CRM automation
Every lead in one pipeline, every number in one format, every stage with a next action.
Leads arrive on five phones, two forms and a counter. We pull them into one CRM, fix the phone numbers on the way in, and make each stage produce the next task automatically, so nothing waits for someone to remember.
The Zimbabwean situation
What usually goes wrong
The sales manager's phone has the good leads. The receptionist's phone has the rest. The web form goes to an inbox nobody checks after lunch. Numbers are stored as 077…, +263 77… and 263 77…, so the same customer appears three times and gets three different prices.
Quotes are in USD, some invoices in ZiG, and the spreadsheet has one "amount" column. When the owner asks "what is in the pipeline?", the answer takes an afternoon and is wrong.
What we build
What gets built
- One pipeline. WhatsApp, forms, Facebook lead forms, missed calls and walk-ins create or update one contact and one opportunity.
- Number normaliser. Every phone number becomes +263 plus nine digits before it is saved; duplicates merged once, then prevented.
- Stage rules. Moving a deal to "quoted" creates the 24-hour and 72-hour follow-up tasks; "won" creates the accounting record; "lost" requires a reason.
- Currency fields. Amount, currency, rate used, rate date. Reports in both.
- Owner digest. Monday morning on WhatsApp: new leads, stale deals, this week's follow-ups, per rep.
How it works
The flow, end to end
What it needs from you
- A decision on the CRM (or a willingness to let us recommend one) and its subscription.
- Exports of existing contacts from every phone, sheet and inbox.
- Your pipeline stages and who owns leads at each stage.
- Which fields matter for your business (branch, vehicle, medical aid, currency).
- Access to the lead sources: WhatsApp number, form platform, Facebook page.
Timeline shape
| Phase | Typical span | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Scoping | 1–2 weeks | List every lead source, choose or keep the CRM, define stages and who owns each. |
| Migration | 1 week | Export existing contacts, normalise numbers, de-duplicate, import with source tags. |
| Build | 2–4 weeks | Source connectors, stage rules and tasks, follow-up automations, owner digest, dashboards. |
| Pilot | 2 weeks | Team works only in the CRM; weekly clean-up of what slipped through. |
| Run | ongoing | Monthly data-quality report, new sources added, stage rules tuned. |
Spans are typical shapes, not quotes. The process page explains what moves them.
What it costs
What drives the price
The build is mostly connectors and rules. The recurring cost is the CRM subscription, which you pay to the vendor. Migration cost depends entirely on the state of your existing data.
We do not publish package prices because the drivers below move the number by multiples. The pricing page lists every driver with sourced platform costs.
| Driver | Effect on cost |
|---|---|
| CRM licence | Paid to the vendor, not to us. GoHighLevel lists USD 97/297/497 per month; HubSpot has a free tier; Zoho is per user. |
| Number of lead sources | Each source (WhatsApp, web form, Facebook lead form, missed call, walk-in) is a connector to build and test. |
| State of existing data | Clean exports import in a day; five phones and a notebook take a week of normalising. |
| Custom fields and rules | Currency fields, medical-aid numbers, vehicle registrations and branch routing each add configuration. |
| Reporting | A weekly digest is standard; live dashboards per branch or rep are more. |
Questions we get asked
Which CRM should a Zimbabwean SME use?
It depends on what you sell and how you talk to customers. GoHighLevel bundles pipeline, WhatsApp/SMS/email messaging and booking in one subscription (list price USD 97 or 297 per month at the time of writing) and suits sales-led businesses. HubSpot's free tier suits simple pipelines. Zoho suits operations-heavy businesses that also need invoicing and inventory. We pick at scoping and we do not resell licences at a mark-up.
Do we need a CRM at all?
Below roughly fifty leads a month, a well-structured sheet plus automation is often enough, and cheaper. A CRM earns its fee when several people share leads, when stages and follow-ups need enforcing, or when reporting matters.
What is the +263 number problem?
The same customer is saved as 077 123 4567 on one phone, +263771234567 on another and 263 77 123 4567 in the sheet. Systems see three people. We normalise every number to E.164 (+263 then nine digits, dropping the leading zero) on the way in and merge the duplicates once.
Can the CRM handle USD and ZiG?
Every deal gets an amount, a currency and the rate and date used if converted. Reports show both. We never let a system silently assume one currency.
Will it work with our accounting package?
If the package has an API or an import format, yes: won deals become draft invoices or customer records. Fiscal invoices still come from your FDMS-linked device; see the workflow automation page.
Next step
Scope it before you book it
Fill in the scoping worksheet (five minutes, no sign-up). It produces a summary you can paste into WhatsApp or email, so the first call starts with the actual work.