Over the last few years, I’ve spent the bulk of my time inside wholesale, distribution, manufacturing, and construction-adjacent businesses—helping their sales teams finally get a system that consistently supports the way they actually sell.

Across these sectors, processes are often long, complex, and deeply relationship-driven. You might have a two-week consumables cycle on one end of the spectrum and a six-to-nine-month, multi-stakeholder tender process on the other. With that level of variability, you can’t afford guesswork. You need clarity, alignment, and tools that help you move faster—not more noise.

That’s ultimately what my work focuses on: aligning people, processes, and systems so sales teams can perform at their best.

Why process comes before technology (every time)

Day one with any client starts with a principle we’ve trademarked: APPS—Alignment of People, Processes, and Systems.
If you don’t understand the people and their real-world workflows, the system you implement will fail. That’s why our blueprint starts with:

1. Map & Scope – Understand the team and the processes they follow (and the ones they don’t).
2. Build – Shape the system around real behaviour, not idealised slides.
3. Improve, Measure, Iterate – Tweak based on outcomes, not assumptions.
4. Offboard with confidence – Leave teams enabled and independent.

This is where we consistently uncover the hidden blockers sales leaders forget about—like inbox-based routing rules, undocumented handovers, outdated approval paths, or broken assumptions about “how we’ve always done it.”

A great example: one client’s shared mailbox auto-distributed enquiries to reps based on email volume. That sounds fine… until you try to implement a helpdesk workflow. We had to reverse the entire routing paradigm, and once leadership understood the downstream effect on revenue, they immediately backed it. Within a week, they upgraded to Service Hub Enterprise.

Fix the process, then the tech. Never the other way around.

The first thing i configure in HubSpot (and why it’s not what most people expect)

When we implement HubSpot, most people assume the starting point is sales pipelines or properties. But the very first thing I set up is:

Website tracking and forms.

Here’s why:

If you configure the entire CRM first and only enable tracking once users are onboarded, you’ve already lost a month of history.
For many of the companies I support—especially those selling construction materials or consumables—website behaviour is a major buying intent signal.

If you can capture form fills early, you immediately connect a visitor’s entire pre-submission history to their contact record from day one.

That early data becomes gold for:

• lead scoring
• segmentation
• intent detection
• nurturing
• prioritisation

It’s like building the plane while flying it—but you actually get to keep your first month of telemetry.

What we almost always need to fix first

Because we work with B2B teams who often have long cycles and high-value projects, the same foundational gaps appear again and again:

• Sales and marketing operate independently (but expect shared outcomes).
• Account managers rely on inboxes instead of shared systems.
• Pricing, contracts, and scoping live in Word docs scattered across desktops.
• ERP access is required for every small operational question.
• Reps don’t actually trust the CRM (because it’s never been built around their world).

These patterns are universal. And once you solve them, teams start to move with more confidence and far less friction.

The Essential HubSpot Sales Stack (I recommend)

I get asked a lot about the “must-have tools” sales teams should connect to HubSpot. Here’s the reality: a modern sales motion depends on consolidation. Everything needs to feed into one source of truth.

My essential stack is:

1. A phone system with full HubSpot integration

My preference is Aircall. If not, at least use HubSpot’s native calling. If the call data isn’t in the CRM, you lose coaching, reporting, and every part of your activity KPIs.

2. A proper deduplication tool

Qualify is the best I’ve seen. Clean data is the foundation for segmentation, routing, reporting—everything.

3. A document output solution

HubSpot is not built for templated document generation.
Teams inevitably need:

• quotes
• scopes of work
• statements of work
• delivery notes
• NDAs
• invoices

Tools like Portant remove friction, ensure consistency, and save hours of admin. Clients want continuity across documents—same format, same branding, every time—and this solves it.

4. An ERP integration

It’s more important than ever for sales teams to see purchasing history and order status inside HubSpot. Whether it’s NetSuite, Business Central, or Orderwise (which we’ve integrated directly), ERP visibility unlocks:

• gap analysis
• churn prediction
• upsell signals
• stock-dependent quoting
• clearer forecasting

5. A lead-gen enrichment tool

Tools like HubLead, Apollo, Ocean.io, or Lusha help BD reps connect with the right contacts without manual scraping.

6. Supured for adoption

For partners and clients alike, Superd significantly improves onboarding and day-to-day learning inside HubSpot.

A major breakthrough that changed how we use HubSpot

For years, clients told us HubSpot couldn’t replace the front end of their ERP.
They were convinced only their ERP could manage:

• sales orders
• purchase orders
• works orders
• fulfilment flows

But once HubSpot introduced the Orders Object, everything changed.

We realised we could bring nearly every operational dataset into HubSpot—from Orderwise, for example—and allow teams to:

• view order status
• trigger documents
• manage works orders
• initiate purchasing
• track fulfilment
• follow priorities

All without touching the ERP.

Suddenly, many clients could remove dozens of ERP user licenses.
Sales could live entirely inside HubSpot, and operations had visibility without additional tools.

It was a turning point for us and for our clients.
HubSpot became a complete front-end system—ERP still manages stock, but HubSpot manages the work.

How we handle Quotes, Contracts, and Proposals

Our approach is simple: make the output consistent and remove all admin from the rep.

Scope of Work (SoW)

We use Google-based templates and populate them via HubSpot properties.
One template → many variations → consistent output.

Statement of Work (SOW)

This includes the detailed scope and the binding agreement.
Rep enters structured data → Portant outputs a signature-ready doc.

Quotes

We use HubSpot line items, then output to:

• PDF
• Google Doc
• Word doc
• or the native HS quoting tool if preferred

NDAs

Generated instantly—auto-fills name, dates, signature blocks.

Delivery notes & invoicing

Triggered automatically at dispatch or order movement if the client needs it.
For some clients, we even send the final invoice straight through to Xero.

This eliminates the biggest friction point in operational sales teams: document chaos.

Where AI actually fits (and where it doesn’t)

Most leaders know they “need AI,” but don’t know what to do with it.
Where I see real value today is very clear:

1. Automating repetitive admin

Summaries, note-taking, data extraction, list building—AI eliminates the busywork.

2. Rapid analysis

Things that used to take hours of digging now take seconds.
AI doesn’t replace judgement—it accelerates it.

3. Structuring complex inputs into usable next steps

AI is great at turning messy context into clarity.
Reps still own the execution.

Everything else is still mostly hype.
Focus on practical unlocks, not flashy experiments.

Final thoughts

Sales teams today need more than a CRM—they need a system that reflects the way they sell, eliminates manual friction, and connects seamlessly to operations.

When you get the alignment of people, processes, and systems right, HubSpot becomes not just a sales tool but the beating heart of the business.

If you’re exploring how to elevate your own sales processes, you can learn more about the work we do at Cogent Connective through our partner page:

👉 https://www.portant.co/partners

Happy selling. Let’s build systems that help your team win more—with less friction.

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