- Snug grows their list of leads by over 40% every month using Autopilot and Pipedrive
- Snug reduced their sales cycle from six weeks to under two in just one year of using Pipedrive and Autopilot
- In the same period, Snug halved the number of calls needed to close a deal
Snug’s vision is to become the future of housing.
Their slogan, ‘live where you love, invest where it matters,’ appeals to a growing share economy. In an era where ride-sharing and streaming services offer a price-friendly alternative to ownership, Snug aims to deliver the same convenience through a subscription-based, digital housing platform.
Based in Australia, Snug’s online renting platform has over 100,000 active users. Despite the number of users on the platform, Snug’s sales team is comprised of only two team members. One tackles inside leads that come from direct subscriptions, while the other tracks and targets cold web leads with the help of tools like Pipedrive and Autopilot.
Founder and CEO, Justin Butterworth helps his offshore and local team of ten achieve their mission to simplify the renting application process for everyone involved. The secret behind their productivity, according to Justin, is their ability to make the right moves at the right time.
The problem Snug faced
In the early stages of the business, Snug used spreadsheets to keep track of their customer and lead data. While this worked at first, it made it difficult for the sales team to access the information when they needed it for several reasons.
A lot of manual data entry, as well as importing and exporting files into other communication management systems, was involved. Plus, all the hours spent keeping everything up to date resulted in less time spent on actual selling.
Spreadsheets also offer a very limited overview of stats and figures. It was, as Justin put it, a ‘glorified list’ of sales and prospects that was difficult to digest at a glance. This was particularly problematic for Snug, whose target customers have busy schedules and different decision-making structures. Finding out who to get in touch with and when was next to impossible.
The solution they found
Delivering highly personalized and well-timed communications soon became a top priority for Snug’s sales team. The first tool they came across to help was Autopilot, the marketing automation (MA) tool that put Snug’s prospecting game into second gear.
Autopilot is an MA tool that helps sales and marketing teams capture and nurture new leads with personalized messages. Considering the busy nature of the real estate business, Snug needed to capture their prospects’ attention and interest and they needed to do it at the right time.
One of the best ways Autopilot does this is through education flows from Snug’s B2B leads. Instead of a cookie-cutter email and PDF attachment, Snug’s sales team was able to send customized communications to potential customers.
But with all that additional information being sent out and stored, Snug needed a CRM tool that would integrate with the MA solution that Autopilot offered. While Autopilot took over Excel in terms of handling their database, Snug looked for a tool that would help beyond prospecting and data storage. They needed a multi-channel platform that would manage their B2B sales cycle from start to finish.
“We wanted a cloud application because we are a decentralized team in multiple locations; Australia and offshore. We also wanted a tool with a great mobile app that allowed us to do sales on the go. Strong integrations were also something we kept in mind in our search since we wanted to be able to plug in and play with our other preferred products.”
After searching for a solution, Snug came across Pipedrive and their real estate sales process was never the same.
The features that cemented Pipedrive and Autopilot into Snug’s sales process
After a year of using Autopilot and Pipedrive as their real estate CRM, Snug was able to fully automate their B2B sales process. The seamless integration between the two apps made it possible for their small team to successfully prioritize leads and establish a lead qualification system that works.
“In real estate, people are often in and out of the office and have monthly or quarterly deadlines for financial reporting. Therefore, there are certain sweet spots in terms of when to get in touch with them, and Pipedrive helps us take this into account when targeting them.”
Snug uses both tools to customize their sales process for the dynamic world of real estate.
Using custom fields in Pipedrive, Snug incorporated a scoring system that helped the team focus on leads that are more likely to close. Custom fields are also used to enter crucial details like the size and industry categorization of prospective real estate partners.
“Pipedrive helps us focus on our best prospects through segmentation. It also helps us plan our communications, whether it’s a call, meeting, or sending an email, and execute them at the right time.”
Once a prospect is vetted and added into the sales pipeline in Pipedrive, an automated nurturing journey via educational emails is initiated in Autopilot. Using email tracking in Pipedrive, Snug’s sales reps can evaluate if a lead is interested based on clicks and opens.
This helps them get in touch when the prospect is warm and interested, while custom email templates give prospects the impression that they were in contact with a human the entire time.
Knowing your customer journey is essential for growth
One of the biggest lessons Justin learned as he grew Snug from a concept to a thriving platform is the importance of having a defined customer journey: Before scouring the web for growth hacking tools and software, map out the sales and onboarding process and pinpoint the areas that need automation.
“Carefully look at and plan your customer or sales journey from lead to successful onboarding before bringing tools into the mix. Once you have it mapped out, then look for a robust cloud platform that plays nicely with other tools.”
As a company with an expanding team in terms of size and locations, cloud-based software was a must. Online and mobile access to information on Pipedrive helps Justin and his sales team stay agile and informed no matter where they are.
“Be sure to explore the features in the sales management software you decide to use to maximize the benefits it has to offer.”
Justin also emphasizes the importance of integration options in sales management software. The team actively explores new features as well as apps added to the Marketplace. Growth demands continuous learning and adaptability, which applies just as much to the tools a team uses as it does to its mindset.
Scaling made simple
“Pipedrive is an easy to use and effective tool for sales organizations that want results.”
Selling doesn’t have to be complicated. The solution to complex issues like managing multiple communication channels and scheduling sales calls is often as simple as keeping everything in one place.
Pipedrive’s sales management software does this by integrating with hundreds of third-party apps to keep your tools, team, and data in sync. Nothing falls through the cracks thanks to a visual interface that is easy to adopt and integrate into your existing sales cycle.
Find out why over 90,000 customers have turned to Pipedrive to help them scale their sales with a 14-day free trial.
