In the building materials industry, the evolution of inside sales holds enormous potential: A proactive, sales-oriented inside sales team can contribute significantly to company success – a true competitive advantage. But how can this potential be utilized when daily operations are dominated by reactive tasks? We show how the use of cutting-edge technology frees up more time for active sales and customer service, enabling inside sales to develop into a strategic revenue driver.

The Current Situation: Challenges in Inside Sales

Inside sales at building materials manufacturers and distributors are traditionally tasked with a variety of duties that often leave little room for active selling:

1. Processing customer inquiries
2. Creating offers
3. Processing bills of quantities
4. Coordinating with field sales
5. Order processing and tracking

Processing bills of quantities in particular proves to be time-intensive. Mid-sized companies often invest more than 1,000 person-days per year in the process. These routine tasks consume valuable skilled workers’ time, are often frustrating for employees, and prevent inside sales from focusing on value-adding sales activities.

Digitalization: Automation of Routine Tasks as a Time Generator

Modern software can automate time-consuming repetitive work steps, thus relieving the team and freeing up valuable time for active sales activities.

The transformation through digital technologies goes far beyond mere automation. It enables a fundamental redesign of workflows.

In the context of building materials trade, this means, for example, that bills of quantities no longer need to be worked through manually but can be automatically analyzed and processed.

A software solution specifically developed for the challenges in building materials trade is kinisto. This software was designed to optimize the entire quotation process and improve the inside sales workflow.

Quoting Software in Practice: kinisto, the Intelligent Software for Quotation Management

Using cutting-edge technology, the time-intensive, repetitive activities in offer creation can be automated, thus optimizing the entire inside sales workflow.

kinisto is an AI-powered software specifically developed for quotation management in building materials trade. kinisto enables the team to focus on value-adding activities and often saves inside sales more than 50% of the time in processing inquiries.

Core Functions of kinisto:

1. Automatic item recognition in bills of quantities: kinisto reads even extensive PDF documents and recognizes relevant items. This saves inside sales the time-consuming task of searching through long documents.

2. AI-powered product suggestions: Based on recognized items, the software suggests matching products. Units and quantities are automatically extracted from the BOQ.

3. Self-learning AI: With each finalized offer, the system learns, making suggestions continuously more precise.

4. Efficient inquiry management: A clear display of all incoming inquiries and filter options enable easy prioritization and efficient processing.

Benefits for Inside Sales:

• Enormous time savings: kinisto can often reduce BOQ processing time by more than 50%.

• Focus on sales activities: By automating routine tasks, more time remains for active customer service and sales conversations.

• Competitive advantage: Faster quote creation enables submitting offers before the competition.

• Employee satisfaction: Relief from monotonous tasks leads to higher job satisfaction in inside sales.

Easy Implementation of kinisto

A decisive advantage of kinisto is the quick and straightforward implementation, enabling a smooth transition to a digitalized, more active inside sales team. The process is divided into three main phases:

1. Quick setup (typically 0-2 days):
   Product data is deposited, ERP interface is set up, and the team receives a brief introduction to the software.

2. Test:
   The team can test kinisto with all features in practical use. This offers the opportunity to observe how AI product suggestions continuously become more reliable and employees can familiarize themselves with the system.

3. Ongoing use:
   The use ofkinisto can be continued directly if desired – without additional IT effort.

This structured but flexible approach enables companies to introduce kinisto gradually while leveraging the benefits of digitalization without disrupting ongoing operations.

Relief for Specialists as a Sales Driver: Digitalization as a Path to Proactive Inside Sales

In an era where flexibility, scalability, and speed are decisive competitive factors, the use of AI software can make the crucial difference. Specialists can contribute more actively to company success, and relief from routine tasks simultaneously ensures greater employee satisfaction.

Building materials manufacturers and distributors who now invest in digitalizing their inside sales optimally position themselves for future challenges and opportunities in the market.