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Customer project

Sales App for Conversation-Oriented CRM Capture
and Automated Sales Follow-Up Processes

The Sales App brings CRM directly into the customer conversation and turns discussion outcomes into immediately actionable sales processes.
Field sales, CRM, Marketing Automation, back office and the quoting process are more tightly connected – for better data quality, less rework and faster follow-up actions.

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Business Activity

The client is an internationally active, mid-sized mechanical engineering company operating in the packaging sector. The company develops and markets complex machinery and plant solutions for industrial customers. Its sales organisation is advisory-intensive, internationally structured, and strongly shaped by personal customer conversations, project initiation, technical requirements gathering and downstream quoting processes.

"With the Sales App, the customer conversation has become a directly actionable sales process. Our field sales teams can capture outcomes on the spot, initiate follow-up tasks and quoting processes more quickly, and at the same time significantly improve data quality in the CRM. What we value most is that the App supports the sales conversation itself, rather than creating additional rework."

Head of Sales

The Project in Detail

Application

For the mechanical engineering company, a Sales App was deployed that allows field sales conversations to be captured in a structured way directly at the customer site and immediately converted into actionable CRM and follow-up processes. The App acts as a conversation-oriented frontend to the existing CRM: sales staff capture relevant customer, contact, visit and project information during the appointment in a conversational and visually guided manner.

The captured information automatically generates CRM objects and downstream processes. These include in particular follow-up tasks, new or updated contacts, sales opportunities, email sequences in the name of the sales representative, and quoting or enquiry processes. This turns the customer conversation not merely into a note, but into a directly actionable sales process.

At its core, the solution simultaneously serves two goals: it increases efficiency in field sales by reducing rework and manual data transfer, and it improves effectiveness in sales overall, because needs, interests and next steps become visible in the CRM and follow-up communication more quickly, more completely and in a more structured form.

Starting point

Before the Sales App was introduced, a CRM was already in place as the central system, but was only used to a limited extent during personal customer conversations. The actual conversation typically took place outside the CRM: in notes, emails, Excel spreadsheets, visit reports or in the individual sales representative's memory. Relevant information was only transferred to the CRM after the appointment, often with a considerable time lag.

This created the typical media breaks found in international B2B sales. Conversation outcomes were sometimes lost, follow-up tasks were created with delays, email follow-ups had to be triggered manually, and quoting processes did not always start immediately after the customer visit. For central sales management, visit outcomes, opportunity status and customer interests were therefore only visible late or incompletely.

Particularly challenging was the combination of products requiring detailed explanation, long sales cycles and an international field sales team. During customer appointments, technical requirements, interests, project status, next steps and responsibilities all needed to be captured accurately. At the same time, the solution had to remain simple enough to be accepted during conversations and not perceived as an additional administrative burden.

The central challenge was therefore to bring the CRM closer to the real customer conversation: not as a downstream documentation system, but as a mobile, dialogue-oriented working environment for the field sales team.

Solution

The Sales App introduced a mobile, conversation-oriented complement to the existing CRM. During customer appointments, the App presents only the information, fields and actions that are relevant to the specific conversation. This reduces the complexity of the CRM without abandoning the underlying data logic.

Planned field sales visits can be made available in the App from the CRM. Master data and contacts are pre-populated and can be reviewed during the conversation, updated or supplemented as needed. New contacts, changed contact details or additional conversation partners can be captured directly and subsequently synchronised back into the CRM structure.

A central element is the dynamic conversation structure. Depending on the customer situation, product interest or visit objective, requirements, interest profiles, sales opportunities and follow-up activities can be recorded. On this basis, the App immediately creates the relevant follow-up objects in the CRM – such as tasks for the sales team, internal clarifications, quotation requests or new opportunities.

In addition, automated communication processes can be triggered. After the customer visit, for example, email sequences can be launched in the name of the sales representative, product information can be sent, or follow-up communication can be controlled based on interests and conversation outcomes. This makes the Sales App a bridge between personal conversation, CRM, Marketing Automation and the quoting process.

The solution also addresses mobile requirements in field sales: it can be used on a tablet, smartphone or in a browser, offers offline capability depending on the setup, and provides relevant sales materials, presentations, pricing or product information in a context-sensitive way. The App thus becomes not only a data capture tool, but an active conversation and sales instrument.

Benefits

With the Sales App, the mechanical engineering company was able to significantly close the gap between the personal customer conversation and the CRM-driven sales process. Conversation outcomes are captured where they arise: directly at the customer site. This reduces the risk of information loss, while data quality, timeliness and commitment to next steps all improve.

For field sales, the working mode shifts from retrospective administration to direct conversation and process support. Sales representatives no longer need to reconstruct all the details after the appointment; instead, they are guided through relevant input fields, customer data and follow-up actions during the conversation itself. This increases adoption, because the App is perceived as a support tool within the customer dialogue.

For sales management, back office and marketing, a better foundation for control and automation is created at the same time. Opportunities, tasks, interests and quoting impulses become visible more quickly and can be systematically processed further. This improves not only the efficiency of individual sales visits, but also the quality of pipeline and follow-up processes.

