Recently one my co-workers, who has never quoted a hydraulic press, asked me for a quote based solely upon the part number from an old machine. At this point, I began to ask him questions about the application, such as cycles per minute, stroke, etc., which he shrugged off and said the customer did not know the details, but just wanted a price based upon the P/N off of an old machine. I told him I could not possibly price a machine without this information, the old machines P.O. number or the serial number. At this point he went to our boss and asked the same question and was told ‘I can quote you a 30ton press for $20,000 or $200,000 based upon the customers requirements’ and was sent to get the details necessary to provide a proper quote.

This is not unique circumstance, I can remember selling filters and commonly someone would realize that the oil they were using in their hydraulic systems did not meet the oil cleanliness requirements of the hydraulic components on the system. Many customer’s would look at the filter they were using see that it was “rated” as a 10 micron media and then ask me and three other vendors to quote a 5 micron filter, buy the least expensive one and assume that it would clean the oil up. The problem here is that every filter, wire screen, piece of paper , up to and including my dirty socks are 100, 50, 20, 10 5, 3,and 2 micron filters all at the same time. They just happen to be much more efficient at removing certain particles than others. Just one of the details being over looked is the efficiency rating of the media, which has a large impact on the cleanliness. Then there is the fact that the new smaller pore size filter may not work at all in the application, because it has too large a pressure drop.

My point in all of this is that many times a customer calls in asking for a general quote with a very vague idea of what they need or want. It takes a knowledgeable individual to walk them through the process to dig for the details necessary to provide them with a quote that reflects what they are truly, needing. So, please be patient when someone is digging for information to get the details necessary to provide you with a proper quote. They would just as soon be playing solitaire, looking at the web, reading the daily news, as the next guy, but they know that if they make a mistake in the quote and it is not caught, they may have just sold you a $600,000 boat anchor which could get them or you fired. The devil is not in the details, but in the lack of them.