01
RFQ in
An emailed spec sheet for a 1/4-20 socket-head cap screw with a zinc-plated finish drops into the inbox. Pinion picks it up the moment it lands — in your channel of choice — and reads the spec exactly the way your buyer sent it.
For fastener distributors
Long-tail SKUs, EOL lookups, and 5pm RFQs — handled.
Family-owned bolt, screw, and specialty fastener shops live in the part numbers other distributors won’t quote. Pinion’s agents carry the material grade, the plating spec, and the mill cert — so your team prices the niche alongside the mainstay, and quotes that land after hours are queued before the next bell rings.
Request a demoPilot runs on a single email thread.
Why fastener shops pick Pinion
The three forces eating your rep’s day.
Each one maps to a quote an agent closes — without a rep losing the account.
Long-tail SKU coverage
The 0.4% niche part gets the same response time as the 200-line mainstay. Your agent prices the 1/4-20 socket-head cap screw alongside the 1/2"-13 hex bolt — using the same rule trace, the same audit row, and the same confidence bar.
EOL lookups on every channel
When a manufacturer discontinues the part your buyer has been ordering for years, quoting doesn’t stop. The agent finds cross-references, qualified substitutes, and the last known stock — backed by the same PDF cert your customer expects.
After-hours, no miss
RFQs that land after 5pm get triaged, drafted, and queued before the rep walks in the next morning. Specialty grades, plating specs, cert language — the agent carries the detail so your inside team picks the conversation up mid-stride, not from a blank inbox.
Hidden margin lives in the long tail — the part the second-tier catalog won’t stock. Pinion prices it the same way it prices the mainstay: rule-bound, audit-traced, and the rep still holds the override.
The four-step loop
From an inbound fastener RFQ to the next one.
The same agent loop, frammed on a fastener-example end to end.
02
Agent drafts
The agent pulls the right part number and grade from your PIM, prices it against your contracted rate cards, applies plating costs and cert surcharges, and assembles the quote in your house voice. Off-catalog lines get flagged for rep review, never silently priced.
03
Rep closes
A human sales rep reviews the draft, edits anything off, and hits send. The agent handles the paperwork your rep used to stay late to finish — your rep stays on the relationship with the buyer who actually cares.
04
Agent monitors
After the order ships, the agent tracks the carrier BOL end to end and loops back into reorder reminders tied to the customer’s typical run-rate — so the next fastener RFQ writes itself, before the buyer picks up the phone.
- 01
RFQ in
An emailed spec sheet for a 1/4-20 socket-head cap screw with a zinc-plated finish drops into the inbox. Pinion picks it up the moment it lands — in your channel of choice — and reads the spec exactly the way your buyer sent it.
- 02
Agent drafts
The agent pulls the right part number and grade from your PIM, prices it against your contracted rate cards, applies plating costs and cert surcharges, and assembles the quote in your house voice. Off-catalog lines get flagged for rep review, never silently priced.
- 03
Rep closes
A human sales rep reviews the draft, edits anything off, and hits send. The agent handles the paperwork your rep used to stay late to finish — your rep stays on the relationship with the buyer who actually cares.
- 04
Agent monitors
After the order ships, the agent tracks the carrier BOL end to end and loops back into reorder reminders tied to the customer’s typical run-rate — so the next fastener RFQ writes itself, before the buyer picks up the phone.
Ready to see it?
Pilot Pinion on your long-tail catalog.
Send us your top 50 fasteners — grade, plating, cert language and all — plus a sample EOL RFQ and an after-hours inbox dump. We’ll come back with the agent quoting them end to end in your voice, with the rule trace and the audit row sitting underneath.
Request a demoPilot runs in your environment in two weeks.