At 4:30 p.m., a heating contractor sends a materials list for a heat pump replacement, an installer forwards the GAEB bill of quantities (BoQ) from a building services (MEP) engineer for a nursing home, and a third item in the inbox is a photo of a rating plate with the question "Do you still have the valve for this?" That is what the afternoon looks like in inside sales at a plumbing and HVAC wholesaler. AI can take over most of this preparatory work: reading requests, matching line items to the right articles, preparing quotes and orders. Deciding and approving remains the job of inside sales.

Key takeaways

• In plumbing and HVAC wholesale, requests from trade contractors arrive in very different forms: materials lists, GAEB BoQs from planners, photos, Excel, free text.

• The difficulty lies in the breadth of the range: many manufacturers, brand specifications "or equal," customer designations instead of article numbers.

• AI software like Mercura matches each line item to your own range, checks the specification and presents a quote draft for approval.

• At the plumbing and HVAC wholesaler Sanitär-Heinze, the time per quote dropped from 2 days to 2 hours; 100% of incoming requests are processed, versus around 70% before.

• Limits: bathroom planning in the showroom, unclear spare part identification and orders that already arrive structured through a shop or IDS.

What requests land at a plumbing and HVAC wholesaler?

Five kinds of requests land at a plumbing and HVAC wholesaler: material requests from contractors for customer jobs, project requests with a bill of quantities, requests from the bathroom showroom, spare part requests and orders. They differ in format, volume and in how much expertise is needed for the right match.

The reason lies in the classic three-tier distribution channel of the plumbing and HVAC industry: manufacturers supply the wholesaler, the wholesaler supplies the trade contractor, and the contractor installs for the end customer. The wholesaler is thus the translator between the catalogs of many manufacturers and the language of the trade businesses.

What distinguishes plumbing and HVAC software for wholesale from contractor software?

Contractor software in plumbing and HVAC serves the business itself: measurement, calculation, quote to the end customer, order processing and invoice. Plumbing and HVAC software in wholesale, by contrast, maps the item master, conditions per contractor customer, inventory, logistics and documents. AI for requests and orders sits between the two worlds.

There are already established interfaces between trade and wholesale. Through IDS Connect, contractor programs can exchange shopping carts with the wholesaler's online shop and query prices and availability, as the software vendor STREIT describes, for example. Product data flows through formats such as DATANORM, Open Masterdata and ETIM.

These standards cover the structured part well. What does not run through them ends up in the inbox: the planner's BoQ, the list from the site notebook, the follow-up question about the brand. These unstructured inbound documents are exactly where AI comes in.

Why is quoting so laborious in plumbing and HVAC wholesale?

Quoting in plumbing and HVAC wholesale is laborious because every line item has to be translated from the customer's language into the range, the range covers very many manufacturers, and BoQs often specify brands with the addition "or equal." Inside sales therefore has to not only find but also decide which product fits technically and makes economic sense.

Typical time sinks:

• Abbreviations and habitual names: "Cu 22 press," "90-degree elbow 15 mm," "exp. vessel 25 l" are clear to experts but not to an article search.

• Brand specifications: A BoQ names a specified brand, and the wholesaler carries an equal product with better availability or margin. The quote has to make the equivalence traceable.

• Long texts: Technical requirements such as connection dimension, pressure rating, material or output are in the long text, not in the short text.

• Missing stock items: For line items outside the stocked range, price requests to manufacturers are needed.

• High pace: Trade businesses ask at short notice and compare. If a request sits for two days, the order has often gone elsewhere.

Example: Material request for a heat pump replacement

AI reads a contractor request, breaks it into line items and matches each line to an article; lines without a clear match are flagged. The following example is anonymized and simplified.

Example: Email from a heating contractor

Subject: Quote heating replacement single-family house Müller

Please send a quote for:

• Air-to-water heat pump approx. 9 kW, outdoor installation, brand as discussed

• Buffer tank 200 l

• Hot water tank 300 l suitable for heat pump

• Exp. vessel 35 l heating

• Mixing group DN 25 with high-efficiency pump

• 30 m Cu pipe 22 x 1, lengths

• Cu 22 press fittings: 20 elbows 90°, 10 tees

• Insulation for 22 mm, 30 m

Please deliver Thursday directly to the construction site.

What Mercura, an AI software for quote and order automation in technical sales, makes of it:

1. Recognize line items: Eight lines with quantity, unit and description.

2. Match: "Exp. vessel 35 l" is recognized as a diaphragm expansion vessel, "Cu pipe 22 x 1, lengths" is matched to the right copper pipe article, the press fittings to the press fitting system in the range.

3. Flag: "Brand as discussed" is not clear without context. The heat pump line is flagged for clarification instead of guessing a brand.

