Industry
Construction
Challenge
Thistle Decorators faced operational inefficiencies due to disparate enquiry sources and an absence of a unified sales process. Enquiries originated from various channels, web forms, paid advertising, phone, social media, referrals, and walk-ins, without a single, standardised system for capture and follow-up. Manual tracking through spreadsheets and Outlook led to inconsistent lead management, missed opportunities, and limited insight into enquiry volume, source quality, and projected workload. On top of this, the team relied on Xero to create and send quotes, which meant duplicating that work manually in the HubSpot deal pipeline to keep records aligned. This fragmentation hindered both sales performance and the business's ability to align delivery capacity with incoming demand.
Results
By implementing a centralised, automated sales process in HubSpot with AutomateNow, Thistle Decorators streamlined enquiry capture, ensured systematic follow-up, and reduced manual administration. The team achieved more reliable lead logging and improved process consistency, while leadership gained actionable insights into conversion rates, lead sources, and operational forecasting. AutomateNow also integrated Xero with HubSpot using Zapier and custom code, so deal stages now update automatically as quotes progress, removing the need for manual duplication between the two systems. The business transitioned from a reactive approach to a scalable, controlled sales operation, reporting a 50% increase in properly logged enquiries, a 15–20% improvement in close rates, and a saving of around 10 hours a month previously spent on manual quote updates.
Key Product
Data Migration, Tech Setup, Sales Automation, Buyer Journey Workshop
We needed more than just HubSpot setup — we needed a process that matched how our business works. AutomateNow helped us build that, and the impact has been immediate.
About Thistle Decorators
Thistle Decorators is an Edinburgh-based decorating business serving homeowners and commercial clients. As the company expanded, it faced challenges with managing growing volumes of enquiries, quotes, and projects. To support further growth, Thistle Decorators required improved visibility into sales activity, project demand, and lead quality.The Challenge
As Thistle Decorators grew, the business struggled to keep pace with rising enquiry volumes arriving from multiple channels, including web forms, paid advertising, phone calls, social media, referrals, and walk-ins. Without a unified or standardised process for capturing and following up on enquiries, the team relied heavily on manual tools such as spreadsheets and Outlook. This lack of integration led to missed leads, inconsistent follow-up, and limited visibility into the quality of opportunities or capacity for future work.
Quoting added a further layer of manual effort. All quotes were created and sent through Xero, but none of that activity fed through to HubSpot automatically. Every time a quote was sent or accepted, the team had to manually update the corresponding deal in the pipeline, a repetitive task that ate into time better spent on delivery and new enquiries. With around 30 enquiries a week and roughly 5 minutes of manual updating per deal, this duplication was quietly costing the business significant time every month.
The inefficiencies at both the sales and operational levels made it challenging for the owner to accurately forecast workload and understand which enquiry sources delivered the best results.
The Solution
Recognising the need for a more structured approach, Thistle Decorators partnered with AutomateNow to reimagine their sales process within HubSpot. AutomateNow delivered consultancy, sales process design, pipeline setup, workflow automation, dashboard reporting, and data management services tailored to the business's operational realities.
The team developed a centralised enquiry management workflow, segmenting incoming data, automating follow-up actions, and enabling real-time reporting. This approach made it possible for every enquiry to be tracked and followed up systematically.
To close the gap between Xero and HubSpot, AutomateNow built a custom integration using Zapier and bespoke code. Once a quote is marked as sent in Xero, the corresponding deal now moves automatically to "Quote Sent" in the HubSpot pipeline. When that quote is updated to accepted, the deal moves in step to "Accepted", with no manual input required from the team.
As Bart Kowalczyk, Director at AutomateNow, stated, “The goal was not just to use HubSpot more. It was to make sure every enquiry had a place, every follow-up had a process, and the owner could finally see the real picture of the business."
The Results
Following implementation, Thistle Decorators experienced a significant transformation in their sales operations. Approximately 2,000 contacts were managed in HubSpot, and around 30 weekly enquiries were brought into a consistent, standardised process. The business achieved an estimated 50% increase in enquiries being properly logged and a 15–20% improvement in close rates, thanks to reliable follow-up and enhanced process control.
The Xero integration removed a task that once took around 5 minutes per deal. Across roughly 30 enquiries a week, that added up to about 150 minutes saved weekly, or 600 minutes (10 hours) a month, time the team can now put back into serving clients rather than keeping two systems in sync.
Leadership benefited from improved visibility into sales performance, conversion trends, and lead sources, enabling better resource planning and operational forecasting. The result was a shift from fragmented, reactive sales management to a scalable, data-driven model supporting continued business growth.
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