Endora's own CRM: LinkedIn, Gmail and website forms in one sales process

Endora sells B2B implementations: sales platforms, ERP integrations and custom systems. That kind of sale means long conversations with several people on the client's side, offers in more than one variant and decisions that take weeks. For years we handled it with several tools at once, until we decided we needed what we build for our clients: a CRM that fits our process, rather than a process bent to fit the CRM.

We built it the way we build systems for clients: from a process map, through a specification, to modules delivered step by step. We now run all our sales in it, and it doubles as a testing ground for solutions we later propose in custom CRM projects.

The screenshots come from a demo instance. The companies, people and messages are fictional. The CRM interface is in Polish.

LinkedIn: from invitation to opportunity

An extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox connects LinkedIn with the CRM. On a prospect's profile, the salesperson saves them to the CRM and picks a follow-up sequence. The extension recognises people who are already in the database and reports accepted invitations. Every day the CRM builds a “To send today” queue with messages from templates. The salesperson pastes them, sends them and marks them as sent. We deliberately left sending to a human: the extension never clicks “Send” on their behalf. When the conversation turns concrete, one button creates an opportunity.

endora.pl forms: an integration through the API

This shows how the CRM connects with other systems. Every contact form on endora.pl sends the enquiry to the CRM API, authenticated with a token that has limited permissions. In response the CRM:

• creates an opportunity "WWW: topic – company" with the source "Website",
• matches the contact by email address or creates a new one,
• matches the company by name or creates it as unverified,
• stores the form contents, landing page, referrer and UTM parameters,
• notifies the owner in the CRM, and by push or email depending on their settings.

Nobody retypes enquiries, and the source reports immediately show which campaigns and pages bring them in. The same token mechanism serves the LinkedIn extension and can serve other systems: an online store, a B2B platform, an ERP or a marketing tool.

A PWA: the CRM on the road

The CRM works as a PWA. Salespeople install it on their phone from the browser, with no app store, and get an icon on the home screen and push notifications. Before a client meeting they check the conversation history and the offer, after it they add a note and a task, and between meetings they tick off follow-ups from the queue. Every view fits a small screen, and each user chooses which notifications they get and through which channel.

What our own CRM taught us

Building a CRM for ourselves let us test first-hand what we tell our clients. The biggest gain doesn't come from the number of features, but from no longer retyping data between systems. Integrations are worth designing from the start, because an API added at the end usually stops at exports. Automation pays off where the decision is obvious, as with an enquiry from the form. Where a salesperson's judgement matters, one click works better than a rule that turns every newsletter into an opportunity.

If your sales process has its own stages, channels and documents, and an off-the-shelf CRM forces your team into workarounds, let's talk about a custom CRM.