4. Rank: Where several articles meet the requirement, such as the buffer tank, the compliant options are sorted by margin. Customer-specific prices come from the ERP.

5. Approve: Inside sales clarifies the heat pump brand, reviews the draft and approves. The quote is written into the ERP and scheduled for follow-up.

For project BoQs from the MEP engineer, the same process runs over hundreds of line items; the result can be returned as GAEB or PDF. How GAEB files are structured is explained in The GAEB format explained.

What has AI achieved in plumbing and HVAC wholesale so far?

At the plumbing and HVAC wholesaler Sanitär-Heinze, a quote with Mercura now takes only 2 hours instead of 2 days, which makes processing up to 90% faster. In addition, 100% of incoming requests are processed; before, it was around 70%. Michael Kania, Vice President Controlling at Sanitär-Heinze: "What used to take 2 days now takes only 2 hours."

The second figure is often more important for sales than the first: requests that used to sit are now answered. More answered requests mean more chances to win orders. The full story is under Sanitär-Heinze success story.

Mercura works with several distributors from plumbing and HVAC wholesale. The average hit rate when matching is 92% across all customers, depending on customer and catalog.

Where does AI reach its limits in plumbing and HVAC wholesale?

AI reaches its limits in plumbing and HVAC wholesale where advice, taste or missing information drive the decision: in the bathroom showroom, for spare parts with an unclear device status and for technical design questions. There, the software delivers at best a suggestion that a specialist reviews.

Specifically:

• Bathroom showroom: Choosing ceramics, fixtures and tiles is consulting. AI can carry the finished selection into the quote but does not replace a consultation.

• Spare parts: A rating plate photo without year of manufacture or serial number is often not enough for a reliable match. Such lines are flagged.

• Design: Whether 9 kW of heating output is enough for the building is a planning question, not a matching question.

• Structured channels: Orders that come through a shop or IDS Connect are already structured. There, the benefit of an additional AI is low.

How does a plumbing and HVAC wholesaler get started with AI?

A plumbing and HVAC wholesaler starts with a technical test on its own requests and its own item master, usually within two working days; first workflows typically go live in less than four weeks. No upfront training is needed, and incomplete product data is no obstacle, because data sheets and catalog texts are read as well.

The ERP remains the leading system, including pricing and calculation. Connected systems include SAP S/4HANA, SAP ECC, SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Salesforce, proALPHA and UniTrade, and other systems via an API or SFTP (see Integrations). Mercura is certified to ISO/IEC 27001, hosts in Europe and does not use customer data to train external AI models. More about the products: Quotes and tenders and Order processing.

Try it with your own bill of quantities Bring a real bill of quantities or a real contractor request: in 30 minutes we show you how Mercura handles it in your process. Book a meeting

Conclusion

Plumbing and HVAC wholesale lives on translating the catalogs of many manufacturers into the language of the trade, and exactly this translation costs inside sales the most time. AI takes over reading, matching and preparing, while inside sales reviews and decides. The Sanitär-Heinze example shows that this makes not only quotes faster but also answers requests that used to sit. For bathroom consulting and unclear spare parts, people remain responsible.

Further reading

• Quotes and tenders: turn every request into a quote

• AI for Heating Manufacturers: Answer Requests Faster

• Inside Sales: Tasks and How AI Takes the Load Off

• Customer story: Sanitär-Heinze (plumbing and HVAC wholesale)

Frequently asked questions

What does a plumbing and HVAC wholesaler do? A plumbing and HVAC wholesaler supplies trade businesses in plumbing, heating and air conditioning with material from many manufacturers. It bundles range, logistics, conditions and often showrooms for end customers.

What software does plumbing and HVAC wholesale use? Plumbing and HVAC wholesale uses an ERP (merchandise management system) as the core system, plus an online shop, interfaces such as IDS Connect to the trade and product data formats such as DATANORM or Open Masterdata. AI software complements this for unstructured requests and orders by email.

Is plumbing and HVAC software the same as contractor software? No, contractor software covers the calculation, quote and invoice of the trade business. Plumbing and HVAC software in wholesale manages the distributor's item master, conditions, inventory and documents.

Can AI process GAEB files in plumbing and HVAC wholesale? Yes, GAEB BoQs are read, the line items including long texts are matched to your own range, and the result can be exported as GAEB or PDF. The software flags uncertain line items for review.

How does AI handle brand specifications "or equal"? The software checks which articles in your own range meet the technical requirements from the long text and sorts the compliant options by margin. Inside sales decides whether an equal product is quoted.

Is AI worthwhile for a smaller plumbing wholesaler too? That depends less on company size than on the share of unstructured requests by email, PDF or GAEB. A technical test on your own data shows within a few days how well matching works with your own range.