20 hours back on every sale. The human touch kept.
A personal insurance firm whose sales process ran on admin. Now its documents fill themselves, and its emails still sound like people.
- Client
- Project lead
Dominic CarlinProject Manager
- Industry
- Personal insurance advice
- Platform
- HubSpot Sales and Service
- Connected
- PandaDoc
- Award
- 2020 Impact Awards
01 The briefTwo projects from the start: rebuild and automate the sales pipeline in HubSpot without losing the human voice, and produce documents that fill themselves with data already in the CRM.
Personal advice, buried in admin.
True Pride gives personalised advice on personal insurance, and gives it in a very human, personable way. It found Neighbourhood through HubSpot's partner directory and asked whether its sales process could be automated.
True Pride knew exactly what was holding it back: a lot of admin time inside every sale. Emails to clients went out by hand when they were needed, and the documents a sale depends on took days of effort to fill in manually.
What it needed was a simpler process, with automation doing the slow, repetitive jobs so the team's hours went into talking to clients.
It stayed that way because the personal touch was the product. Automating a sales process risks making it sound robotic, and for a firm whose advice is personal, that risk was the reason to keep doing things by hand. So tone of voice came first in everything we automated.
What True Pride asked for
- A pipeline that handles the basics. Rebuilt and automated in HubSpot.
- Documents filled from the CRM. Using data already in HubSpot.
- Time saved from start to finish.
- Keep it human. Without losing the personal voice.
Every stage, reviewed then rebuilt.
We went through each stage True Pride had defined, what it really meant and what had to be true to move a deal on, then built the pipeline in HubSpot with a workflow at each stage for data, emails and staff tasks.
A lead comes in
From Facebook chat, a website submission, Zapier or anywhere else, a new deal opens with a name, an email and a phone number, and a welcome email goes out written for how that person arrived.
The first conversation
With enough known about the person, a protection plan email follows; without it, a form to complete. Then an invitation to a 15 minute call, a second request after three days, and a gentle check whether now is a bad time.
Discovery and research
A discovery meeting with its reminder, then research collection, with tasks set for each person who gathers information and prepares the vision document.
The advice
A vision meeting, follow-up notes, then paraplanning and a statement of advice, the written recommendation, with an email when it is ready.
Application to won
The application call, the application submitted to the insurer, and the deal lodged, then marked won or lost.
Written to sound like True Pride. Every automated email in the pipeline was drafted so it never came across as impersonal or automated.
| The job | Before | In HubSpot |
|---|---|---|
| Emails to clients | Sent by hand, as needed | Sent by a workflow at each stage |
| The sale's documents | Days of effort filling them in | Generated in PandaDoc from CRM data |
| Staff tasks | Part of the admin in every sale | Set by a workflow at each stage |
| The team's hours | Taken up by admin | Spent talking to clients |
The time comes back from every sale, which is where the extra capacity for new clients comes from.
One document, over 400 fields, all filled from the CRM.
Admin eating the time meant for your clients?
Days of paperwork, filled in automatically.
PandaDoc is document software with a HubSpot integration. We used it so True Pride's documents fill themselves with data from the CRM, in True Pride's own branding.
A form
Where the client's information enters the CRM.
- Built to put data straight into HubSpot
- Typed once
The CRM
One set of fields every document draws on.
- The data fields behind each token
- The same record the pipeline runs on
PandaDoc
Several connected documents, generated automatically.
- 4+ fully linked documents
- One with over 400 personalisation tokens
- True Pride's branding and visual style kept
Then, the reviews. With the pipeline running and the documents connected, we set up post-purchase nurturing for closed deals. It asks clients for feedback, prompts the ones who respond well to leave a review on social media or a testimonial for the site, and gives True Pride the chance to respond quickly and honestly to anyone whose experience was less than perfect. An NPS survey was developed and connected as part of the same work.
From the first message to won or lost.
The pipeline board published with the case study, at its two ends.
Four goals. Here is what came of them.
What True Pride asked for before the project started, and where it stood once it was live.
Goal 01
A pipeline that handles the basics
We built stage-based workflows for data management, communications and staff tasks.
20+
hours saved on every sale. Client emails and staff tasks now go out from a workflow at each stage, so the team's hours go into talking to clients.
Goal 02
Documents filled from the CRM
We built a form that puts client data into the CRM, and connected PandaDoc documents that pull from it.
4+
fully linked documents, filled from the CRM automatically. Paperwork that took days of effort is generated from data typed in once, and one document fills over 400 fields on its own.
Goal 03
Time saved from start to finish
We reviewed the pipeline, made the stages clearer, and set up automation to fill the gaps between them.
35%
more capacity to take on new clients. The time that comes back from every sale is where that extra room comes from.
Goal 04
Keep it human
We wrote every automated email in True Pride's voice, and set up post-purchase follow-up that asks for feedback.
Every email
in the pipeline written to sound like True Pride. Every closed deal now asks for feedback: clients who respond well are prompted to leave a review, and anyone with a less than perfect experience gets a quick, honest reply.
Put together, True Pride has room for more clients, and each new one moves through the same workflows. The hours that went into emails sent by hand and documents filled in manually now go into talking to clients.
The personal touch was the reason True Pride had kept doing things by hand, and it is still there in every automated email.
The first project led to the next. With the pipeline done, the next project planned with True Pride was a new website, built to bring in leads.
“From the moment I messaged Trav as he was out of the office at a mates wedding yet still helped me on the spot, my experience with the NBH team has been unreal. I have been tinkering around in this space personally like a mad scientist for the past few years and having a team of people (especially Dom) that not only don't make me feel like a weirdo with all the ideas but more importantly digest these crazy ideas and implement them into my business has been a game-changer. We are only at the start of the journey, and whilst initially daunting, the only thing I regret is not having found these guys sooner. Thanks legends!”
Craig Bigelow
True Pride
Who ran it
Dominic CarlinProject Manager
Led the sales pipeline rebuild, the automated emails and the PandaDoc documents that fill from the CRM.
Multi HubSpot Impact Award winner
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