How We Shortened This Startup's Sales Cycle Using an Approval Cycle

A while back we worked with Lumenis, an established company with more than 1,000 employees on their Salesforce and HubSpot integrations. So, when Geneo, one of their new business units, needed an approval cycle to implement into their operations, they knew just who to turn to!

We began working with Guy Reznik, the Director and Head of Commercial Strategy & Operations at the up-and-coming business unit, Geneo. With him, we immediately began working to provide aesthetic technology to beauty salons, (both chains and independently owned.)

They needed help establishing the best operations to minimize the lead time and close more deals - that’s where we came in.

Company Profile:

• Aesthetic solutions provider

• Business to Business

• Based in Tel Aviv, Israel

• Potential customers: Businesses in the US providing personal care services

Extended Lead Time = Unhappy Customers

Geneo sells aesthetic equipment to boutiques and salons internationally. Their main market is in the US where they are rapidly growing both in sales and team size. While they operate under Lumenis, their parent company, they act like a start-up getting ready to scale. That is why they needed us.

Their problem?

For starters, they did not know how to implement their strategy with their CRM. Guy, the director, previously worked with Salesforce. However, that system has a steep learning curve and requires a developer to implement new processes, so it just wasn’t working for them. Guy didn't want developers or software architects, he wanted to be able to move quick with the help of smarter and easier processes. That's why he chose HubSpot, and he turned to us to implement it.

One of the inefficiencies in their company occurred when negotiating sales. During this process, the sales team would offer their potential buyer a quote based on multiple parameters: Is this a recurring customer? Does this lead have the potential to grow? Is this a one-time purchase for a small boutique? Etc. Based on the quality of the sale, the team manager either approves or rejects quotes that are too discounted. The process of waiting for the manager’s approval would often take days. This meant halting the negotiations and losing hot leads in the process. They wanted to make this process more efficient and as automated as possible.

“We want to focus on improving the customer journey and not just tracking excel sheets,” Guy told us, “for a smooth process with end-to-end visibility.”

With the end goal in mind, we got straight to work!

Workflows and Automations - What We Love Most!

Guy had already identified the issue so, immediately upon speaking to him, we knew what work had to be done.

Their problem:

The company used HubSpot’s Professional package as their CRM because it provided all of the functions they needed. But, it did not have an approval cycle tool. That function is limited to the Sales Enterprise package, but it would have been incredibly helpful to Guy and his team. This function would easily allow employees to take action and review each others work before either approving or rejecting it. We knew we had to develop a way to implement the approval cycle in the version that they were using. Regardless, we realized that the approval cycle tool in the Enterprise version would not provide the full solution needed. “Not to worry,” we assured.

Our solution:

We needed to build a workaround using automation in order to create an approval cycle that would streamline the process of the manager approving sales quotes.

In addition to this, we had another job: To turn their sales strategy vision into reality and set up their CRM to enable efficient sales processes.

Minimized Lead Time and Maximized Sales

We worked for two intensive months... what did we accomplish?

• Geneo has a fully operational CRM set with all of the functions and fields they need.

• There is no more waiting around for the sales team to finally get the manager’s approval - now, it is all automated. All they have to do is put their quote into the system. If a salesperson puts in a quote at too much of a discount, Hubspot sends a notification for the manager's approval to continue down the pipeline. If not, the sale gets backtracked and the salesperson can try again with a higher quote.

• The company is fully onboarded and ready to begin implementing this system into its operations.

Can you imagine how many more deals they can close now that they minimized the lead time?

What's halting your sales processes?

A great sales pitch is only half the work. Even the most talented salesperson can’t keep a lead hot forever. That’s where we came in to help - by implementing operations catered toward the company’s needs helping them make the sale.

Sounds like something your company can use? Book a free evaluation here to see how we can help!