RFQs Are Broken — And It’s Costing Aviation Suppliers Millions


FQs should be a growth engine. But for most aviation businesses, they’ve become a trap — constant noise, copy-paste chaos, and low-win busywork that eats up your day and drags down your margins. Legacy tools weren’t built for this volume, this speed, or this complexity — and it’s costing suppliers millions.

So the question isn’t “How do we quote faster?”

It’s: “How do we quote smarter?”


RFQs Are Broken — And It’s Costing Aviation Suppliers Millions

RFQs are the heartbeat of aviation parts sales. But the way most suppliers manage them? Completely broken.

Every day, aviation companies are buried in inbound RFQs — flooding in from emails, marketplaces, customer portals, even PDFs that require manual copy-paste into outdated tools. Each one demands time. Most lead nowhere.

The result? Hours spent triaging. Teams overwhelmed. Opportunities missed.

⬛ Conversion rates slump at 10–15%

⬛ High-margin quotes get lost in the chaos

⬛ Sales teams chase dead ends

⬛ Operations slow down just to keep up

This Isn’t Quoting. It’s Firefighting.

“We had two people doing nothing but quote triage all day. We were reacting to everything and winning almost nothing.”

RFQs were meant to drive growth. Instead, they’ve become a daily burden — manual, disconnected, and impossible to scale.

And the more RFQs you get, the harder it gets to grow.

But what if the problem isn’t volume? What if the real problem is how you handle it?



What If the Problem Isn’t the RFQs — But the Process?

RFQs aren’t going away. In fact, with sourcing moving online, they’re multiplying. That should mean more revenue — but only if your team can keep up.

Right now? Most can’t.

Manual quoting. Spreadsheet hacks. Pricing based on instinct. No prioritization. No guidance. No scalability.

The breakthrough insight?

“What if AI could show us which RFQs to actually focus on?”

That sparked the creation of iRFQ by ERP.Aero — not just a faster quoting tool, but a rethink of the entire quoting process.

Instead of treating RFQs like a task list, iRFQ treats them like data. Each request is captured, analyzed, scored, and prioritized — instantly.

You already have the raw materials: past quotes, margins, customer behavior. You just need something smart enough to use it.

Because the goal isn’t to quote everything. The goal is to quote the right things — faster, smarter, and more profitably.

“We realized we didn’t need to quote more. We needed to quote smarter.”

From reacting to everything... To winning on purpose.


The Breakthrough – Introducing iRFQ by ERP.Aero

That shift in thinking — from manual chaos to data-first clarity — led to a breakthrough.

Meet iRFQ by ERP.Aero: ✈️ The first AI-powered RFQ engine built for aviation suppliers, MROs, and more.

iRFQ automatically captures every inbound RFQ — from email, customer portals, ILS, PartsBase, Locatory, and more — using real-time API integrations. No more copy-paste. No more missed opportunities buried in inboxes.

Here’s what happens next:

AI Scoring & Prioritization RFQs are instantly analyzed and ranked based on your past win rates, margins, customer behavior, and stock availability.

AI-Powered Pricing Suggested pricing is tailored to your historical performance — not market guesswork — maximizing profitability and close rates.

Opportunity-First Workflow Your team sees only the most winnable, highest-margin quotes. Everything else gets filtered or auto-handled.

“Before iRFQ, we’d touch hundreds of quotes and win maybe 10%. Now, we’re quoting fewer — but winning way more.”

And because iRFQ is embedded directly inside ERP.Aero, your quoting, inventory, costing, and compliance are always in sync — no integrations, no workarounds, no lag.

This isn’t just automation. It’s quoting intelligence. Built to scale.

“Most ERPs weren’t built for quoting at this speed or volume. iRFQ isn’t a patch — it’s a next-gen approach designed for how aviation works now.”

The Result – RFQs Become Your Edge

When iRFQ takes over, quoting stops being a bottleneck — and becomes your competitive edge.

No more drowning in requests. No more guessing on price. No more wasting time on quotes that never convert.

With iRFQ, your team only sees the RFQs that matter — the ones with the highest win probability and profit margin. And the results are dramatic:

Response time cut by 80%

Quote-to-sale conversion jumps up to 267%

High-margin deals rise to the top

Zero manual triage — AI does the heavy lifting

Everything stays in sync inside ERP.Aero

“Before iRFQ, we had to keep hiring just to keep up. Now we’re scaling quoting without scaling our team.”

And beyond the metrics? It’s the mental shift that matters.

The quoting desk becomes calm, focused, strategic. RFQs go from daily stress to daily wins.

“We finally had clarity on what was worth quoting.”


The Call – Scale Smart, Not Hard

In aviation, speed wins — but only when it’s smart.

iRFQ isn’t just a quoting tool. It’s a new way of operating: faster, sharper, and scalable without extra headcount.

If your team is still stuck triaging RFQs manually, chasing low-margin deals, or quoting just to keep up — it’s time to shift.

This isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing what wins.

“The best part? We didn’t just get faster — we got smarter. iRFQ showed us where we were winning, where we were losing, and what to do next.”

With iRFQ, you don’t need more people.

You need better process. Powered by AI. Built for aviation. Ready now.


The RFQ flood isn’t slowing down — but with iRFQ, you’re no longer reacting to it. You’re owning it. With AI guiding your team to the most profitable, winnable quotes, you reclaim control, clarity, and competitive edge.

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Ralph Merhi, CEO @ERP.ero

Practical insights for aviation suppliers, distributors, brokers, and manufacturers who refuse to settle for inefficiency. I believe in cutting through the noise—delivering real strategies to make things better. No fluff, no wasted time—just the knowledge, both business and personal, and tools to help you succeed. If you want my newsletter, drop your email below 👇 or feel free to look as much as you want.

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