Pilot Implementation
Pilot Implementation — Sales
A four-week implementation package covering the sales department of a manufacturing company, from mapping the sales process to deploying the first tools into the team's daily work.
4 weeks of work. Sales department. Staged payment with a decision point after the first week.
Who it's for
The department profile this variant fits
For the sales department of a manufacturing company.
This variant is addressed to sales departments in B2B companies where selling requires individual handling of each order. The industry profile can vary, from manufacturers of technical components, automation systems, machinery and equipment, through materials processing plants, tool shops and injection moulding facilities, to manufacturers of steel structures, industrial installations, joinery, made-to-order furniture, or agri-food producers serving wholesale clients. The common denominator is a sales process in which each order requires an individual quotation, and the sales representative's work combines sales competence with technical product knowledge.
Sales in such companies has its own specifics. Decision cycles are longer than in consumer or SaaS sales, the offer is configurable, and the sales representative must understand the product well enough to be able to talk to the client's design engineer. Inquiries arrive through multiple channels: web form, email, B2B platform, phone, direct contact at trade fairs. Client knowledge accumulates in email inboxes, individual sales representatives' files, and the memory of experienced department staff. The Sales variant addresses the consolidation of this knowledge into tools that learn the specifics of the plant's particular sales process, regardless of product profile.
Department Discovery
Typical problem areas
A catalog of typical areas addressed by the diagnosis in the first week of the package.
- 01
Quoting non-standard product configurations
Preparing a single quotation consumes several hours of work by a sales representative or a technical pricing specialist. Sources of knowledge about product specifications, price history, and previous quotations are scattered across Excel spreadsheets, emails, and individual employees' memory.
- 02
Initial qualification of inquiries from multiple channels
Inquiries arrive via web forms, emails, B2B platforms, phone, and direct client contact. Manually reading, classifying, and routing them to the right sales representative consumes time and carries the risk of losing an inquiry in the flow.
- 03
Structured follow-up after first contact
There is no systematic tracking of the status of client conversations, reminders are set manually in a calendar, and quotations go unanswered for weeks. Some sales opportunities are lost from the pipeline due to a lack of reminders about next steps.
- 04
Scattered knowledge of client contact history
Information about clients lives in email inboxes, files on local drives, individual notes, and sales representatives' memory. The time needed to reconstruct context before a call extends the sales cycle.
- 05
Analysis of clients' technical inquiries
A client sends a technical drawing, 3D model, or specification description together with a request for quotation. The sales representative must cross-check the documentation against the plant's knowledge base, assess initial feasibility, and route the inquiry to the correct internal department.
- 06
Translation and adaptation of quotations for export markets
A quotation prepared in Polish, a foreign client, manual translation with adjustment of prices, units of measure, commercial terms, and document format to the expectations of the target market. Versioning quotations across markets consumes time and carries a risk of inconsistency.
The catalog is a starting point, not a rigid list of package tasks. The Department Discovery phase in the first week of the package verifies which areas are actually relevant in the client's department, and identifies areas specific to the plant's profile. A client with a concrete idea of their own is not blocked by the catalog — the idea enters the scope as one of the priorities.
Course
How the package unfolds
The four weeks of work are divided into four stages, each with a defined function.
Week 1
Department Discovery
Work on-site at the company with the sales department team. Conversations with the sales manager and sales representatives, observation of the process from the moment an inquiry arrives through to closing the deal, identification of recurring organizational and competence-related problems.
Week 2
Workshop with the team
Workshop sessions in which the sales department team, together with the consultant, identifies specific process problems and designs solutions. The workshop also includes staff from technical pricing and after-sales service where sales intersects with the technical phase.
Week 3
Solution design and start of build
The selected solutions are prepared for implementation. Building of the priority tools begins, typically an application consolidating client knowledge, an inquiry qualification tool, or a quotation generator for a configurable product.
Week 4
Deployment and presentation to the management board
Rollout of the solutions in the company's working environment, training of the sales department team, support during the first days of use. The package concludes with a presentation to the management board covering the deployed solutions, a map of the department's problems, and a proposal for further cooperation.
