How Freightroute Transformed Sales Operations with Workbooks CRM

They pride themselves on their experience, knowledge and technology, which allows them to offer an unbeatable service with over 800,000 pallets handled every year.

However, a few years ago they were facing several operational hurdles:

• Manual Processes: Sales activities and contracts were managed using spreadsheets and paper files, which was time-consuming and inefficient.
• Lack of Information Sharing: Customer queries and histories were not retained or shared, leading to frustration when customers had to repeat their stories to different staff members.
• Limited Visibility: Without a centralized system, it was difficult to track sales activities, manage remote teams, and provide timely updates to directors and depot managers.

Freightroute’s National Sales Manager Beverley Parkin described the situation:

“We didn’t have a CRM. As a sales team we’d have conference calls where you’d literally just go through what was in your pipeline, manually filling out a spreadsheet. Week in, week out.”

This situation was no longer feasible for a growing business. They went to market for a CRM tool to help them improve their efficiency and support their revenue goals.

Vendor Selection: Freightroute evaluated several CRM providers, including Salesforce, but ultimately chose Workbooks for its flexibility and ability to be tailored to the company’s specific needs.

Adaptability: Parkin explained: “The main thing that attracted us to Workbooks was its adaptability – that we could flex it and make it do what we needed it to do.”

Cost: While cost was also a factor: “Budgets are tight, as always, so they didn’t want to spend a vast amount of money on something that we weren’t sure at that point whether it would work for us.”

The implementation process was thorough and hands-on:

Training: Two sales administrators and two salespeople attended training sessions at Workbooks’ Reading HQ.

Data Migration: The team imported their entire customer database into Workbooks and set up all customer records before rolling out the system to the sales team.

Change Management: Some sales managers, particularly those less comfortable with technology, initially struggled. Parkin and others provided ongoing support and encouragement.

Parkin explained:

“We had a two-day training session at our head office on how to use [Workbooks]. If you’re tech savvy, it’s fairly straightforward. At that point, we did have some sales managers that were more old school. Those guys struggled initially, but there was a couple of us that took to it straight away. We supported them and just said, ‘If you get stuck, just ring us. It’s a repetitive process. It’s a learned behaviour—once you’ve learned how to change gear, it just becomes natural.’”

She also emphasized the importance of open access, and how the system support that:

“One of the first things that I did when I took the role was right, set it wide open. I want everybody to be able to see [almost] everything. That way, if somebody’s off sick or on holiday, we buddy up and support each other. It’s massive to us to be able to navigate through it so quickly.”

• Operational consolidation: One platform now supports sales, support, projects, invoicing, and finance, reducing tool switching.
• Faster quoting: Automated calculations and instant PDF generation accelerate quote turnaround.
• Improved support responsiveness: Email‑to‑case automation ensures issues are captured consistently.
• Better visibility: Pre‑populated monthly reports give teams up‑to‑date project and performance insights.
• Anywhere access: Web‑based access enables field teams to stay productive while out and about.

“We use it for pretty much everything in the company… It’s very user friendly, it’s quite intuitive and everybody says it’s easy to use.”