Field sales calls from the car: “Can you send the customer the quote for the BoQ by tonight?” At the same time, 40 unread orders are waiting, two suppliers have not replied yet, and a colleague is on vacation. That is everyday life in the inside sales team of many technical distributors and manufacturers. Inside sales handles inquiries, creates quotes, enters orders and looks after customers from the office. AI takes the load off where most time is lost: reading, matching and retyping.

Key takeaways

• Inside sales is the control center between customer, field sales, warehouse and suppliers. In technical distribution, its core is quotes and orders.

• Bottlenecks arise when inquiry volume and complexity grow but the number of experienced employees does not.

• The biggest time sink is routine work: matching BoQ line items, retyping orders, adding supplier prices.

• AI can take over this preparatory work. Review, advice, negotiation and customer relationships stay with people.

• Measure the relief by lead time, share of inquiries handled and backlog, not by gut feeling.

What is inside sales?

Inside sales is the part of sales that looks after customers from within the company: it answers inquiries from existing and potential customers, creates quotes, enters orders, clarifies delivery dates and supports field sales. It works by email, phone and in the ERP, coordinates with departments such as warehouse and purchasing, and is the most important daily contact for many customers.

In technical distribution and at manufacturers of building products, inside sales is also technically demanding, because it sells technical products. Inside sales employees therefore need technical understanding, often based on commercial or technical training. They have to read bills of quantities, understand long texts, recognize equivalent products and know which article matches which customer description. This knowledge grows over years and cannot be learned in a week.

What tasks does inside sales have in technical distribution?

The tasks of inside sales in technical distribution fall into three groups: processing quotes and orders, looking after customers and field sales, and administrative tasks such as data maintenance. Quotes and orders usually take up the largest share of time, because every line item has to be handled individually.

How quote work can be automated step by step is described in the article Automating quote creation. For incoming orders, see Automating order entry.

What is the difference between inside sales, field sales and remote selling?

Inside sales handles inquiries, quotes and orders from the office, field sales visits customers on site and wins projects, and remote selling (called “Inside Sales” in German) sells actively by phone and video without traveling. In technical distribution, inside sales, field sales and key account managers usually work as a tandem.

The boundaries are not the same everywhere, and personal contact with the customer is part of all three roles. In many companies, inside sales also takes on active selling tasks, such as following up on quotes.

Where do bottlenecks arise in inside sales?

Bottlenecks in inside sales arise when inquiry volume and complexity rise but the number of experienced employees stays the same or falls. Inquiries then get left behind, quotes arrive too late, and the knowledge sits with a few people whose absence slows down the whole department.

Typical causes:

• Inquiry peaks: Before the start of the season or with large projects, many BoQs arrive at once.

• Routine eats expert time: Experienced employees spend hours retyping and searching instead of advising.

• Knowledge in people's heads: Which customer description belongs to which article is often not recorded in any system.

• Long onboarding: New colleagues need months before they can confidently price a complex BoQ.

• Skilled-labor shortage: According to an IW short report from June 2026, Germany's labor force potential falls from 55 million in 2025 to 51.2 million by 2036 as the baby boomers retire.

The consequence shows in one detail: at Sanitär-Heinze, a plumbing and HVAC distributor, about 70% of incoming inquiries were handled before Mercura was introduced. The rest were left behind. Today it is 100% (case study).

Example: A morning in inside sales

Example (typical flow, anonymized): This is what a morning for an inside sales employee at an electrical distributor can look like:

Of four and a half hours, more than three go to work that consists mainly of reading, matching and retyping. That is exactly where automation comes in.

How does AI relieve inside sales in concrete terms?

AI relieves inside sales by reading inquiries, BoQs and orders, matching line items to your own catalog, creating supplier requests and preparing quotes or orders in the ERP. Inside sales reviews the suggestions, decides on flagged line items and approves, instead of working out every line itself.

At Mercura, an AI software for quote and order automation in technical sales, this means:

• Quotes: Inquiries and BoQs in any format (email, PDF, scan, photo, Excel, GAEB) are read, line items are matched to the catalog including long texts, requirements are checked and compliant options are sorted by margin.

• Suppliers: Price requests are created for non-stock items, and the replies are read back in.

• Orders: Orders are picked up from the shared inbox, distributed to branch and order processor, customer descriptions and old item numbers are matched, surcharges such as freight and packaging are added and the order is booked into the ERP.

• Follow-up: Open quotes are tracked for follow-up.

Martin Prigge from REHAU's inside sales describes the result like this: “With Mercura's quoting AI we save up to 60% of our time.” (case study) At Sanitär-Heinze, processing time per quote dropped from 2 days to 2 hours.

What should AI not take over in inside sales?

AI should not take over decisions in inside sales that require responsibility or relationships: price negotiations, special terms, complaints, the technical confirmation of equivalence and the final approval of a quote. These tasks stay with people, and the time gained is meant for exactly them.

There are organizational limits, too. AI does not replace a process that is unclear: if nobody knows who approves quotes or which inquiries take priority, software does not make that better. And it needs acceptance in the team. Involve experienced employees early, because their knowledge decides whether suggestions are reviewed well.

At Mercura, the team is explicitly the quality control: every quote and every order is reviewed before it goes to the customer or into the ERP. Uncertain lines are flagged, not guessed.

How do you measure whether inside sales is relieved?

You measure whether inside sales is relieved with a few metrics: time from receipt of an inquiry to the quote, share of inquiries handled, time per order and backlog in the inbox. Capture the values before introduction so you have a real comparison.

Test it with your own data

Bring a real bill of quantities or a real order: in 30 minutes we show you how Mercura handles it in your process. Book a call

Conclusion

In technical distribution, inside sales is where inquiries become quotes and orders become sales orders. Its bottleneck is rarely a lack of expertise, but too much routine work for too few people. AI can take over reading, matching and retyping so that experienced employees have time for review, advice and customers. If you measure the effect before and after, you quickly see whether the relief actually arrives.

Further reading

• Order processing: emailed orders into your ERP automatically

• AI in Plumbing and HVAC Wholesale: Automate Quotes and Orders

• Quote-to-Order Automation: From Quote to Order Without the Gaps

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

Frequently asked questions

What does inside sales do?

Inside sales looks after customers from within the company: it answers inquiries, creates quotes, enters orders, clarifies delivery dates and complaints and supports field sales with documents and information.

What are the most important tasks in inside sales?

The most important tasks are quote creation, order entry, price requests to suppliers, following up on open quotes, technical advice and maintaining customer and item data.

What is the difference between inside sales and field sales?

Inside sales works from the office and handles inquiries, quotes and orders. Field sales visits customers on site, maintains relationships and wins projects. In technical distribution, the two work closely together.

What training do you need for inside sales?

Commercial training is often the foundation, for example as a wholesale and foreign trade management clerk (Kaufmann/Kauffrau für Groß- und Außenhandelsmanagement). In technical distribution, product knowledge is added, which usually grows on the job over years.

Will AI replace inside sales?

No. AI takes over routine work such as reading, matching and retyping. Review, approval, advice, negotiation and customer relationships stay with inside sales. At Mercura, every quote and every order is reviewed by the team.

How can you relieve inside sales?

You relieve inside sales by prioritizing inquiries by deadline and value, automating routine work such as line item matching and order entry, defining approval paths clearly and making the backlog visible every day.