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How Distributors Can Automate Repeat Quotes & Free Their Sales Teams

August 12, 2025

6 min read

Author:

Sumit Sinha

CTO & Co-Founder, Kavida.ai

Author:

Sumit Sinha

CTO & Co-Founder, Kavida.ai

How Distributors Can Automate Repeat Quotes & Free Their Sales Teams

Table of Contents

Quoting should be fast, accurate, and seamless—especially for repeat business. Yet many sales teams spend half their day churning out the same quotes for the same parts, over and over again.

This is a massive drain on productivity, throughput, and customer responsiveness.

With AI agents, distributors can now automate repeat quote generation end-to-end—from parsing inbound requests to generating the quote and drafting the customer email. The result? Sales productivity increases by 5X, response times shrink, and reps finally have time to sell, not type.

The Problem: Quoting Is Eating Into A Typical Sales Day

For many distributors, a large percentage of quotes are for repeat purchases—items customers buy over and over. Despite that, the quoting process remains entirely manual.

Every RFQ—whether it arrives by email, spreadsheet, or PDF—triggers a repetitive series of tasks. Even for familiar items, reps must treat each request like a new one.

The Admin Load Behind Every Quote

A typical repeat quote involves a long chain of manual steps:

Receive an email or RFQ from a customer.

Search for each part in the ERP system.

Retrieve pricing, lead time, and any customer-specific terms.

Build the quote, line-by-line—sometimes for 30–40 items at once.

Draft a professional response email.

Manually enter everything back into the ERP or CRM.

Impact on Throughput and Productivity

Sales reps today spend 30–50% of their time managing quote requests for repeat orders. That’s time not spent talking to customers, managing accounts, or closing new business. 

As quote volumes rise, throughput hits a ceiling. Teams grow slower, not faster. The real cost isn’t just time—it’s lost revenue.

The Opportunity: Automate What’s Repeatable, Free Sales Capacity

Repeat Quotes Are Perfect for Automation

The quoting process may be manual—but it’s not strategic. The inputs are predictable. The logic is consistent. The admin work is high, but the complexity is low.

The same parts and materials are quoted over and over.
Terms like customer-specific pricing or discounts rarely change.
Every quote involves search, copy-paste, formatting, and email—on repeat.
Customers expect fast turnaround for routine quotes.

 That makes it an ideal candidate for automation.

What Sales Teams Should Be Doing

Reps should be spending time where it moves the needle:

Strategic deals and project-based sales

Account expansion and upselling

Building relationships with key customers

Driving roadmap alignment & long-term planning

Instead, they’re spending hours keying part numbers and copy-pasting prices.

The Shortcomings of Traditional ERPs

Recognizing and Reading the RFQ

AI agents built on LLMs can automatically read and interpret inbound quote requests. Whether it’s a structured spreadsheet or an unstructured email—“Can you send me pricing on 4x SS bolts?”—the agent understands the request.

It identifies the part(s), quantity, units, and any context about urgency or customer expectations.

Matching to ERP and Pulling the Right Data

Next, the agent maps the request to ERP data:

Finds the correct part number.
Retrieves current and historical pricing.
Applies customer-specific discounts or terms.
Checks availability or lead times.

This happens in seconds—even across dozens of line items.

Drafting and Sending the Quote

Once the data is collected, the agent:

Builds a clean, line-item quote formatted to the company’s standards.
Drafts a customer-facing email with clear pricing, terms, and next steps.
Sends it automatically, or saves it for sales approval.
Logs the activity in the ERP or CRM with full traceability.

This happens in seconds—even across dozens of line items.

Human-in-the-Loop for Oversight

The agent flags exceptions—such as missing pricing or ambiguous part numbers—for sales review. But even for standard, repeat quotes, teams can start by reviewing the agent’s work. Quotes can be saved as drafts, reviewed for accuracy, and edited before sending—giving reps full visibility and control in the early stages. 

As confidence builds, the process can be fully automated for repeat quotes—allowing the agent to send responses directly while still flagging edge cases. Sales teams stay in control, with the flexibility to move from oversight to full autonomy at their own pace.

5X Throughput, Happier Customers

Freeing Up Sales Capacity

With quoting automated, sales reps can handle 5X more RFQs in the same time. Customers get faster responses. Teams get more done without hiring. Bottlenecks disappear.

Shifting Focus from Admin to Impact

Instead of spending half the day quoting, reps can spend their time: 

Re-engaging dormant accounts.
Quoting complex, high-value opportunities.
Improving win rates through better follow-up.

In short: they start selling again.

Don’t Let Admin Bottleneck Your Sales Engine

Manual quoting may feel like just another admin task—but at scale, it’s a barrier to growth. Every minute spent repeating the same steps is a minute not spent growing the business. 

AI agents eliminate that bottleneck. They automate the repetitive, standard quoting process end-to-end—accurately, fast, and without supervision.  

The payoff is measurable: higher throughput, happier customers, and sales teams free to focus on what matters most.

How Distributors Can Automate Repeat Quotes & Free Their Sales Teams

Table of Contents

Author:

Sumit Sinha

CTO & Co- Founder, Kavida.ai

Sumit is our CTO and co-founder, driving Kavida’s technical innovation and leading the development of our agentic AI platform to deliver real-time intelligence, automation, and resilience across global supply chains.