The Problem
Manual CRM Processes Were Creating Chaos and Missed Opportunities
An Australia-based sustainability engineering firm was struggling to manage its sales pipeline and engineering project tracking. Core information lived across disparate tools—HubSpot for CRM, ClickUp for task management, and Excel for reporting. The result? Constant context-switching, missed follow-ups, and no reliable way to forecast work or ensure handoffs between sales and engineering.
The sales manager, operating across a high-volume client base, found it increasingly difficult to maintain accurate follow-ups. HubSpot reminders were manual and inconsistent. ClickUp lists ballooned with complex dependencies, and Excel dashboards lacked real-time insight. There were no metrics tracking team performance or visibility into which leads were going cold.
Worse, engineering tasks often kicked off with incomplete data. Sales and project teams lacked a unified workflow to confirm what was needed before work began, leading to delays, miscommunication, and frustration on both ends.
Q1
The Solution
SmartSuite Became the Unified Hub for Sales and Engineering
To overhaul the chaos, the firm centralized all lead and project tracking in SmartSuite. They first migrated CRM records into a structured lead management workflow with customizable statuses—New, Re-engaged, Dormant, Inactive—tied to automated outreach rules. A 45-day inactivity rule downgraded leads to Dormant; a 6-month trigger ensured even cold leads got re-engagement follow-ups.
The project team replaced their ClickUp workflows with dynamic SmartSuite task templates. These included custom checklists for engineering QA, triggered based on project type, ensuring standard operating procedures were followed before any design work began.
Dashboards were built for different personas: the sales manager saw deal flow, the engineering lead saw handoff readiness, and leadership got a high-level project forecast—no login required. Permissions ensured field reps only saw their own records, simplifying onboarding for new team members.
Q2
The Result
From Spreadsheets to Scalable Operations
The transformation delivered immediate operational clarity. The sales team no longer relied on memory or email reminders to manage outreach. Activities were tracked automatically, with status-based automations surfacing key follow-ups daily.
On the engineering side, pre-project QA was now checklist-driven and tracked in real-time. This eliminated wasted hours chasing missing specs and reduced rework by enforcing handoff criteria.
The sales manager gained confidence in his forecasts, with dashboards showing live counts of active, dormant, and closed leads by rep, by stage, and by expected revenue. Meanwhile, the CEO—previously skeptical of digital tools—was won over by a color-coded executive dashboard he could access via a single link, no login needed.
One stakeholder summed it up best:
"We finally have a single source of truth across teams, and I don’t need to chase anyone for updates."
— Sales Manager, Sustainability-Focused Engineering Firm in Australia
Q3
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