How manufacturers sell in South Africa
The RFQ is the front door
Very little arrives as a warm enquiry. Work comes as a request for quotation from a procurement officer, a buyer at an OEM, a mine's supply chain desk, or a municipal or state-owned tender. It usually arrives by email or through the customer's own supplier portal, with a drawing attached and a closing date that is not negotiable.
Winning is partly a paperwork exercise
Larger buyers will not raise a purchase order until your vendor file is current. Tax clearance, banking confirmation, a B-BBEE certificate and safety documentation are all part of being quotable, and each expires. Manufacturers who track those dates keep quoting; those who do not lose orders they had already won on price and lead time.
The decision is slow, and silence is normal
Procurement compares, escalates and waits for a budget cycle. An estimator who reads silence as rejection loses deals that were still alive. A patient, scheduled follow-up beats an anxious one, and both beat forgetting.