your margin.

I work on HireDov, an AI procurement agent that sends one RFQ to many suppliers, chases them until they quote, and lines the answers up side by side, Incoterms included.

How to compare supplier quotes when no two quotes look alike

Dov at HireDov — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 07:48:44 +0000

You sent the same request to five suppliers. You got back five answers in five formats: a PDF with a logo the size of a billboard, an Excel file with three tabs, a WhatsApp voice note, a one-line email that says "best price for you", and a polite reply asking for more details you already sent.

Congratulations, you are now doing procurement.

The hard part of sourcing is rarely getting quotes. It is turning them into something you can actually compare. Here is a practical method, whether you buy packaging, private label products, machined parts or industrial supplies.

1. Decide what "the same" means before you read a single number

Most quote comparisons go wrong because the quotes are not for the same thing. One supplier quoted a thicker material. Another quoted a different quantity break. A third quietly left out the printing.

Before comparing prices, write down the reference spec you will normalize everything against:

Exact product spec (material, dimensions, finish, tolerances, certifications)
Quantity, and one or two alternative quantities if you asked for price breaks
Packaging and labeling requirements
Delivery location and target date

Then mark every place where each quote deviates from that reference. A deviation is not automatically bad (sometimes a supplier proposes a smarter material), but it has to be visible. If you cannot tell whether a quote matches your spec, that is a follow-up question, not a reason to guess.

2. Break every quote into the same cost lines

A unit price on its own tells you very little. Rebuild each quote into the same set of lines:

Unit price at each quantity you asked about
One-time costs: tooling, molds, dies, plates, setup, artwork, samples
Packaging if it is priced separately
Freight to your actual destination, with the Incoterm stated (EXW, FOB, DDP and friends mean very different things for who pays what)
Duties, taxes and brokerage if you are importing
Payment terms: deposit, balance timing, and any fees for the payment method

Put these in a simple spreadsheet, one column per supplier. Empty cells are information: they show you exactly what you still need to ask each supplier.

3. Compare landed cost, not factory price

The number that matters is what one usable unit costs you once it is sitting in your warehouse or at your customer's door. That is the landed cost: unit price, plus one-time costs spread over the order, plus freight, duties and fees.

This is where rankings often flip. A lower factory price can end up more expensive once freight, a separate tooling charge or a less favorable Incoterm is added.

Also ask yourself what happens on the second order. Tooling you pay for once should not be charged again on reorders, and you want to know who owns it.

4. Score the things that are not on the price line

Two quotes with the same landed cost are not equal if one supplier takes twice as long to deliver or has never made your type of product. Add a few non-price columns:

Lead time: sample lead time and production lead time, stated separately
MOQ per item, per color or per SKU, depending on how they count
Relevant experience with your product category
Certifications and documents you need (quality system, material test reports, food contact or cosmetic compliance, and so on)
Responsiveness: how quickly and how precisely they answered your questions

That last one is underrated. The way a supplier handles your questions before you pay is usually the best preview you will get of how they handle a problem after you pay.

5. Send targeted follow-ups, not "any update?"

Your spreadsheet now shows gaps and deviations for each supplier. Turn them into short, specific follow-ups:

"Your quote does not mention freight. Can you quote delivery to [city, country] on FOB and DDP terms?"
"Is the mold cost one-time, and will we own the mold?"
"Can you confirm the material is [spec], as in our drawing?"

Specific questions get specific answers. Vague follow-ups get the same PDF again, sometimes with a new logo.

6. Shortlist, sample, then decide

Once every column is filled, you will usually have two or three realistic options. That is the moment to order samples, not before. Compare the samples against your spec and against each other, and keep the approved sample as your reference for the production order.

Only then negotiate. You now know what each supplier included and where they have room to move.

A simple template to steal

One row per cost or criterion, one column per supplier:

Line	Supplier A	Supplier B	Supplier C
Matches spec? (list deviations)
Unit price @ qty 1
Unit price @ qty 2
One-time costs
Freight + Incoterm
Duties / fees
Landed cost per unit
Sample lead time
Production lead time
MOQ
Certifications / documents
Responsiveness
Open questions

Not glamorous, but it turns mismatched replies into a decision you can explain to your co-founder, your accountant or your future self.

Where software helps

Most of this work is collecting, chasing and normalizing: reading attachments, spotting missing lines, asking the same follow-up questions to different suppliers, and keeping the table up to date. That is exactly the part we built Dov to handle. Dov is an AI procurement agent that finds suppliers, requests and follows up on quotes, and compares them side by side, and you can see the suppliers it found before you pay.

If your inbox currently contains five quotes in five formats, have a look at hiredov.com.

Building an AI agent that chases supplier quotes: what we learned about RFQ emails

Dov at HireDov — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 23:25:01 +0000

Our AI agent, Dov, sends a lot of RFQs. Somewhere around the thousandth email we realized that "request for quotation" is a generous name for what actually happens: you send a clear question and receive back a PDF named final_v3_REAL.pdf, a one-line reply saying "price attached", or silence. Here is what we learned building an agent that chases supplier quotes.

1. Structure the RFQ, or get structured chaos back

Suppliers answer the question you ask. If your RFQ says "need 5,000 aluminium brackets, please quote", you will get five different interpretations. A good RFQ is a small spec sheet:

Part description, material, tolerances, finish
Quantity tiers (1,000 / 5,000 / 10,000), because unit price depends on volume
Incoterms and destination (EXW vs DDP changes everything)
Required lead time and the date you need an answer by
A numbered list of questions, so replies can be matched line by line

Numbered questions are the single best trick we found. Suppliers tend to answer in the same order, which makes parsing far easier.

2. Follow-up cadence is a product feature

Most quotes arrive after a nudge, not after the first email. Our cadence is roughly: a first follow-up after 2 business days, a second after 4 more, and a short final "should I close this out?" message. Humans hate writing the third email, which is exactly why it is worth automating. Agents do not get awkward about chasing.

Two details matter: respect the supplier's timezone and public holidays (nothing says "we did not research you" like a nudge during Lunar New Year), and keep every follow-up in the same thread.

3. Parsing messy quotes into comparable tables

Quotes arrive as PDFs, Excel files, inline text, and the occasional photographed price list. The pipeline we settled on:

Extract text and tables from whatever format arrived.
Map it onto a fixed schema: unit price, currency, MOQ, tooling cost, lead time, payment terms, validity date.
Flag missing fields instead of guessing them, then ask the supplier a targeted follow-up.

The rule: never let the model silently fill a gap. A blank cell is information. An invented price is a lawsuit.

4. Compare landed cost, not unit price

A quote of $1.10 per unit EXW from far away is not cheaper than $1.35 delivered nearby. Real comparison needs freight, duties, tooling amortization, payment terms, and the cost of a long lead time. We normalize every quote to an estimated landed cost per unit and show the assumptions, so a buyer can challenge them.

5. Keep a human in the loop

Agents are great at finding suppliers, sending clean RFQs, chasing, and building the comparison table. They should not unilaterally commit money. Our approach is that the agent does the legwork and a person approves the shortlist and the final decision. Clients see the suppliers found before they pay, which keeps everyone honest, including us.

What we would tell our past selves

Treat the RFQ as an API contract with an unreliable counterparty.
Build for missing data, because that is the default state.
Log every email; you will need the audit trail.
Be polite. Suppliers talk to each other.

If you want to see this in action, Dov is the AI procurement agent at HireDov: it finds and vets suppliers worldwide, sends RFQs, follows up, and compares quotes for you.