Merlin vs hiring an inside sales rep
A full-time inside sales rep in the Montréal region costs roughly $41,600 to $114,000 a year in wages alone, based on Job Bank hourly rates, before benefits and payroll contributions. Merlin costs $24,000 to $36,000 a year after the first year, but it is not a replacement for a rep: it drafts quotes and replies, and a person on your team still approves every one. For most distributors the real comparison is whether to add a person or to give the people you already have more capacity.
From quote request to finished quote in two minutes.
Nothing goes to a customer until someone on your team approves it. Watch full screen
Faster quotes. More orders. Hours back every week.
Win more orders
Buyers often go with the first solid quote they get. Merlin gets yours out in minutes, day or night, and follows up on the quotes that go quiet.
Get your team's time back
A desk that gets 60 quote requests a week at 15 minutes each spends about 65 hours a month building quotes. Merlin takes most of that routine work off their plate.
Grow without hiring
Handle more requests with the team you already have, in English and French, while good inside-sales people are hard to find.
What does an inside sales rep cost in Montréal?
Job Bank does not publish a separate line for "inside sales representative", so we use the closest occupation it reports: Sales Representative, Wholesale (non-technical), NOC 64101. For the Montréal region, Job Bank lists a low of $20.00, a median of $31.45 and a high of $54.81 per hour, with a 2023-2024 reference period from Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey.
Annualized at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks (2,080 hours), that is about $41,600 at the low end, $65,416 at the median and $114,005 at the high end. Technical inside sales roles that read drawings or specs may sit in a different, higher-paid occupation group.
| Job Bank, Montréal region (NOC 64101) | Hourly | Annualized (2,080 h) |
|---|---|---|
| Low | $20.00 | $41,600 |
| Median | $31.45 | $65,416 |
| High | $54.81 | $114,005 |
Wages only. Excludes employer contributions (QPP, EI, QPIP, CNESST, health services fund), benefits, recruiting and training. Job Bank reports that 91.4% of Québec workers in this occupation receive at least one non-wage benefit.
What does Merlin cost over the same year?
Merlin starts with a $3,500 30-day pilot on the Quote Desk, with one success metric agreed in writing up front. If the metric is missed, no monthly fee is owed. After the pilot, Starter is $2,000 a month and Growth is $3,000 a month, with unlimited users, no usage credits and no overages. Setup is a one-time $5,000 to $15,000, quoted before you commit. All amounts are in CAD, taxes extra. Full details are on the pricing page.
| Cost | Merlin Starter | Merlin Growth | One rep (median wage) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year one | $30,500 to $40,500 | $41,500 to $51,500 | $65,416 + contributions and benefits |
| Year two onward | $24,000 | $36,000 | $65,416 + raises, contributions and benefits |
| Hours covered | 24/7 drafting | 24/7 drafting | Business hours, minus vacation and sick days |
| Approves quotes | No, your team does | No, your team does | Yes |
Year one for Merlin = $3,500 pilot + 11 months of the plan + setup of $5,000 to $15,000. Starter: $3,500 + $22,000 + setup. Growth: $3,500 + $33,000 + setup.
Does Merlin replace an inside sales rep?
No. Merlin's Quote Desk reads RFQs that arrive by email, matches each line to your price sheet and drafts a complete quote with a PDF. Prices, totals and lead times are calculated in code from your price sheet; the AI only picks which catalog item matches a request line. Anything unclear, unmatched or missing a spec is flagged for a rep, never guessed.
A rep still approves every quote before it goes out, handles the flagged lines, negotiates, and builds the customer relationship. What Merlin removes is the retyping: opening the email, looking up each part, checking the price sheet and building the document. We explain why that approval step matters in why every AI quote needs human approval.
When is hiring a rep the better choice?
- Your quotes depend on judgment Merlin cannot see: custom configurations, engineering questions, or pricing that lives in someone's head instead of a price sheet.
- You need outbound selling, account management or phone coverage. Merlin drafts email replies; it does not prospect or take calls.
- Your volume is low enough that the current team keeps up comfortably and response time is not costing you orders.
- You plan to grow into a new territory where relationships matter more than speed.
When does Merlin make more sense?
Speed matters because buyers expect it: in Paperless Parts' 2020 survey, 67% of part buyers expected a quote within 24 hours, and HBR found firms that contacted leads within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify them.
- RFQs pile up overnight and on weekends, and the first reply of the day goes out hours late.
- Most requests are for catalog or price-sheet items, so the work is lookup and retyping, not judgment.
- You have tried to hire and could not fill the seat. Québec had about 14,900 vacant manufacturing jobs in Q2 2026, according to ISQ. More on this in the inside sales labour shortage.
- Customers write in both English and French and you want each reply in the customer's language.
What does this look like for a real workload?
For example, a distributor that receives 60 RFQs a week, where keying each quote takes a rep 20 minutes, spends 1,200 minutes, or 20 hours, a week on data entry. If reviewing a Merlin draft took 5 minutes instead, the same 60 quotes would take 5 hours of review, freeing about 15 hours a week. These figures are illustrative assumptions, not measured results. Plug in your own numbers with the ROI calculator, or test it on real RFQs in shadow mode, where Merlin drafts for 1 to 2 weeks while nothing can be sent.
Frequently asked questions
Is Merlin cheaper than an inside sales rep?
After the first year, Merlin costs $24,000 (Starter) or $36,000 (Growth) a year, while a Montréal-region rep at the Job Bank median wage costs about $65,416 in wages alone. But the two are not substitutes: Merlin drafts, and a person on your team still reviews and approves every quote.
Can Merlin send quotes without a person approving them?
No. A human rep approves every quote, order status reply, document send and follow-up before it goes out. Merlin also flags quotes over a set amount, first-time customers and low-stock items.
Where do the wage numbers come from?
From Job Bank's wage page for Sales Representative, Wholesale (non-technical), NOC 64101, Montréal region, reference period 2023-2024. Job Bank does not list inside sales as a separate occupation, so this is the closest official match.
What happens if the pilot does not hit its target?
Before the 30-day pilot starts, we agree on one success metric in writing, for example median quote response time under one hour. If the metric is missed, no monthly fee is owed.
