Solution
Sales automation for SMEs: from new lead to signed deal
Sales automation connects the steps between a new lead and a closed deal: qualification, assignment, quotes, follow-ups, order confirmation and the handover to invoicing. Sensaria sets this up in the CRM you already use, or builds the parts it cannot handle, so records stay current and nobody types the same customer twice.
The problem
Our salespeople spend more time updating the CRM, building quotes in Word and chasing reminders than talking to customers. Follow-ups depend on who remembers. When we win a deal, someone types the customer and the order into the accounting system again.
How it connects
- 01 New lead From website, chat, event or import
- 02 Qualification Fit, need, budget, timing
- 03 Quote Generated from CRM and price list
- 04 Follow-up Sequence and tasks until a decision
- 05 Won deal Order confirmation, contract
- 06 Invoicing & onboarding Handover to ERP or accounting
Building blocks
Building blocks
- 01
CRM pipeline design
Stages with clear entry and exit criteria, required fields per stage and a fixed list of loss reasons, so the pipeline report shows what is actually happening.
- 02
Assignment and task rules
Leads assigned by territory, language or product line. Tasks created when a deal enters a stage, and an alert when a deal sits in one stage longer than agreed.
- 03
Quote generation
Quotes built from CRM data and your price list: products, discounts, delivery terms, the correct VAT rate, your layout as PDF, with every version kept on the deal.
- 04
Follow-up sequences
Emails sent from the salesperson's own address after a quote or meeting, stopped automatically when the prospect replies, plus reminders for calls that are due.
- 05
Accounting and ERP handover
A won deal creates the customer and the order or invoice in bexio, Abacus, Xero or your ERP through their APIs, with the CRM keeping a link to the document.
- 06
Custom CRM modules
Where a standard CRM forces workarounds (configurable products, project-based sales, service contracts), we build the missing module or a CRM designed around your process.
- 07
Sales reporting
Pipeline value by stage, conversion between stages, time in stage and loss reasons, calculated from the same data the team works with every day.
Automate the hand-offs first, not the conversations. In most SME sales teams the time is lost between steps: from form to CRM, from CRM to quote, from “won” to invoice, and in follow-ups nobody scheduled. Fixing those steps usually means configuring the CRM you already have and connecting it to accounting, not buying a new platform. Build custom parts only for the logic your CRM cannot hold, such as complex pricing or contract sales.
Configure, connect or build?
Use the CRM’s built-in workflows for assignment, tasks and email templates. Connect the CRM to your other systems when data has to leave it: quotes, accounting, ERP, calendars. Build a custom module or CRM only when your process needs data structures a standard CRM cannot represent. Most projects combine the first two and build little or nothing.
| Built-in CRM workflows | CRM plus integrations | Custom CRM or module | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Covers | Assignment, tasks, templates, stage changes | Quotes, accounting, ERP, calendars | Pricing logic, contract or project sales, unusual data |
| Effort | Configuration | Configuration plus API work | Software project |
| Limits | Only data that lives in the CRM | Each API’s limits; needs monitoring | Maintenance is yours |
| Choose it when | Your process fits the CRM’s model | Data must reach other systems | Standard CRMs force constant workarounds |
How is the system put together?
The CRM is the record of every deal. Lead capture writes into it (see lead generation). Stage changes trigger the next step: a task for a discovery call, a quote generated from the price list, a follow-up email from the salesperson’s address. The sequence checks the deal before each step. If the prospect replied, booked a meeting or the deal was lost, the sequence stops.
A won deal calls the accounting API, creates customer and order, and stores the reference on the deal. Failed calls are retried and reported, never dropped.
We apply the same “check the live state before every automated step” rule in our own systems. In the affiliate reactivation system we built for a SaaS client, each message in a four-step sequence is preceded by a fresh check against the source platform, and replies are classified and turned into tasks for a manager.
Example: an office-furniture supplier in Bern
Illustrative scenario, not a client project.
A 12-person company sells office furniture to companies and schools. Quotes are built in Word from an Excel price list, follow-ups depend on memory, and won orders are typed into bexio by the office manager.
