How a financial transaction company fixed their unsuccessful Pipedrive implementation

With the client we have rebuilt their Pipedrive processes and made sure the data in the system is accurate and well-structured.

Luke, SoftwareSupp Freelancer

Time of the project: 3 months

Scope:

• CRM audit
• CRM guidelines setup
• Sales process building
• Data structure building
• CRM configuration
• CRM integration with internal system
• Email integration
• Reporting setup
• Power BI integration

Effect: Complete CRM refinement and adjusting the CRM to the organization's needs, +500h saved on CRM setup, sales effects to be determined

CRM project at a local financial transactions leader

Let’s be honest, implementing a CRM system by yourself can be a challenging task. Especially for bigger companies where there are many people involved in the sales process.

Without an experienced expert, companies may struggle to create an optimal CRM setup that would help them with their daily work.

The customer provides solutions designed to handle electronic transactions and support online sales. With over 20 years of experience, they’ve been helping their private and corporate clients with processing online payments.

As a company of significant size, the customer's team knew they needed a professional CRM solution to manage their customer details, sales processes, and reporting. They did their research and decided to go with Pipedrive.

The customer started implementing the system on their own. Unfortunately, no one at the company had the experience needed with setting up the system or creating automation workflows.

Having worked with the system for a while, they realized that they’re not using Pipedrive effectively. It turned out that three different sales departments were using the tool in a different way. The funnels, custom fields, and deals were not tracked properly. Activities weren’t recorded in the system. To sum up, they used the system in a non-structured way and it resulted in a lot of confusion. They wasted time and the tool didn’t really do the job it was supposed to do.

To no surprise, the reporting wasn’t accurate either. The customer data wasn’t as easy to find as it should. Implementing the CRM system without setting up proper funnels creates a lot of additional work for the team. Not having usage rules in place

Fortunately, with the help of a professional CRM consultant, everything can be fixed and the team can start using the tool in a way that actually helps them with online sales.

Together with the customer, we reviewed their workflows and created a Pipedrive setup that mirrors their real-life sales funnels. We also created how-to guides for the team, so that they could work with the software independently.

The greenfield approach

The customer's Pipedrive setup wasn’t helping them at all. We needed to start from scratch and create a new setup that takes into account the company’s needs, processes, workflows, and other software they use.

We needed to take some steps back and start from the beginning. The first step was to define processes that should be mirrored in Pipedrive.

We helped the customer discover how Pipedrive can contribute to the company’s sales success. We started with a discovery call, followed up with a series of steps that made it possible for the company to start using Pipedrive in the most efficient way.

What we do best at SoftwareSupp is connecting clients with the right experts for their projects. We invited two Pipedrive consultants to take part in this project. Sebastian was responsible for the business part of the implementation and Patryk was responsible for the technical aspects.

High-level planning

During the first meeting, we wanted to learn more about the general needs of the company, its structure, and its priorities. Then, we came up with a plan on how to approach the project for the customer.

We found out which aspects of using Pipedrive are the most important for the company. We learned the challenges that the teams face on a daily basis and the expected outcome of the project.

During this kickoff meeting, we established what we’ll be working on to make the most impact on the organization.

Meetings with Sales Managers

The next step was to meet with sales leads from three different departments that already used Pipedrive. We gathered all their feedback about the system. We were particularly interested in what doesn’t work at the moment.

They pointed out what their daily workflows look like. We figured out together how Pipedrive can contribute to growing their productivity. The confusion and unstructured data entries were the main issues within the organization. The reporting features weren’t possible to use due to the differences in funnels that each team created.

We agreed on the structure of data. We made sure that the system mirrored the actual sales process. What they needed was a unified process to manage all the incoming leads in a systematic way.

We talked about the integration needed to get all the information into Pipedrive. The team wanted to have a clear overview of all activities like calls or emails with the client.

One of the most important goals of the project was to create a clear structure so that all data can be available in one secure place.

We agreed on the steps that can be automated and the ones that should be done manually. Estimating the lead score is one of the processes that should be done by the team members, as it requires their input. However, we agreed on the numeric scoring system.

We shared best practices with the team and guided them through the process of unifying and structuring their customer data in Pipedrive.

Creating the how-to guides

The last step was to create the ready-to-use processes that would make Pipedrive implementation more effective. Based on the input from the customer's team and our Pipedrive expertise, we created guides that make using Pipedrive easier.

Pipedrive implementation guide

The first document that we created for the company was the Pipedrive implementation guide. It was a manual that shows how to use the system. This document was a comprehensive guide that summarized all processes implemented within the company.

It’s a reference guide that includes all the necessary information. With this guide, everyone at the customer's team is equipped to start working with the system.

The guide describes many different aspects of working with Pipedrive. The most important categories were:

1. How to use Pipedrive

This part explained the basic functionalities: how to invite teammates, the onboarding process, how to connect the email account with Pipedrive, account management, and sales analytics.

The document includes screenshots and detailed step-by-step instructions that anyone at the company can refer to in case they need support in their daily work.

2. Data structure

In Pipedrive, it’s important to enter data in a unified and systematic way to allow advanced reporting to work.

The data structure was defined for deals, organizations, and contacts. It’s a reference point for anyone at the organization to make the data in Pipedrive as accurate and relevant as possible.

3. Sales process

This part describes the entire sales process and how it is mirrored in Pipedrive. What is important, we have the lead scoring system included which speeds up the entire process of finding qualified leads. We defined one clear sales funnel for the entire organization.

In Pipedrive, it’s recommended to create the sales funnel based on the “yes-tree”. Every action has a specific outcome that can be summarized as an answer to a yes-no question.

For the customer, the funnel consisted of 7 stages:

1. New lead
2. Qualified lead
3. Initial offer
4. Gathering additional info
5. Additional info gathered
6. Contract sent
7. Implementation started

Every organization needs to define its own funnel that mirrors the actual sales cycle. Agreeing on one specific funnel for the entire organization lets you prepare more detailed reports and make more informed decisions.

This part of the guide also included information about integration with external tools. The company uses Systel to manage their calls, Mautic, and Woodpecker for marketing automation.

Pipedrive guidelines

This document summarizes all the most important rules that the Pipedrive users need to follow to use the system to the fullest and make sure that the reporting is clear.

All the most important rules that everyone should remember are included in this document. It’s a short guide that can be a quick reminder for all Pipedrive users.

This guide includes the general rules for the organizations. It makes the process easy to follow. Some of the best practices are:

1. All leads and contacts need to be saved in the CRM system.
2. All activities such as calls, emails, or meetings should be saved in the CRM.
3. All leads must have the next activities planned.
4. The lead source field needs to be always filled-in.
5. Make sure to estimate the lead score.
6. Emails need to be sent from Pipedrive. Alternatively, you can synchronize your mailbox with Pipedrive.

Pipedrive user guidelines

This document lists out all the rules that the customer's employee agrees to follow. It’s used in the onboarding process and as a point of reference for every person within the organization.

The customer's team can easily refer to the ten most important rules that everyone within the organization should follow.

Outlining next steps

With the help of the experienced experts, the customer rebuilt their Pipedrive processes and made sure the data in the system is accurate and well-structured. Thanks to that, they can focus on their sales, not on trying to figure out how the system works. They have all the usage rules are written down and available for everyone at the company.

We identified the next steps for the organization to take if they’d like to improve their workflows further. They have a clear outline of how to approach the Pipedrive automation and integrations with other tools.

At SoftwareSupp, you can find freelancers to further automate or customize their internal processes. Outsourcing some tasks and connecting with experts saves your company time and resources that can be used in a more effective way.