5 min read
How to write a towel specification that can be quoted
Most first enquiries arrive in the wrong order. This is the order that shortens a quotation.
Start with the use, not the towel
Say what the towel will do and who will hold it: a guest in a bathroom, a stylist at a basin, a groomer with one hand occupied. The use decides format and wet behaviour, and those two decide more of the price than the fibre does.
A specification that opens with "we need a soft towel" cannot be quoted. One that opens with "a 70 cm bath towel for hotel rooms, used once, packed flat, 300 packs per carton" can be quoted the same day.
Then the four numbers
Give the blend as percentages, the basis weight as a nominal with tolerance, the finished dimensions, and the pack count. These four are what a mill schedules against, and each one moves cost in a predictable direction.
If any of them is still open, say so explicitly. An open item that is flagged is a question; an open item that is omitted becomes an assumption on both sides.
Documentation and destination last, but not optional
State the country of sale and whether the product will be supplied dry or pre-wetted. That single line determines which declarations are needed and, in some markets, whether the product is in scope of a restriction at all.
Nothing here requires a technical background. It requires deciding, in advance, the things that will otherwise be decided by default.