How to write a B2B quotation customers say yes to

What makes a B2B quotation different?

A B2B quotation is a formal commercial offer, and the buyer will put it next to two or three others. Retail buyers glance at a price. Business buyers check your quotation line by line against their request for quotation, run it past procurement and sometimes a consultant, then issue a purchase order that refers back to it.

That changes what “good” means. A good quotation:

• answers every line of the customer’s request, in the same order and with the same descriptions;
• makes the price, the VAT and the total unmistakable;
• says how long the offer stands, when the goods are available, where they will be delivered and when payment is due;
• carries enough identity (registrations, bank details, signatures) to be accepted by a procurement department;
• can be traced to one approved version.

Most lost or disputed quotations fail on one of these points, not on price.

The quotation format, section by section

The quotation format below is the one most B2B buyers recognise, and the one buyers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia expect. Use the parts that apply to your trade, in this order.

1. Letterhead and issuer details

Start with your legal name, logo, address, contact details, VAT tax registration number (TRN) and commercial registration (CR) or trade licence number. If you trade through more than one legal entity, the letterhead must match the company that will deliver and invoice. A procurement team will check that the name on the quotation matches the name on the eventual invoice.

2. The cover letter: Ref, Date, To, Attn, Project, Subject

The cover letter is the first page and does most of the persuading. Many business buyers, and most in the Gulf, expect a formal layout:

• Ref.: your quotation number, including any revision suffix.
• Date: the issue date.
• To: the customer’s legal name.
• Attn: the person, with their title.
• Project: the project or site name, if you sell into projects.
• Subject: one line describing the supply, for example “Supply of ball valves and PPR fittings”.

Then a short paragraph that thanks the customer and refers to their enquiry by number and date, followed by “Price: As per attached schedule.”

3. The price schedule

The schedule is a numbered table, one line per item, ideally in the same order as the customer’s request. Typical columns: serial number, item code, description, unit, quantity, unit price, discount, VAT rate, VAT amount and line total. Use headings to group long schedules, for example “Valves” and “Fittings”. If the customer gave their own item codes or line numbers, repeat them.

4. Totals and VAT

Show the sum before discount, the discount, the net amount, the VAT and the total, with the currency named. State the VAT rate clearly: for example, 5% in the UAE and 15% in Saudi Arabia at the standard rate. Never leave the buyer guessing whether a price includes VAT. If you give a document-level discount, say whether VAT is calculated before or after it.

5. Validity

Give a firm validity, as a number of days or a “valid until” date. On volatile materials such as copper or steel, keep it short and say so. “Prices subject to change” with no date is not an offer.

6. Availability and delivery

Availability answers “when can you supply?”, line by line if needed: “ex-stock”, or “2–3 weeks after order”. Delivery answers “where and how?”: ex-warehouse, delivered to site, unloading responsibility, part deliveries allowed or not. For cross-border supply, name the Incoterms rule and the edition you mean.

7. Payment terms

State the terms in a way nobody can stretch: the number of credit days and what they count from (invoice date, delivery date or month-end statement), any advance and any condition such as a signed delivery note. “As agreed” invites a dispute later.

8. Bank details

Include the account name, bank, IBAN, SWIFT code and account currency, for the same legal entity as the letterhead. Treat bank details as a fraud risk: if a customer receives a quotation with changed bank details, they should confirm by phone with someone they know.

9. Terms, exclusions and notes

List what is not included (installation, testing, civil works, unloading), any warranty and your standard terms. Exclusions written up front prevent “we assumed it was included” later.

10. Closing and signatories

Close with “Yours faithfully” and named signatories: typically the person who prepared the quotation, the salesperson responsible and, for larger offers, a manager. Each block carries a name, title, email and phone. Named people make the offer feel accountable.

Example quotation layout

Here is a fictional Saudi example, in SAR with VAT at 15%. Copy the structure and replace the details.

Bank details: account name, bank, IBAN, SWIFT and account currency, printed on the last page.

How should quotation approvals work?

Approvals should catch the quotations that carry real risk, and stay out of the way of the rest. Approving everything slows sales; approving nothing lets discounts and payment terms drift.

Practical rules:

• Approve by value band. For example, quotations above a set total need a sales manager; very large ones need two approvers.
• Approve exceptions, not routine. Discounts beyond a set level, payment terms longer than the customer’s agreed credit days, or non-standard exclusions should trigger approval regardless of value.
• Approve before sending, not after. An approval given after the customer has the PDF is a formality.
• Freeze what was approved. The document the customer receives should be exactly the one that was approved. If anything changes, it goes back for approval.

How should you handle revisions?

Handle every change after sending as a new, numbered revision, never as a silent edit. Customers negotiate, quantities change and prices move. The danger is two versions in circulation and a purchase order that refers to the wrong one.

• Number each quotation revision: QT-2026-00124, then /R1, /R2.
• Record why each revision was made: “customer asked for 4” gate valves”, “copper price increase”.
• Keep every earlier version unchanged and on file.
• Reapprove a revision if the rules require it.
• Ask the customer to quote the exact revision number on their customer purchase order.

What are the most common quotation mistakes?

• No validity date, or “subject to change”.
• VAT unclear: the buyer can’t tell whether prices include VAT, or at what rate.
• Availability promised without checking stock, so “ex-stock” becomes three weeks.
• Delivery point missing: ex-warehouse and delivered to site are different prices.
• Vague payment terms: “as agreed” or “standard terms”.
• Lines that don’t match the request: different order, different descriptions, missing items.
• Wrong legal entity: the letterhead, bank details and later invoice don’t match.
• Two versions in circulation, with no revision number.
• Broken Arabic or other scripts: customer names or titles that print as disconnected letters.
• No named signatory, so the offer feels anonymous.

For how a quotation hands off to the sales order, delivery and invoice, read the quote-to-cash guide.

How 1flux handles this

1flux builds formal quotations with the structure above and the controls around it.