Background
This U.S.-based industrial company has been around for more than 20 years, building a reputation for protecting assets and preventing costly environmental risks. They operate across multiple divisions—serving industries like oil and gas, construction, and industrial manufacturing—and their work spans nationwide.
On the outside, they looked like a company firing on all cylinders. But behind the scenes? Their sales and estimating processes were held together by a patchwork of disconnected systems that made it hard to see the big picture, let alone scale effectively.
The challenge
As the company grew, so did the complexity of its systems. Three major challenges were weighing them down:
- Disconnected processes and data silos: Opportunities lived in a quoting tool. Bids were stuck in SharePoint. Reports were cobbled together from Power BI and SAP. None of it talked to each other. The result? Data silos, manual workarounds, and constant second-guessing.
- Adoption hurdles and costly integrations: Attempts to connect systems (like SharePoint to CRM) didn’t deliver. Instead of real-time data, the team got static snapshots of their pipeline. Sales staff, comfortable with legacy tools like Outlook desktop and Dynamics, found the new CRM intimidating. And the integration they really needed—the quoting system—came with a $50,000 price tag.
- No clear view of performance: For leadership, this was the biggest gap. Without centralized reporting, they couldn’t track KPIs like win ratios, deal velocity, or sales rep activity. Flying blind wasn’t an option anymore.
The solution
Instead of trying to fix everything at once, we started by building a strong foundation:
A customized CRM and sales pipeline
We rebuilt their pipeline in HubSpot to mirror their real-world bidding process: budgetary, preliminary, hard bid, and final bid. Custom properties and deal tags were layered in to separate opportunities by division—critical for a multi-division company.
Hands-on training and automation
We didn’t just hand them a playbook. We got in the trenches with them. Training sessions focused on practical wins, like setting up automated follow-up sequences, using meeting links that automatically generated deals, and tracking calls and tasks directly in the CRM. For a team used to manual work, seeing automation in action was a game-changer.
Data governance and reporting framework
We established clear rules for importing and managing data—so nothing valuable got lost in the transition from legacy systems. Then we built custom dashboards that gave leadership the live, accurate insights they’d been missing. Suddenly, KPIs like win ratios and deal velocity weren’t guesses; they were right there, updated in real time.
The results
- One source of truth: Their new CRM became the single place to manage bids, track deals, and organize contacts. No more jumping between tools.
- Adoption unlocked: Once the sales team saw how the system made their work easier—not harder—they leaned in. Calls were logged, contacts were imported, and email sequences were running.
- Clean, reliable data: With governance in place, duplicate records and missing information stopped being an issue. Reporting became trustworthy.
- A roadmap for growth: Even though the quoting system integration was still on the horizon, the company now had the foundation to justify that investment. They also had access to ongoing training, ensuring adoption would stick long-term.
The takeaway
This engagement shows what happens when you strip things back to the essentials: start with a solid CRM foundation, build processes that mirror reality, and empower teams with training that feels relevant—not theoretical.
The transformation wasn’t about installing a shiny new tool. It was about giving a multi-division sales team the clarity and confidence to manage their pipeline in one place and finally gain visibility into the numbers that drive growth.
For this industrial company, the shift from fragmented systems to a unified sales engine wasn’t just a technology upgrade—it was a turning point that positioned them to scale with confidence.
