Modular houses manufacturer digitalizes sales: €133M of leads in 30 months

Modular houses manufacturer with 60 years of innovative tradition

Mizarstvo Hrovat, a modular houses manufacturer, boasts a 60-year tradition. Despite its rich history, the company strives for new and innovative approaches across all areas.

Their mission is to connect people with nature by delivering high-quality products harmonizing with the environment. They emphasize values that truly matter for so many of us: spending time with loved ones, being in tune with nature, finding inner peace, and having a personal space in the world.

Their extensive range includes outdoor kitchens, pergolas, outdoor living rooms, offices, and garden sheds, but their company is most known for the CUBIE houses.

The company’s vision is to reshape living with CUBIE houses — Minimalism, a connection to nature, and proximity to loved ones are key points of this vision.

CUBIE modular houses: A revolutionary way of modern living

The company has offered CUBIE houses for a decade – synonymous with modular design. While the essence has remained consistent, the details of their houses have evolved and improved over the years.

The common thread among all of Mizarstvo Hrovat’s custom-made houses is exceptional design and top-notch quality, which are the company’s central principles.

Each house is unique and tailored to the customer’s desires and needs, giving them a competitive advantage over other players in the market.

However, personalization brings challenges to the sales process.

Challenges in selling custom-made CUBIE houses

Before using the SaleSqueze platform, the company’s main challenge was managing the sale of custom-made houses, as customers seeking such products often gather information and inquire with various providers.

The process of providing information about custom-made products was slow and time-consuming. The sales team had to invest time in meetings with customers, discussing their preferences and material choices, and then preparing and sending offers via email. Gathering information and preparing a quote took about 60 minutes.

Manual preparation and emailing of offers accounted for 66% of the sales team’s workload. During periods of high demand, sales representatives had to work overtime to respond to all inquiries in a reasonable time frame.

As the process heavily relied on human effort, mistakes occurred: missed emails or phone calls, resulting in lost inquiries. Errors in offers regarding materials or prices also negatively impacted the overall customer experience.

Expanding to foreign markets posed an additional challenge, as collaboration with distributors required a deep understanding of CUBIE house features and pricing structures. Communication via email with partners from Austria and Germany limited the potential for extensive growth as desired by the company.

To address these challenges, the Mizarstvo Hrovat team implemented a solution to digitalize how to sell configurable CUBIE houses.

The Configurator: Automated Lead-to-Quote process

Mizarstvo Hrovat utilizes the Lead-to-Quote process, a user-friendly online solution by SaleSqueze. It simplifies handling customer inquiries and customization choices, resulting in the automated issuance of a price quote.

The configurator allows customization of four types of CUBIE houses: original, with a woodshed, with an outdoor kitchen, and a living unit. Customers can easily follow the configuration process, adjusting various house attributes. After submitting an inquiry, the customer receives an informative quote to their email address.

Benefits for Marketing, Sales, Distributors, and Customers

Jaka Hrovat, Director of Mizarstvo Hrovat, highlights three key benefits of the configurator:

1. Automation of digital marketing and sales channels: The configurator revolutionized digital marketing. The team gained more valuable data, enabling them to personalize communication effectively. Potential customers who do not make immediate purchases through the configurator are nurtured with marketing content, converting them when they are ready. Most important, the configurator also resulted in a higher number of leads.

2. Increased efficiency of the sales team: Automating the quote preparation process significantly eased the sales team’s workload. Previously, this process consumed more than half of the sales representatives’ work hours. This time can now be better used for advising customers, building relationships, and closing deals.

3. Opportunity for growth and expansion into foreign markets: The configurator opened doors to broader markets and distributors. By eliminating the sales bottleneck, the company secured vital distributor partnerships for international growth into markets such as Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.

Customer empowerment: New ways of buying complex products online

Jaka Hrovat, the director, notices that the configurator is often the first touch point between customers and the company. Changing consumer habits emphasize the desire for digital solutions, enabling shopping from the comfort of home without being bound by the company’s working hours.

The results

In the span of 30 months of using the SaleSqueze platform (January 2021 – July 2023), Mizarstvo Hrovat achieved remarkable results:

• The number of inquiries increased by 415% from 2020, when they were not yet using the configurator, to 2023.
• The average annual growth rate of inquiries through the configurator between 2021 and 2023 is 48.545%.
• Processed 10,835 quotes through the configurator, totaling €133,636,847.78 in value.
• Saved approximately 10,835 working hours due to the elimination of manual work*
• Received an average of 339 inquiries per month.

*Assuming 1 hour is needed to prepare per inquiry, this equates to 2 full-time employees’ work hours from January 2021 to July 2023.