End-to-end quoting for a $100M body manufacturer

A dump body and service body manufacturer doing around $100M a year was spending most of a working day on every quote. Here is how they got to same-day quotes with a quoting tool on the Torque Platform and an agent that drafts the first pass.

Where it started

Monday, 8:40am. A fleet manager emails asking for pricing on six 14-foot dump bodies with cab shields, electric tarps, and a specific hoist. The rep opens the option sheet, a spreadsheet nobody is sure is current, then the pricing workbook, then the email thread from the last order that looked like this one, and starts typing a quote into a Word template. Halfway through she calls engineering to check whether that hoist fits that body length. The quote goes out around 4pm.

Tuesday the customer says yes. Wednesday the order desk flags two problems: the hoist is not approved for that length, and the tarp price came from last year's sheet. The rep re-quotes, the customer waits, and the margin on the tarp is gone.

From the sales manager's chair, the picture was worse. He could not see quotes in flight. Every rep built quotes a little differently, so two customers asking for the same body could get different numbers. Reps were spending afternoons on paperwork instead of calling dealers, and every downstream correction turned into a phone call, a re-issued PDF, and sometimes a concession to keep the deal.

What we built

The first piece was the Platform side: a real product catalog instead of a spreadsheet. Each body series lives as a configurable product with lengths, materials, gauges, and the list of approved options for that product. Compatibility rules sit on top (this hoist only on these lengths, this tarp requires this cab shield). Pricing rules handle list price, dealer tiers, freight zones, and surcharges, all versioned with effective dates so last year's number cannot leak into this year's quote. Every quote is a record tied to an account and contact, with a pipeline stage and a full history.

The second piece is a Torque agent that does the drafting. Step by step:

• Intake. The request arrives by email to the sales inbox or as a phone call the agent answers. The agent pulls out the customer, quantity, product, specs, options, delivery location, and timing.
• Match. It maps the request to the catalog. Where a spec is ambiguous or an option is not on the approved list, it writes down a question instead of guessing.
• Configure and price. It builds the configuration, runs the compatibility rules, and applies pricing for that account's tier and freight zone.
• Draft. It creates a draft quote on the Platform, attached to the account, with a short note listing every assumption and open question.
• Route. The draft goes to the assigned rep. The rep reviews, adjusts, and approves. Anything with a discount past a set threshold goes to the sales manager before it can be sent.
• Send and follow up. The agent sends the quote PDF from the rep's email address, logs it, and schedules a follow-up if the customer goes quiet.
• Hand off. When the customer accepts, the quote becomes an order record. The order desk sees the exact configuration that was quoted, with no retyping.

A human is in the loop at three points: the rep on every quote, the manager on exceptions, and engineering only when the agent flags a combination it has not seen approved.

What changed

• Turnaround. Standard configurations went from most of a day to same day, usually within an hour or two of the request landing.
• Rep time. Each rep got hours back per week, and the sales manager redirected that time to dealer calls and open-quote follow-up.
• Downstream corrections. Order desk rework dropped sharply, because the configuration that was quoted is the configuration that was ordered, and the pricing came from one source.
• Visibility. The manager can see every quote in flight, who owns it, how long it has been sitting, and where discounts are creeping in.

What it took

About six weeks from kickoff to every rep live. Weeks one and two went to loading the catalog, options, and rules out of the existing spreadsheets, working with the product manager and one senior rep to settle what was actually approved versus what had just been quoted before. Weeks three and four ran the agent against a sample of past requests and compared its drafts to the quotes reps had sent, which is where most of the rule tightening happened. Weeks five and six were live with two reps, then the rest of the team.

People involved on the customer side: the sales manager, one product and engineering lead, one senior rep, the order desk lead, and an IT contact for email and ERP access. Systems connected: Microsoft 365 for email, the phone system for inbound calls, the ERP for pricing sync and order handoff, and the existing dealer list imported into the Platform CRM.

If your reps build quotes from option sheets and email threads, this is a well-worn path and the setup is mostly about getting your rules written down. Tell us how quoting works at your shop at torquemode.com/contact.