For technical distributors, preparing customer quotes is one of the most important and knowledge intensive processes in inside sales. Requests can contain dozens or even hundreds of items across different product categories. Each position needs to be understood, matched to the right product, checked, and compiled into a complete quote.

For Muffenrohr, a specialist distributor serving the civil engineering market, this process required significant product expertise and valuable sales capacity.

By introducing Mercura’s AI powered quote automation, Muffenrohr can now process 100% of incoming customer requests and handle inquiries up to 60% faster.

The challenge: Complex customer requests require deep product expertise

Customer inquiries in technical and civil engineering distribution are rarely straightforward.

A single request can contain numerous items with varying product descriptions, specifications, and categories. Inside sales employees need to interpret each position, identify suitable products, and ensure that the resulting quote is complete and accurate.

This manual work is time intensive and depends heavily on experienced employees who understand both the customer request and Muffenrohr’s product portfolio.

As inquiry volumes increase, this creates a difficult tradeoff: sales teams either spend significant time preparing quotes or risk leaving requests unprocessed.

The solution: AI powered processing and quote preparation with Mercura

Mercura supports Muffenrohr’s inside sales team throughout the quote preparation process.

Incoming customer requests are automatically structured and analyzed. Mercura identifies the individual requested items and suggests suitable products from Muffenrohr’s portfolio.

Employees then review the AI generated results and make the final decision.

This combination of automation and human expertise allows Muffenrohr to accelerate repetitive parts of the process without removing the product knowledge and judgment of its sales team.

Instead of manually working through every position from scratch, employees can focus their attention where their expertise creates the most value.

Image: Mercura product interface for AI powered processing of customer requests and product matching.

The result: 100% of requests processed and up to 60% faster workflows

Since introducing Mercura, Muffenrohr has achieved two significant improvements: 100% of incoming customer requests can now be processed. At the same time, the team can handle inquiries up to 60% faster.

The productivity gains give Muffenrohr’s inside sales team more capacity for direct customer consultation while enabling faster response times.

In a competitive distribution market where customers expect quick and reliable quotes, this creates a direct advantage in both service quality and operational efficiency.

AI for technical and industrial distribution

Muffenrohr demonstrates how AI can support highly specialized sales processes without replacing human expertise.

For wholesalers and technical distributors, the biggest opportunity is often not fully automated selling. It is using AI to remove repetitive manual work surrounding complex customer requests, product matching, and quote creation.

Mercura enables sales teams to combine their existing product expertise with AI powered automation, helping them process more inquiries, respond faster, and spend more time with customers.

Interview with Muffenrohr CEO Mario Hinz

In our conversation with Mario Hinz, CEO of Muffenrohr, we discuss how Muffenrohr uses Mercura in its day to day sales operations, how AI changes quote preparation, and where he sees the potential for AI in technical distribution.

Key results at a glance:

• 100% of incoming customer requests can be processed
• Inquiries are handled up to 60% faster
• Less manual effort in quote preparation
• More capacity for high quality customer consultation
• Faster response times for customers

Interview with Muffenrohr CEO Mario Hinz and Jan Spanier