The specific benefits for the anonymised mechanical engineering company:

  • Significantly fewer media breaks between customer conversation, CRM, follow-up and quoting process
  • Higher CRM adoption through a conversation-oriented, mobile working environment
  • Better data quality through direct capture of conversation outcomes, interests and next steps
  • Faster creation of follow-up tasks, sales opportunities and quoting impulses
  • Automated email communication in the name of the sales representative
  • Less rework after customer visits and reduced manual documentation effort
  • Better transparency for sales management, back office and central marketing and sales processes
  • More professional presence during customer visits through current, mobile and multimedia sales support
  • Better international scalability through standardised conversation and process logic
Business Impact

The economic leverage of the Sales App lies primarily in the reduction of manual follow-up work, the faster triggering of downstream processes, and the higher completeness of CRM data. In classic field sales processes, a significant effort arises from the need to document visit outcomes retrospectively, create tasks, update contacts, handle internal queries and compose follow-up emails manually. The Sales App shifts this work into the appointment itself and automates the key downstream processes.

0-0%Less manual follow-up effort per customer visit
0-0%Faster transfer of visit outcomes into CRM objects and follow-up tasks
0-0%Fewer queries and correction loops thanks to more complete initial data capture
0-0%Faster initiation of quoting or enquiry processes
Further benefits
Significantly higher CRM currency, because conversation data is no longer entered days later
Higher productivity in field sales, because administrative tasks are reduced and more standardised
Better exploitation of follow-up potential through automated, interest-based email sequences
Better manageability of international sales activities through uniform visit and opportunity logic

Based on typical field sales and CRM processes, the following improvements can be derived for this anonymised case:

Depending on visit frequency and previous documentation effort, the operational relief per sales representative can amount to several hours per month. The leverage is particularly strong in organisations with an international field sales team, multiple product areas, long sales cycles and a high number of follow-up activities per customer visit. There, the benefit scales not only through time saved, but also through faster responsiveness, better pipeline quality and greater commitment in follow-up.

In addition, there is a qualitative ROI: customer visits are prepared and followed up more professionally, customer enquiries are captured more quickly, internal processes start earlier, and the central organisation gains a significantly more current view of market interests, quoting opportunities and open next steps.

Strategic Value

The strategic value lies in the fact that the mechanical engineering company is not merely digitalising its sales organisation, but making the customer dialogue itself more process-capable. The Sales App combines the strength of the personal field sales conversation with the commitment of structured CRM processes. As a result, the CRM is no longer perceived primarily as a downstream reporting system, but as an active component of customer interaction.

For an internationally active mechanical engineering company in particular, this is an important step: local sales teams can continue to act in a customer-centric and flexible manner, while working within a shared logic for conversation capture, tasks, opportunities, email follow-ups and quoting. This creates a better balance between local sales proximity and centrally manageable data and process quality.

The Sales App thus becomes the connecting element between field sales, CRM, Marketing Automation, back office and the quoting process. It lays the foundation for further development stages – such as more standardised requirements gathering, automated quote preparation, AI-assisted conversation summaries, speech-to-structure approaches or an even closer integration of customer interests and personalised follow-up communication.

Business Impact

The economic leverage of the Sales App lies primarily in the reduction of manual follow-up work, the faster triggering of downstream processes, and the higher completeness of CRM data. In classic field sales processes, a significant effort arises from the need to document visit outcomes retrospectively, create tasks, update contacts, handle internal queries and compose follow-up emails manually. The Sales App shifts this work into the appointment itself and automates the key downstream processes.

0-0%Less manual follow-up effort per customer visit
0-0%Faster transfer of visit outcomes into CRM objects and follow-up tasks
0-0%Fewer queries and correction loops thanks to more complete initial data capture
0-0%Faster initiation of quoting or enquiry processes
Further benefits
Significantly higher CRM currency, because conversation data is no longer entered days later
Higher productivity in field sales, because administrative tasks are reduced and more standardised
Better exploitation of follow-up potential through automated, interest-based email sequences
Better manageability of international sales activities through uniform visit and opportunity logic

Based on typical field sales and CRM processes, the following improvements can be derived for this anonymised case:

Depending on visit frequency and previous documentation effort, the operational relief per sales representative can amount to several hours per month. The leverage is particularly strong in organisations with an international field sales team, multiple product areas, long sales cycles and a high number of follow-up activities per customer visit. There, the benefit scales not only through time saved, but also through faster responsiveness, better pipeline quality and greater commitment in follow-up.

In addition, there is a qualitative ROI: customer visits are prepared and followed up more professionally, customer enquiries are captured more quickly, internal processes start earlier, and the central organisation gains a significantly more current view of market interests, quoting opportunities and open next steps.

Strategic Value

The strategic value lies in the fact that the mechanical engineering company is not merely digitalising its sales organisation, but making the customer dialogue itself more process-capable. The Sales App combines the strength of the personal field sales conversation with the commitment of structured CRM processes. As a result, the CRM is no longer perceived primarily as a downstream reporting system, but as an active component of customer interaction.

For an internationally active mechanical engineering company in particular, this is an important step: local sales teams can continue to act in a customer-centric and flexible manner, while working within a shared logic for conversation capture, tasks, opportunities, email follow-ups and quoting. This creates a better balance between local sales proximity and centrally manageable data and process quality.

The Sales App thus becomes the connecting element between field sales, CRM, Marketing Automation, back office and the quoting process. It lays the foundation for further development stages – such as more standardised requirements gathering, automated quote preparation, AI-assisted conversation summaries, speech-to-structure approaches or an even closer integration of customer interests and personalised follow-up communication.