Sales Inquiry

1. Business-User Summary

A Sales Inquiry is a customer's request for information about a product, its pricing, and its availability. It is entirely non-binding for both the company and the customer.

2. Why This Process Matters

Tracking inquiries helps the business gauge market interest and potential future demand for products. Even if an inquiry doesn't turn into a sale, aggregating this data helps marketing and production teams understand trends.

3. Where It Fits in Order-to-Cash

This is the very first step in the pre-sales cycle. If the customer decides to proceed after receiving the inquiry details, the inquiry is converted into a formal Sales Quotation.

4. Trigger, Input, Output, Owner, Frequency

• Trigger: Customer calls or emails asking about products.
• Input: Basic customer details (can be a one-time customer), material of interest.
• Output: Sales Inquiry document in SAP.
• Owner: Sales Representative.
• Frequency: Medium.

5. Step-by-Step Process

1. Customer calls or emails asking about product availability.
2. Sales team enters the Inquiry in SAP to track customer interest and potential demand.
3. The system checks basic stock availability, but does not reserve the stock.
4. Sales rep communicates the estimated price and lead time to the customer.

6. SAP Transaction / Fiori Touchpoints

• VA11: Create Inquiry
• VA12 / VA13: Change / Display Inquiry

7. Business Rules & Controls

• Stock Reservation: Inquiries do not perform a firm material reservation. Stock remains available for actual sales orders.
• Document Flow: If a customer requests a formal quote based on an inquiry, the Quotation must be created with reference to the Inquiry to maintain the document flow.

8. Fit-Gap / Customization Notes

• Ameco Decision: Standard SAP allows detailed inquiry tracking. However, Ameco's Fit-Gap determined that capturing every casual phone call in SAP is too heavy.
• Business Rule: Inquiries will only be entered into SAP for requests exceeding $50,000 in potential value. Smaller inquiries are managed via CRM (Salesforce) and not replicated to SAP until they reach the Quotation stage.

Source Document Reference

Knowledge Check

Question: Which of the following is true about a Sales Inquiry in SAP? A) It automatically reserves inventory for the customer. B) It triggers a credit check. C) It is legally binding. D) It does not reserve inventory and is non-binding.

(Answer: D)