Enquiry: Track Buying Opportunities in Bizconnekt
An enquiry is a real business opportunity you are actively chasing — a customer or prospect has told you what they want, and you intend to quote for it and win the order. It is the step between a raw lead and a formal quotation. Think of it as the deal on your desk that you have decided is worth pursuing. Every enquiry gets its own reference number automatically, such as ENQ-2526-0001, so you and your team can always find it and talk about it clearly.
Availability depends on your plan and your role.
What is an enquiry?
An enquiry is a specific, stated requirement you plan to quote for. Where a lead is simply "someone who might buy from us one day", an enquiry is "this customer wants 500 steel brackets every month, and we are going to quote for it". You capture what is wanted, who wants it, and how urgent and valuable it is, all in one place. There are no priced item rows on an enquiry — those come later, when you turn it into a quotation. The enquiry is where you gather the requirement and work the opportunity.
Who uses enquiries, and when?
Enquiries are used by anyone in your business who handles incoming demand and turns it into sales.
- Salespeople raise an enquiry the moment a genuine requirement arrives — whether it came in by phone, email, a walk-in visitor, or was converted from a lead they had been nurturing.
- Sales managers watch every open enquiry on one board, so nothing slips through the cracks and each deal keeps moving.
- Business owners see, at a glance, how much potential business is in the pipeline and how it is progressing.
You raise an enquiry when a requirement is real enough that you intend to respond with a quote — not for every casual question, but for every genuine opportunity.
How does an enquiry work, from start to finish?
Every enquiry travels through a simple journey. You move it forward as the conversation with the customer progresses, and at each step you can record a short reason so the history stays clear.
- It starts as Open — a fresh requirement you have logged.
- As you talk to the customer, you move it to In Discussion.
- When you send a price, it becomes Quoted.
- Finally it ends as either Won (you got the order) or Lost (you did not).
When you mark an enquiry Lost, you record the reason it was lost — this is gold for improving how you win the next one.
What do the stages mean?
| Stage | What it means | What you do next |
|---|---|---|
| Open | A new requirement has been logged and needs attention. | Reach out to the customer and start the conversation. |
| In Discussion | You are actively talking through what they need. | Firm up the requirement, then link a customer and prepare to quote. |
| Quoted | You have sent a price proposal to the customer. | Follow up, answer questions, and push for a decision. |
| Won | The customer agreed and the order is yours. | Carry on with the sale — the order and invoicing follow. |
| Lost | The opportunity did not convert. | Record the lost reason so you learn from it. |
Where does an enquiry sit between a lead and a quotation?
An enquiry is the bridge in the middle of your sales journey. A lead is an early, unqualified contact — a name and an interest. Once that interest becomes a concrete requirement worth quoting, it becomes an enquiry. An enquiry can be created directly, or it can come from a lead you have converted. When you are ready to send a price, you raise a quotation from the enquiry.
There is one sensible step before you can quote: tell Bizconnekt who the quote is actually for. In other words, link the enquiry to a customer — either pick an existing customer or create one from the enquiry. This is the same as writing the customer's name at the top of a quote before you fill in the prices. Once the customer is attached, you can raise the quotation, and the enquiry keeps its links to the customer, the contact person, and any quotations you raise — so the whole opportunity stays joined up from first contact to final order.
A business you are still quoting is called a prospect; once they are actually buying, they become a customer. You can follow that whole lifecycle in the Customer 360 view.
How do enquiries show on the Sales Pipeline?
Your enquiries appear alongside your leads on the Sales Pipeline board, arranged by stage. This gives a manager or owner a single picture of every open opportunity — what is new, what is in discussion, what has been quoted, and what is close to winning. It is the easiest way to see where your future sales are coming from and where a deal might be stuck.
Related guides
Need help? Contact support at support@bizconnekt.com