Sales pipeline CRM
for a multi-product distributor.
Replaced a six-person, shared-Excel lead register with a real CRM: six configurable stages, dual SSO, architect and contractor contact graphs, and a field-level audit history so misreported numbers stop happening.
Six salespeople. One shared spreadsheet. Zero accountability.
The client's sales team, six reps across three branches, tracked B2B opportunities in a shared Excel file. Each rep had their own colour code. Pipeline reviews were monthly screen-share calls where everyone argued about what column meant what.
Concrete failures we found in discovery:
- Two reps had been quoting the same Architect for two different projects. Neither knew until the bill arrived.
- Stage labels drifted: 'Negotiating' vs 'In negotiation' vs 'Discussing'. No way to roll-up a pipeline number.
- When a deal closed lost, the row was deleted. No retention. No post-mortem.
- Sales leadership could not answer 'what's our committed pipeline this quarter?' without 2 days of cleanup.
They had tried Zoho CRM. The team rejected it: too many fields, none of them matched how interior-fit-out deals actually move.
A CRM that matches how the deals actually move.
Six configurable stages
Prospecting → Quoted → Negotiation → Won / Lost / On Hold. Stage labels are enums, not free text. Per-stage probability defaults the pipeline weighting.
Dual SSO · Zoho + Microsoft
Sales reps log in with Zoho (their existing email). Sales leadership logs in with Microsoft (M365). JWT in an HttpOnly cookie. Zero password storage.
Architect + contractor graphs
For interior fit-out deals, every lead has linked Architect and Contractor records, each with their own contacts. Duplicate detection across the whole graph.
Field-level audit history
Every field change is snapshotted with the user, timestamp, before, and after. Stage moves, value edits, owner reassignments are all visible.
Principle + registration tracking
Each lead tags the product line (Forbo, Pet Panels, Haworth, Furniture, etc.) and the registration status (Direct / CIPL / OEM-registered). Reports roll up by principle.
Soft delete + recycle bin
Nothing is permanently gone. Deleted leads land in a recycle bin with restore. The 'I deleted that on purpose' problem disappears.
A lead record, designed around the actual deal.
Off-the-shelf CRMs have a "Lead" object with a generic shape. Interior-fit-out deals don't fit. Every deal lives at the intersection of Client (the office / property owner), Architect (who specs the materials), and Contractor (who actually places the order).
All three need to be tracked, contacted, and weighted differently. That's why we modeled them as separate entities with their own contact graphs, and surfaced them inline on the Lead form.
The full lead record carries the principle (which manufacturer's product), registration status (Direct sale vs OEM-recorded), an auto-generated Lead ID (SN NNN), soft-delete, and a full audit trail. Roll-ups by sales person, principle, or stage are one query.
- Lead ID
- SN 124
- Sales person
- Rajesh K.
- Lead date
- 14 Apr 2025
- Client
- Sankalp Realty
- Project
- Andheri tower · 50k sqft
- Stage
- Negotiation
- Architect
- Atelier Vidur · +91 98XXX
- Contractor
- Patel Build · +91 98XXX
- Principle
- Forbo flooring
- Registration
- Direct
- Estimated value
- ₹68,50,000
- Source
- Architect ref.
- Closure by
- 28 Jun 2025
- Probability
- 65%
Sales pipeline · live in the team's hands.
"Pipeline reviews used to be a Friday-afternoon argument. Now they're a ten-minute screen-share. Two reps haven't quoted the same architect since."