RIPO’s story
On the international market since 2001, RIPO makes twisted-pair, coaxial and CCTV cable, structured cabling components and installation tools. Its range runs to more than 500 items, and its cable and cabling lines are offered in four tiers: Premium, Standard, Plus and core RIPO.
Headquartered in Guangdong, China, it produces in China, the Philippines and Bangladesh, and ships to Egypt, Turkey, the USA, the Philippines, India, Russia, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. It entered the Russian market in 2008.
Alongside cable and components, the group also produces equipment for manufacturing low-current cable and structured cabling elements, as well as equipment for making disposable medical products. It is a manufacturer that sells to manufacturers, installers and distributors across very different markets.
That breadth is RIPO’s strength and its challenge. A distributor in one market may buy mostly cable in one tier, while a partner elsewhere orders components and tools across several, and each expects accurate prices and fast answers. Few companies combine such a long product list with such a wide geographic reach, and the sales work that follows from it is correspondingly detailed.
A large catalogue, many prices
Each market and each distributor can have its own prices. Currency, freight, volume and local competition all shape what a buyer in one country pays compared with a buyer in another, and each tier has its own price point.
With hundreds of items across several tiers, prices kept in files make it easy to quote an out-of-date one. A salesperson has to find the right sheet, check it is the latest version and copy the figures into a quote by hand, and a single wrong line can cost margin or credibility.
The same data then has to be typed again when an order is placed. Every copy is a chance for a mistake, and every mistake has to be found and fixed by someone.
For a manufacturer with production in three countries, keeping prices right is a moving target. Costs differ by site, ranges change and new items are added, and every change has to reach every file that quotes it.
Distributors across eight markets
RIPO sells through distributors and partners in markets far apart. Keeping them informed about new lines, changes in the range and price updates is part of the job, and doing it one email at a time does not scale.
Replies to those messages are just as important. When a distributor asks a question or places an order in response, the answer needs to reach the right person and sit with the right account, not disappear into one inbox.
Without a shared system, the history of each distributor relationship is scattered. What was offered, what was ordered and what was promised sit in different places, and the full picture depends on who you ask.
The PromptLab moment
For a company with a catalogue this large, the starting point is the product data itself. PromptLab is built for suppliers of physical products, with products, price lists, quotes and sales orders as part of the CRM rather than add-ons, and email campaigns that send from the same system.
With products and price lists in PromptLab, a quote starts from the right item at the current price, and the same data carries through to the order. The goal was a single source for what RIPO sells and at what price. Once the catalogue and price lists live in one place, every quote, order and campaign can draw on it, and a change made once applies everywhere. It also meant one system for both selling and staying in touch. Campaigns, quotes and orders share the same accounts and contacts, so a distributor’s whole relationship with RIPO sits in one place.
How RIPO uses PromptLab
RIPO uses PromptLab across the path from catalogue to order, and to stay in touch with its distributors. The work falls into three parts. Each part draws on the same catalogue, the same price lists and the same accounts, so the data is entered once and used everywhere.
Price lists, quotes and orders
Products, price lists and sales orders live together, so an accepted quote becomes an order without retyping. A price list can be kept for each market or customer segment, and a quote linked to it offers only the products and prices that apply.
Each quote line shows unit cost beside unit price, so the margin is visible as the quote is built. When the buyer accepts, the sales order carries the same products, quantities and terms, and the invoice can be created from the same record.
Quotes move through clear statuses, from draft to pending to approved, so the team can see which offers are still being worked on and which are waiting for the buyer. Every quote stays linked to its deal, where it can be found without searching.
Campaigns to distributors
New lines and price updates go to distributors as email campaigns, and replies arrive on the distributor’s account. A campaign is sent to a chosen list of contacts, and the team can see who was emailed, who replied and what they said.
Because replies land in PromptLab, a distributor’s question about a new tier is answered with the account’s history in view. A conversation started by a campaign continues on the record like any other.
Campaigns also keep RIPO present with distributors it cannot call every week. A regular update about the range reaches the whole list, while the team concentrates its own time on the partners who need it most.
A campaign can also run as a sequence, with follow-up emails sent to contacts who have not yet replied. People who answer leave the sequence, so nobody receives a reminder after they have already responded.
Sales by market
Reports break sales down by country and by product tier. Sales orders are one of the data sources the report builder reads, so figures can be grouped by market, tier or period without exporting anything.
Saved reports sit on shared dashboards, where the team sees the same numbers. Comparing markets or tiers becomes a matter of opening a report rather than building a spreadsheet.
The same reports help with planning. Knowing which tiers sell where shows which lines to promote in which market, and which distributors to focus on when a new product is ready. Reports on quotes add another angle, showing how many offers are open in each market and how many turn into orders.
One catalogue for every market
RIPO’s range and reach keep growing, and every new item or market adds prices to keep current. With the catalogue and price lists in one system, a change is made once and every quote that follows uses it.
Quotes, orders and distributor conversations all draw on the same data, and reports read it back by market and tier. That gives a manufacturer selling in eight countries one place to see what it sells, where and at what price.
New markets fit the same model. A new price list, a new list of distributors and the same catalogue are all it takes to start quoting in another country.
