How Custom Cubes tripled quoting capacity and accelerated sales with Priority ERP

For a company built on customization and rapid response to customer needs, Custom Cubes faced critical operational challenges that were
limiting their growth potential and putting their profitability at risk.

Slow, inefficient quoting processes limited sales capacity

“Big part of Custom Cubes is acquiring new customers regularly. We have to be able to quote quickly and efficiently,” Brent Nelson, COO at Custom Cubes explains. In a competitive market where customers are evaluating multiple vendors, response speed can be the difference between winning and losing business. The company's previous systems couldn't keep pace with the volume of quote requests they were receiving.

Managing complex, multi-version quotes over extended sales cycles

Custom container projects often involve lengthy decision-making processes. “Some of these quoting processes could go over several months,” Joe Timmath, Sales Account Manager at Customer Cubes notes. Without proper version control and documentation, managing multiple iterations of the same quote became chaotic and error-prone. Sales teams struggled to track which specifications had been quoted, what pricing had been offered, and how proposals had evolved over time.

Inability to accommodate mid-production changes cost sales

Customer requirements don't stop evolving when fabrication begins. “Sometimes our customers do require changes while something's already in production,” Nelson says. Without real-time inventory visibility and flexible production management, the company had to either refuse profitable changes or risk production delays and cost overruns trying to accommodate them.

Restrictive systems couldn't handle unique container specifications

Shipping containers arrive with different specifications that must be tracked and managed. “When it comes to shipping containers they do arrive with different specifications,” Brent explains. “Other softwares and systems have been restrictive and not allowing us flexibility to have customizations in the bill of materials.”

Generic ERP systems designed for standard manufacturing couldn't adapt to the unique requirements of container modification, where each unit might have different starting conditions and each project requires different configurations.

Risk of unprofitable quotes and production

Perhaps most dangerously, without accurate, real-time costing tied to bills of materials, the company risked winning business that looked good on paper but lost money in execution. For a growing company, profitable growth is the only sustainable path forward.

Custom Cubes selected Priority ERP as the solution to modernize their quoting, production, and inventory management processes. The implementation focused on creating a seamless flow from initial customer inquiry through final delivery, with particular emphasis on the flexibility and customization capabilities that are essential to their business model.

Rapid, accurate quoting with live updates

Priority ERP transformed Custom Cubes' quoting process into a competitive advantage.
The system enables the sales team to engage with prospects quickly and professionally. “It allows us to engage with them quickly to create a quote to save several versions of that,” Nelson notes. Instead of waiting hours or days for estimating departments to manually calculate costs, sales representatives can generate accurate quotes during customer conversations.

“By using Priority Software, we're able to create bill of materials, cost estimates, and pricing while live updating the sales team to then send those quotes to our customers,” – Brent Nelson, COO, Custom Cubes

Sophisticated version control for complex sales cycles

Priority's version management capabilities proved essential for Custom Cubes' extended sales processes. “With Priority I will make a change, I will document what we presented as version one, I'll immediately create a second version,” Timmath explains.

This seemingly simple capability has profound business impact. Sales teams can confidently propose alternatives, knowing they're not losing track of previous quotes. Customers can explore options without confusion about what was quoted when. And the company maintains a complete audit trail of how proposals evolved – critical information for both production planning and future similar projects.

“That has resulted in sales we otherwise wouldn't have gotten,” Timmath emphasizes. The ability to quickly and accurately manage quote variations directly translates to closed deals that would have been lost with less sophisticated systems.

Real-time change management during production

One of Priority's most valuable capabilities for Custom Cubes is the ability to accommodate customer changes even during active production. “We're able to look at our live inventory and if we're able to accommodate a change quickly while not impacting our fabrication,” Nelson explains.

This real-time visibility into inventory and production status means Custom Cubes can say “yes” to profitable change orders that competitors have to refuse. The flexibility doesn't compromise control; the system ensures changes are properly documented, costed, and integrated into production workflows.

Industry-specific customization for container specifications

Priority's flexibility allowed Custom Cubes to tailor the system specifically for the unique requirements of container modification. “We've been able to tailor those specifications specific to our industry,” Nelson notes.

The system accommodates the reality that every shipping container is slightly different, with varying specifications that must be tracked and managed. “We have the templates, we have the things we can quote instantly. We have thousands of parts that I can mix and match to create custom solutions,” Thimmath explains.

This library of pre-configured components and templates dramatically accelerates quoting while maintaining accuracy. Sales teams can rapidly assemble quotes for common configurations, while still having the flexibility to add unique elements for truly custom projects.

Building institutional knowledge through reusable components

Priority ERP helps Custom Cubes continuously improve their quoting efficiency by capturing and reusing knowledge from every project. “If a client asks for something we haven't never done before, we immediately submit that to our estimating department. They build a part in real time. I can quote, but more importantly, the next time we quote that same situation, we now have the part,” Timmath explains.

This creates a virtuous cycle where the system becomes more valuable over time. Every unique request that gets properly estimated becomes a reusable component for future quotes, progressively expanding the library of instantly quotable configurations.

Ensuring profitability on every project

Perhaps most critically, Priority ERP ensures that every quote Custom Cubes generates is not just competitive, but profitable. By tying quotes directly to accurate bills of materials and real-time cost data, the system eliminates the risk of winning business that loses money in execution, a critical capability for sustainable growth.

“Clients can trust the quote and we can trust that we're only going to produce products that make a reasonable profit for Custom Cubes.”
– Joe Timmath, Sales Account Manager, Custom Cubes

Executive summary

Since implementing Priority ERP, Custom Cubes has achieved a dramatic transformation in operational efficiency and sales effectiveness. The company tripled their quoting capacity, enabling them to pursue three times more opportunities with the same sales team; a massive productivity gain that directly drives revenue growth. Real-time inventory visibility and flexible change management have converted previously lost opportunities into closed sales, as customers can confidently modify specifications even during production. The system's sophisticated version control has proven essential for managing complex, multi-month sales cycles, ensuring no opportunity is lost due to confusion about specifications or pricing. Most importantly, tight integration between quoting, bill of materials, and costing ensures every project is both competitive and profitable, eliminating the existential risk of unprofitable growth. The platform's flexibility has allowed Custom Cubes to build an ever-expanding library of reusable components, creating a virtuous cycle where quoting becomes progressively faster and more accurate over time.