Industries
Your factory knows what customers order. Does your sales team?
HubSpot or Pipedrive connected to your ERP, so your sales team sees every quote, order and installed machine on the account they are selling to.
A manufacturer's sales team needs to see what each customer has ordered, quoted and installed, without asking accounts or the factory. Flowbird connects HubSpot or Pipedrive to your ERP, whether that is Sage 200, Sage 50, Xero or another system, so order history, open quotes and spend sit on the account record your reps already use.
This page is for machinery and industrial machinery manufacturers, mechanical and industrial engineering firms, industrial automation, fabricated metal products and motor vehicle parts, and for consumer and building product manufacturers: appliances and electronics, furniture, food and drink, and building materials.
Why can't the sales team see what customers have ordered?
Because the CRM was set up for the pursuit and the ERP holds the business. Leads, deals and a pipeline end at "won". Most of a manufacturer's revenue comes after that point, in repeat orders, spares and service that never appear as a new deal. So the biggest accounts look inactive in the CRM, quotes live in the ERP or someone's sent items, and the forecast is built from what reps say.
What does a connected CRM do for a manufacturer?
How it works
From the ERP to the sales meeting.
Your ERP
Sage 200, Sage 50, Xero or the system you run.
- Customer accounts
- Sales orders and invoices
- Quotes and their status
- Products and product families
- Service and spares history
The connection
- Each customer matched once, across both systems
- Quotes linked to the orders they became
- Scheduled and change-triggered updates
HubSpot or Pipedrive
- Spend this year against last
- Open quotes with an owner and a date
- Installed equipment and renewal dates
- A task when an account goes quiet
What changes
- Quotes followed up, not forgotten
- Cross-selling by product family
- Service and replacement revenue protected
- A forecast built from real orders
What does it look like in practice?
| Use case | What the sales team sees | What it is worth |
|---|---|---|
| Quote to order | Every open quote on the account with a value, a date and an owner, marked won when the ERP order arrives | Fewer quotes left to go cold, and a quote-to-order rate from records rather than recollection |
| Product families | Order lines grouped by product family, set against similar customers | A short, specific cross-sell list for each account manager |
| The installed base | Machines on site with their age, service contract and spares history | Upgrades, renewals and replacements raised before a competitor raises them |
| Accounts going quiet | The last order date against the customer's usual rhythm | A drifting account flagged while there is still time to act |
| Forecasting | Pipeline set beside actual orders and invoicing | A forecast the board can rely on, built from what customers buy |
How do service and spares fit with new equipment sales?
Treat the installed base as a pipeline of its own. A machine near the end of its service life is a replacement opportunity. A customer that has stopped ordering spares may be buying them elsewhere. A service contract coming up for renewal needs an owner. When service and spares history sits beside the sales record, the account manager walks into every meeting knowing what the customer already has.
Which systems does it connect to?
The CRM is HubSpot or Pipedrive. Flowbird has connected HubSpot and Pipedrive to Sage 200, Sage 50 and Xero. Odoo and other ERPs can be connected where they offer an API, and the audit confirms what yours exposes before anything is built. The tool is whichever suits the job: a native connector, Make, n8n, BPA Platform or custom code. Customer accounts, orders, invoices, products and open quotes come across, and customer and contact details stay the same in both systems. More detail is on CRM and ERP integration.
The connection carries whatever is in the ERP, good and bad. Customers set up twice, accounts that merged years ago and inconsistent product codes all arrive with the orders. Checking that first is cheaper than discovering it in the first dashboard.
What does the business get?
- More revenue from existing customers, because cross-sell and replacement opportunities are visible
- Quotes followed up on time, each with an owner
- A forecast built from orders, not opinions
- No more keying the same customer into two systems
- Sales, finance and operations working from the same account
What changes for you: you stop checking the forecast by hand before the board meeting, and you see an account drifting before the customer mentions it.
What comes first?
The CRM & ERP Opportunity Audit: a fixed price, two weeks, and a written report you keep. It checks what your CRM data can carry, maps one revenue-critical process end to end (for most manufacturers, quote to order), names the automations worth building first, and ends in a plain go or no-go. The report is written to take to your managing director, finance director or board.
If you already know what needs connecting, talk to an integration specialist instead.
When is Flowbird not the right fit?
- There is no ERP or order data to connect
- You are not on HubSpot or Pipedrive and have no plans to move
- The business is small enough that the owner knows every account personally
For that stage, the free Data Health Calculator and the Customer Data Clarity Workbook cover most of what you need.
Questions manufacturers ask
Can HubSpot or Pipedrive show ERP order history?
Yes. Orders and invoices from the ERP are written to the company record, so a rep sees spend, the last order date and the product families bought without leaving the CRM. The ERP stays the system of record; the CRM shows what sales needs from it.
Do we have to replace our ERP?
No. The connection works with the ERP you run today, and Flowbird works alongside your ERP partner rather than replacing them.
Can quotes raised in the ERP appear in the CRM?
Usually, yes. A quote raised in the ERP can land on the account as a deal with a value, a date and an owner, and close as won when it becomes an order. The audit confirms what your ERP exposes before anything is built.