The detailed mechanics of the package — the meeting schedule, workshop session parameters, the structure of the decision point after the first week — are provided in the offer proposal after the consultation. The mechanics are shared across all six variants of Pilot Implementation.
Results
What remains after four weeks
The Pilot Implementation in the Sales variant concludes with five parallel results that remain with the company.
- 01
Working tools in the sales department's daily work
Deployed tools operating in the company's working environment: an application consolidating client knowledge, an inquiry qualification tool, a quotation generator, or a sales follow-up assistant. Each solution comes with user documentation and training.
- 02
List of ideas submitted by sales representatives
Solution proposals formulated by the sales department team itself during the workshop. The list reflects real, everyday problems from the sales process, not a generic catalog of AI possibilities.
- 03
Map of the department's everyday problems
A document organizing the sales department's process problems: time required to prepare a quotation, risks of losing inquiries, inconsistent client communication among sales representatives, risks of pricing errors under time pressure.
- 04
Descriptions of further solutions for future implementation
Ready-made descriptions of solutions that were not implemented within the package but are prepared for further work. Each description includes the objective, target user profile, required data, and an initial assessment of technical complexity.
- 05
Plan for further cooperation
A proposal for the next step after the Pilot Implementation: scope, timeline, terms of cooperation. No obligation to continue. The decision remains with the company.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about AI implementation in the sales department
Answers to the questions that most often come up before deciding on an implementation.
How does Pilot Implementation differ from a CRM implementation?
A CRM implementation (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Livespace) delivers a ready-made framework for tracking contacts, the sales pipeline, and reporting. Pilot Implementation in the Sales variant builds tools tailored to the plant's specific sales process: the quotation cycle for a configurable product, analysis of technical inquiries, translation of quotations for export markets. These layers typically do not fit within a standard CRM. The two layers are complementary; in plants with an existing CRM, the implementation integrates with the existing tool as an additional layer.
How will the tool integrate with the plant's existing CRM?
The scope of integration depends on the plant's technical architecture. Two models are possible: reading data from the CRM (contact history, pipeline stages, sales representatives' activities) as context for the tool, and writing new activities and quotations back to the CRM. In companies operating without a CRM, using Excel spreadsheets and email inboxes, implementation is possible without first deploying a classic CRM. The specific scope is determined during the Department Discovery phase.
What about the security of client knowledge?
The client database and sales contact history are sensitive material. The technical architecture of the tools addresses this directly. An on-premise deployment is possible, in which client data does not leave the plant's server, as are hybrid models with isolation of sensitive data layers. The specific architecture follows from the plant's security policy and legal requirements (GDPR).
Will the tool replace the sales representative's role in client relationships?
No. The tool automates the layers where automation delivers value without compromising relationship quality: inquiry qualification, consolidation of client knowledge, follow-up reminders, generation of preliminary quotation drafts. The sales conversation, negotiations, and strategic decisions remain with the sales representative. The result is freeing up the sales representative's time for high-value-added activities.
To what extent does the package cover cooperation between sales and marketing?
The package in the Sales variant focuses on the sales department. Points of contact with marketing are addressed in the week 2 workshop as process context. Full cooperation between the two departments falls outside the scope of a single package; the typical path is a sequence of two Pilot Implementations spaced 1 to 3 months apart, first Sales, then Marketing.
Does deploying artificial intelligence in the sales department require a consolidated client database?
No. The implementation starts from the plant's documentation as it actually exists, not from an assumption of a perfectly consolidated CRM database. Part of the package involves organizing and indexing materials scattered across email inboxes, sales representatives' files, and Excel spreadsheets. The first implementations often concern precisely the tools that consolidate this knowledge into a single operational resource.
Pierwszy krok
Decisions about the Sales variant take one conversation
A thirty-minute online consultation is enough to assess whether the package matches your department's profile and which problem areas from the catalog are relevant to your team's daily work.
Direct contact: kontakt@artechconsult.com · +48 609 065 717
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