The view from a Sales Executive: Why Workbooks transformed my workflow

Stephanie Ackrill, joined Freightroute as a Sales Executive a year ago, with prior experience using Salesforce.

She immediately found Workbooks CRM to be simpler and more intuitive: “I like Workbooks because it does exactly what it is on the tin. I do genuinely think Workbooks is just easier to use and easier to look at than Salesforce.”

She also highlighted the benefits of automated reporting: “When I joined, I was amazed that I don’t have to do my own pipeline reports, as Workbooks just did it all for me.”

And regarding sales enablement, Ackrill has seen huge benefits: “If you’ve got a low activity day, you can go on that work in progress and you think, right, I’ll give them a ring and just go through that. There’s so much information you can pull from the system to help sell— it’s great.”

Parkin outlined what a difference this has made to her team and their onboarding: “I’ve seen a huge difference in how new sales executives ramp up. With Workbooks in place, they can hit the ground running when they join us. With 9 months Steph was at 100% of the results that an established manager in the business would have had previously.”

Ackrill agreed: “100% the CRM supported my success. Having previous experience using different CRMs helped and then coming in and seeing Workbooks and the simplicity of it and how it works for Freightroute. It works really well for me..”

Workbook’s Mapping Module – “A Fantastic Sales Tool”

Ackrill has also seen great benefit from the Workbooks mapping module (referred to as ‘Nearby’ internally at Freightroute.

She explains: “If you’re going to see a customer, you can pull up the mapping module and set it to find other customers located within a specific range.

“I’m new to sales in the area that I cover (even though I was brought up there!), so I don’t know the area. Workbooks help me find other existing customers nearby, who I might not have met or not engaged with recently. So I can plan my day out of the office and make it much more effective. Then I get in the car, head to my meetings and I’m like – I’ve got this! It’s a really fantastic sales tool.”

Key insights for a successful CRM deployment with Workbooks

• Adaptability is Critical: The ability to customize the CRM to fit Freightroute’s unique sales process was a decisive factor in its success.
• Collaboration Drives Results: Open account visibility and supportive team culture enabled seamless coverage and knowledge sharing.
• Automation Empowers Sales: Automated reporting and activity tracking re-energized the sales team and improved overall performance.
• User Experience Matters: Simplicity and relevance of features made Workbooks CRM preferable to more complex alternatives.

Recommendations

Both Parkin and Ackrill strongly recommend Workbooks CRM for organizations seeking a flexible, user-friendly solution that can be tailored to non-standard sales processes.

They highlight its value for industries like freight, waste management, and services where adaptability and efficiency are paramount.

Parkin concludes:

“I absolutely recommend Workbooks to companies in the same position as we were in — much as I hate to share our secret weapon with potentially other competitors.”