SaaS and Technology · Technology
CRM from lead to billing for an IT services firm
An IT services firm tracked leads in spreadsheets and lost time at the handover from sales to delivery, with no central record of billing milestones. We deployed a CRM with a sales pipeline, client onboarding and invoicing, which improved conversion by 40% and brought 90% of billing in on schedule.
40%Higher conversion from lead to deal90%Of billing milestones invoiced on schedule- Client
- An IT and digital services firm in Ahmedabad serving clients in India and abroad
- Region
- India
- Sponsor
- Founder and head of sales
- Duration
- 10 weeks to first release, invoicing and billing alerts live by week 14
Engagement model
O2E: Output Oriented Engagement
The work was split into three outputs, pipeline, onboarding and invoicing, each accepted by the sales and accounts leads before the next began.
How O2E worksThe team
- Solution strategist1
- Full stack engineer2
- QA engineer (shared)1
The challenge
Where things stood
- Leads lived in personal spreadsheets, so follow ups were missed when a salesperson was busy or on leave.
- When a deal closed, the delivery team learnt the scope from forwarded emails and often started a week late.
- Billing milestones sat in contracts, not in any system, and invoices went out only when someone remembered.
- The founder had no single view of pipeline, active projects and money due.
The approach
How we ran it
Weeks 1 to 2
Pipeline design
We agreed deal stages with the sales team in their own words, from enquiry to signed, and imported two years of spreadsheet leads after cleaning duplicates.
Weeks 3 to 10
Sales pipeline and onboarding
We built the pipeline, follow up reminders and a client onboarding checklist that opens automatically when a deal is marked won, handing scope and contacts to the delivery lead.
Weeks 10 to 14
Invoicing and billing alerts
Billing milestones are entered from the contract at onboarding. The CRM alerts accounts when a milestone is due, raises a GST invoice and sends a payment link.
What it looks like
Representative screens
Drawn to show the kind of system we delivered. Client screens and data stay private.
Sales pipeline
Enquiry2
- Textile mill, ERP study
- Clinic group, patient app
Proposal sent1
- Builder, site portal, INR 8.4 L
Negotiation2
- Food maker, B2B ordering, INR 12 L
- Logistics firm, tracking API
Won1
- Client C-104, QA dashboards, INR 6.2 L
What we delivered
Modules and features
- Sales pipeline with custom deal stages and follow up reminders
- Lead import and de duplication from existing spreadsheets
- Client onboarding checklist triggered when a deal is won
- Billing milestones per project with alerts to accounts
- GST invoices with payment links and sync to Tally
- Shared dashboards for pipeline, active projects and receivables
What changed
Outcomes
- 40%Higher conversion from lead to deal
- 90%Of billing milestones invoiced on schedule
- Sales, delivery and accounts working from the same dashboards
Figures as reported by the client.
Solutions
- CRMCustomer Relationship Management
- Billing and subscriptionsRecurring Billing and Subscription Management
Industry and platforms
Looking back
Letting the sales team name the deal stages themselves meant they used the pipeline from the first week and dropped their private spreadsheets. We were slower on billing: milestones from older contracts had to be typed in by hand, and a few were missed until accounts checked them against the paper files. We would now ask for a contract register at the start and load it alongside the leads.
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Tell us where your team is today and we will walk you through how a project like this would run for you under O2E. The first conversation is free. Delivery work is paid only after you accept it.
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