A building materials merchant gained 15 conversion points in 3 months by centralising quote requests scattered across email, phone and mobile entry. The unified system with automatic follow-ups and dashboard revealed invisible leaks that were costing tens of thousands of euros every year.
Why do quote requests get lost in a merchant's business?
In a building materials merchant, requests come from everywhere: email from the sales rep, call on the landline whilst you're in a meeting, WhatsApp from the site manager who needs an urgent price. Each channel lives its own life in its corner.
The problem? What's lost leaves no trace. Your instinct only sees what's in front of you, not the gaps. This merchant SME had been operating like this for years. The owner managed his quotes "by feel", with Post-it notes, scattered emails and his memory.
Until the day he discovered his first dashboard. The call I received that morning still resonates: "But hang on, I've been losing this for years?" He'd just realised he'd been losing quote requests for years without even seeing it.
How do you effectively centralise all request channels?
The solution wasn't to change everything at once, but to create a single funnel. All channels - email, phone, mobile entry on site - now feed into the same system.
Concretely: the sales rep receives an email with a price request for 50 m³ of concrete? He forwards it to a dedicated address, the system integrates it automatically. A customer calls? The secretary enters it directly into the interface. The team leader is on site and needs an express quote? He uses the mobile app.
Each request becomes a record with all the info: contact, products, quantities, deadlines, exchange history. No more "I'd noted that somewhere" and "I think we'd already had that discussion".
What does a dashboard reveal about lost quotes?
The figures hurt when you see them in black and white. This SME was discovering it was losing 30% of its requests along the way. Not because it was less competitive, but because it wasn't following up at the right time.
The dashboard revealed invisible patterns: quotes sent on Friday evening that fell into oblivion, follow-ups that never arrived because "we thought we'd replied", hot prospects who went cold for lack of follow-up.
The tool also showed hidden goldmines: certain customers who requested small quotes but who, when properly supported, placed large orders. Others who seemed difficult but who paid cash and without negotiating.
How do you automate follow-ups without losing the human touch?
Automatic follow-ups are like an assistant who never forgets anything. But be careful not to create a soulless robot that bombards your prospects.
The system we put in place adapts to the profile: gentle follow-up for good historical customers ("Hello Michel, I hope all is well. Have you had time to look at our proposal?"), more direct for new prospects ("Is your project moving forward? Our quote remains valid until Friday").
The magic is that the sales rep keeps control. He sees the follow-ups that are going out, can modify or cancel them if he's spoken to the customer on the phone. Automation frees up time for the human, it doesn't replace it.
What concrete results after 3 months of centralisation?
The figures speak for themselves: +15 conversion points. Concretely, this SME went from 35% to 50% of quotes signed. On a turnover of €2 million, that represents €300,000 of additional revenue.
But beyond the figures, it's the peace of mind regained. The owner no longer has that knot in his stomach on Sunday evening wondering what he's forgotten. He knows nothing slips through the net.
The sales reps also benefit: they spend less time looking for information and more time selling. The assistant no longer has to juggle between 15 Excel files to know where such and such quote is at.
Why bespoke rather than a standard CRM?
I could have sold them a CRM at €150 per month and left with my commission. But it wouldn't have worked. Generic CRMs are like trying to hammer in a nail with an adjustable spanner: it might work, but it's not designed for it.
A building materials merchant has nothing in common with a communications agency or a law firm. Units of measurement, delivery times, technical specifications, working habits... everything is different.
The bespoke tool adapts to their trade, not the other way round. The sales rep enters "50 m³ concrete C25/30" and the system understands. He doesn't have to learn a new language or work around limitations.
That's the difference between a tool that really helps and a Frankenstein at €800 a month that complicates more than it simplifies. I don't do SaaS assembly, I build solutions that fit the reality on the ground.