After the project, a qualified deal in the CRM gets a quote in one click: products from the price list, the customer’s negotiated discount, delivery terms and VAT, rendered as PDF in German or French. The quote goes out from the salesperson’s address. If there is no reply after five working days, the salesperson gets a task to call. When the customer confirms, the deal moves to “won”, the customer and order are created in bexio, and the delivery team gets the planned date. The office manager checks the order instead of typing it.
What should you check on consent, data protection and VAT?
Individual follow-up on a quote the prospect requested is part of an ongoing business conversation. Automated promotional sequences to people who never asked are mass advertising under the Swiss Unfair Competition Act (UCA Art. 3 para. 1 let. o) and comparable EU rules, and need prior consent, a correct sender and a free opt-out. Keep the two apart in the CRM.
Three more points come up in almost every project:
- Data protection. The revised FADP, in force since 1 September 2023, requires privacy by design and by default (Art. 7), as the GDPR (Art. 25) does in the EU. In a CRM that means access by role, deletion rules for stale leads, and knowing in which country the CRM stores data.
- VAT. Quotes should show the right rate. In Switzerland the standard rate is 8.1% since 1 January 2024 and reduced rates apply to some goods; EU countries set their own rates. So the price list, not the salesperson, should carry the rate.
- Languages. Templates, quotes and sequences often need versions in several languages, such as German, French and Italian. The language belongs on the contact record, not in the salesperson’s head.
How does a project run?
- Discovery. We walk through five to ten recent deals with your team and mark every manual step and wait.
- Architecture. Pipeline stages, fields, automation rules, quote template, and the data mapping to accounting or ERP.
- Build. CRM configuration, quote generation, sequences and integrations in a test environment, run against real past deals.
- Launch. New deals go through the new process; open deals are migrated with the team.
- Iterate. After a month we review stage conversion and time in stage and adjust rules that slow people down.
You receive a fixed-price or phased proposal after discovery. For the build-or-buy question in more depth, read custom vs off-the-shelf software.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is sales automation?
Sales automation means letting software handle the repetitive steps of selling: creating and assigning leads, reminding people of follow-ups, generating quotes, sending standard emails and passing won deals to invoicing. The conversations, negotiation and judgment stay with your salespeople. Done well, it removes data entry and forgotten follow-ups, not the human part of the sale.
Which parts of the sales process should we automate first?
Start with the hand-offs where data is copied by hand or work waits for someone to remember: lead to CRM, CRM to quote, won deal to accounting. These steps happen on every deal, so fixing them saves time every week. Automated email sequences come next. Scoring models and forecasting only make sense once the pipeline data is clean.
Can you automate sales in the CRM we already use?
In most cases, yes. Current CRMs such as HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce or Zoho have workflow features and APIs, so we configure what the CRM does natively and connect it to your other systems. We recommend a different or custom CRM only when your process cannot be represented without constant workarounds, or when the existing CRM has no usable API.
Can a won deal create an invoice in our accounting system automatically?
Yes, provided the access is set up. Accounting systems such as bexio, Abacus or Xero publish APIs, so a won deal can create the customer, the order and the invoice there, and store the document reference back on the CRM deal. The accounting system then issues the invoice as it does today, with a QR-bill in Switzerland. We agree on field mapping and error handling during architecture.
When is a custom CRM better than an off-the-shelf CRM?
When your sales process depends on data the standard tools model badly: configurable products, project or tender sales, long service contracts, or pricing that lives in your ERP. It also pays off when per-seat licenses for many occasional users add up. For a standard B2B pipeline, an off-the-shelf CRM with good integrations is usually cheaper to run.
What drives the cost of a sales automation project?
The number of systems to connect, the quality of their APIs, how complex your quote and pricing logic is, data migration from old tools, the number of languages for templates, and how much of the work is configuration versus custom code. We give a fixed-price or phased proposal after a short discovery, not a figure before we have seen your process.
Discuss your project
From new lead to signed deal: CRM pipeline, quotes, follow-ups and the handover to invoicing connected, so salespeople sell instead of retyping data and chasing reminders.