How a Manufacturer Cut Quote Turnaround Time by 83% with Salesforce and Agentforce
The client is a manufacturer that serves interior designers and large commercial projects, including hotels, motels, hospitals, and other developments. The company operates an in-house manufacturing facility in Los Angeles and also works with vendors in off shore.
Before working with Pivotal Leap, the sales team managed customer RFPs, product requirements, vendor communication, and quotes across email, Excel, and manual processes. Pivotal Leap brought these workflows into Salesforce and used Agentforce to help process customer requirements and automate key steps in the quoting process.
Key Results Achieved
Reduced quote turnaround time from approximately 3 hours to 30 minutes
Saved approximately 2.5 hours per quote
Reduced manual work across RFP processing, data entry, vendor communication, and quote comparison
Connected Shopify, Salesforce, vendor communication, and QuickBooks workflows
Created the potential to handle 2 to 3 times more work with the existing team
Challenge / Problem Statement
The client's quoting process had become increasingly time-consuming as the business handled more customized requirements.
The sales team spent significant time reviewing customer RFPs and manually entering product specifications. They prepared Excel files with measurements, quantities, finishes, and other product details before sending them to vendors.
Vendor communication relied heavily on email, which meant repeated follow-ups and back-and-forth. Comparing vendor quotes was also manual, with the team reviewing pricing, quantities, lead times, and other details before deciding how to proceed.
A single quote could take approximately three hours to prepare. As demand increased, the company needed a way to handle more work without adding headcount at the same pace.
Objectives / Client Priorities
The client wanted to simplify the way their sales team handled customer and vendor requirements.
Create a central Salesforce-based system for managing customer requests, quotations, vendors, and orders.
Reduce manual data entry and repetitive Excel preparation.
Use Agentforce to read customer RFPs and extract important product information.
Make vendor communication and quotation comparison faster and easier.
Bring Shopify orders into Salesforce and connect the downstream process.
Improve employee efficiency so the existing team could support more business without adding headcount at the same pace.
How Pivotal Leap Improved the Quoting Process
Salesforce became the central system for the sales process
Customer requirements, quotation details, vendor information, and orders are managed in one place.
Agentforce helped process customer RFPs
Agentforce processes uploaded RFPs, identifies relevant product requirements, and turns that information into structured data the sales team can use to prepare quotes.
Product requirements required less manual entry
Instead of manually entering each specification, the workflow captures details such as measurements, dimensions, finishes, quantities, images, and packaging requirements for the sales team.
Generated documents were stored in AWS S3
Generated documents are stored in AWS S3, and the file link is saved back to the related Salesforce record. This gives the team access to the document from Salesforce while using S3 for external file storage.
Vendor communication became part of the Salesforce workflow
Once the required product information is ready, the system prepares the vendor document and sends it to vendors in offshore.
Vendor quotations now come back into Salesforce
Vendor quotes can then be reviewed in Salesforce, reducing the need to manage the process across separate email threads.
Vendor quotes became easier to compare
The sales team can review vendor pricing, quantities, lead times, and other details together in Salesforce before deciding which option to move forward with.
Shopify orders were connected to Salesforce
When a customer places an order through Shopify, the order information flows into Salesforce so the team can continue managing the process from there.
Approved orders were connected to QuickBooks
Approved order information flows into QuickBooks to support accounting and invoice generation.
Implementation Details
Salesforce was configured as the central platform for customer, quotation, vendor, and order-related processes.
Agentforce was used to process customer RFPs and extract relevant product information.
Shopify was integrated to bring customer orders into Salesforce.
QuickBooks was connected to support accounting and invoice generation.
Email integration helped bring vendor communication closer to the Salesforce process.
AWS S3 was used as an external document repository. Documents generated through Salesforce are pushed to S3, and the resulting link is returned to Salesforce and attached to the relevant record.
Business Workflow
- 1Customer RFP
- 2File Upload
- 3Agentforce Processing
- 4Product Information
- 5Document Generated
- 6AWS S3
- 7Salesforce Record
- 8Vendor Email
- 9Vendor Quotation
- 10Quote Comparison
- 11Approval
- 12Purchase Order
- 13QuickBooks
- 1Document Generated in Salesforce
- 2AWS S3
- 3Secure File Link
- 4Salesforce Record
- 1Customer Order on Shopify
- 2Salesforce
- 3Vendor Email
- 4Vendor Information
- 5Salesforce
- 6Order Processing
- 7QuickBooks / Invoice
This connected workflow brings customer requirements, vendor communication, quotes, orders, and accounting into a more coordinated process, reducing the need for the team to move information manually between systems.
Results / Outcome
Quote turnaround time dropped from approximately 3 hours to 30 minutes.
The team saves approximately 2.5 hours per quote.
Manual work across RFP processing, data entry, Excel preparation, vendor communication, and quote comparison was reduced.
Salespeople can access customer and vendor information in Salesforce instead of working across separate files and email threads.
The connected workflow provides better visibility across orders, invoices, shipments, and expected cash flow.
The new process created the potential for the existing team to handle 2 to 3 times more work.
The Power & Impact of Partnership with Pivotal Leap
Cut quotation turnaround time by approximately 83%.
Saved 2.5 hours per quotation through Salesforce and Agentforce automation.
Improved employee efficiency and created capacity to handle more business with the existing team.
Connected Shopify, Salesforce, vendor communication, quotations, and QuickBooks into a more streamlined business process.
Still spending hours turning customer requirements into quotes?
Pivotal Leap can help you connect Salesforce, Agentforce, and the systems you already use to reduce manual work and speed up your quoting process.
Before vs. After
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Manual RFP review and data entry | Agentforce-assisted RFP processing |
| Excel-heavy quotation preparation | Salesforce-driven quotation process |
| Email-based vendor coordination | Vendor communication connected to Salesforce |
| Manual quotation comparison | Structured comparison of vendor details |
| Approximately 3 hours per quotation | Approximately 30 minutes per quotation |
| Limited capacity with the existing team | Potential to handle 2 to 3 times more work with the existing team |
Technology Stack
Testimonial
A quote used to eat up three hours. Now it's done in thirty minutes. We're getting through a lot more with the same team, and honestly the best part is that everything's finally in one place — no more hunting through email and Excel. What I appreciated was that Pivotal Leap took the time to understand how we actually work before they changed anything.