Your capabilities page is where an evaluating buyer decides whether to ask you for a quote. They arrive with a part in mind. They scan for a few facts that tell them whether you can make it. If they find those facts, they keep going. If they don’t, they leave for the next supplier, and you never learn they were there.
This checklist comes from reading the visit paths of companies with a clear Path to Purchase, the ones SiteSonar grades Initiate or Investigate. When those visitors leave without converting, the capabilities page is often the last thing they read.
Where visitors with a path stop reading
Look at your own data for companies with a path that did not convert. Their last pages tend to fall into a few groups:
- The capabilities or equipment page, after a long read. The buyer was checking fit and didn’t find an answer.
- A materials or finishes page, after a short read. The material or finish they need was missing or buried.
- The quality or certifications page. They needed a specific certification and couldn’t confirm it.
- The quote page, without submitting. The form asked for too much, too early.
Each of these points to a missing answer. The first three are content problems you can fix this week.
The eight answers
An engineer or buyer evaluating a supplier wants to know, in roughly this order:
- Size. The largest and smallest parts you handle, with real dimensions.
- Tolerance. What you hold as standard and what you can hold on request.
- Material. The metals, plastics or substrates you work with, by name.
- Volume. Prototype, short run, production, or all three.
- Minimum order. A number, or a clear statement that you have none.
- Lead time. A typical range for a first order and for repeat orders.
- Certifications. ISO 9001, AS9100, IATF 16949, ITAR registration, or whatever your buyers ask about.
- Finishes and secondary operations. What you do in-house and what you arrange through partners.
Put these on one page in plain words, ideally near the top. A short table works well. Buyers compare several suppliers side by side, and the one who answers fastest gets the RFQ.
If a buyer has to call you to learn your largest part size, many of them won’t call.
Some shops hold back numbers like minimum order or lead time because they vary. A range with a short note is still better than nothing. “Typical lead time 3 to 5 weeks; ask about expedited runs” tells the buyer you can probably meet their date, and gives them a reason to ask.
Photos of real parts
Stock images of sparks, gears and robots tell a buyer nothing. Photos of parts you actually made tell them a lot: the size, the finish quality, the complexity you can handle.
- Show real parts on a plain background, with a ruler or a hand for scale.
- Caption each photo with the material, process and rough size.
- Leave out customer names and logos unless you have permission.
- Add a few photos of your equipment, labelled with the model and work envelope.
A buyer who sees a part close to theirs moves from “maybe” to “let’s ask” quickly.
One click to the quote page
Once the buyer finds their answers, the next step should be obvious. Put a clear quote or RFQ link on the capabilities page, and on every process page that links to it. Keep the form short: name, company, email, a file upload for drawings, and a notes field. Ask for quantities and dates in the notes, or as optional fields.
If you offer other conversions, such as a sample request or an “ask an engineer” form, put those next to the quote link. Some buyers are ready for a quote. Others want to ask one question first.
Before and after
Here is a typical capabilities page for a mid-size machine shop, before:
- A paragraph about the company’s history and commitment to quality.
- A list of machine brands with no sizes.
- Three stock photos.
- A contact link in the footer.
And after:
- A table at the top with part size range, standard tolerance, materials, volumes, minimum order and typical lead time.
- A certifications line with the actual certificate numbers.
- Six photos of real parts with material and size captions.
- An equipment list with work envelopes.
- A “Request a quote” button under the table and again at the bottom of the page.
The history paragraph can stay, lower on the page. Buyers read it after they know you can make the part.
What to do this week
- Pull the last pages read by companies with a path that didn’t convert. Note which ones come up most.
- Check your capabilities page against the eight answers. Mark each as present, buried or missing.
- Replace at least three stock photos with photos of real parts.
- Add a quote link to the capabilities page and to every process page.