Leadsales - A CRM that empowers businesses to skyrocket sales
Designing Leadsales, the next Mexican unicorn. How a modern UI revolutionizes lead management and skyrockets sales for uSMBs.
Leadsales is a tech startup that offers lead management and conversational commerce solutions through a SaaS platform. Leadsales was founded in 2020 in Mexico and has recently closed on $3.7 million of seed funding,
My Role
As the first Product Designer hired at Leadsales, my primary responsibility was crafting the platform’s initial public version, aiming for a visually enjoyable user experience. I collaborated closely with cross-functional teams to translate user needs into actionable design solutions, ensuring our platform catered to the requirements of small and medium-sized businesses.
Project Type
Desktop Web App / iOS / Android
Project Timeline
11 Months (Oct 2020 - Sep 2021)
Project Summary
Mobile commerce in Latin America is expected to exponential growth in the upcoming years. Recognizing this trend, Leadsales aims to assist small and medium businesses efficiently managing potential sales through WhatsApp and other social media channels.
We've developed a software tool with customizable columns and automated sales funnel management. Our design emphasizes a unified approach to customer follow-up, and a user-friendly interface for multi-agent teams, and has shown improvement in response time and revenue growth.
The Challenges
Nearly half of potential deals (≈44%) are lost because of poor lead management and not following up with clients.
Small companies often find it hard to respond quickly when customers message them for quotes or support, as they struggle to assign a representative to handle inquiries on a single communication line.
Popular CRMs like Zoho, HubSpot, and Pipedrive are expensive, complicated to use, and don't directly connect with messaging services like WhatsApp, making it tough for businesses to manage leads effectively.
During the pandemic small businesses were transitioning to selling via WhatsApp without the right tool to scale their business.
The Solution
1. Understanding User Needs:
During the initial weeks, I conducted user research interviews and performed a competitive analysis to comprehend the tools and processes our users utilized for lead management and follow-up. This involved:
Exploring and evaluating existing CRM software to assess its effectiveness in managing leads and facilitating follow-up communications.
Analyzing manual processes and spreadsheets for lead tracking to identify pain points and areas for enhancement.
Requesting testimonials from sales teams to gain insights into their experiences, challenges, and limitations with current tools and processes.
Our findings revealed a need for a more streamlined and intuitive lead management solution, emphasizing improving efficiency in follow-up communications with clear visual indicators and easy-to-use controls that required minimal input from users.
2. Defining Requirements:
During this process, I facilitated brainstorming sessions with cross-functional teams to align on features and prioritize user needs. By fostering collaboration and emphasizing the user experience, we ensured that Leadsales addressed key pain points and provided maximum value and control to our users. My role involved maintaining these discussions to minimize assumptions and guiding the development of features based on our data and real user testimonials.
Our primary goal was to create a pipeline view feature, unmatched by any existing CRM, and seamlessly integrate chat functionalities from WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. Additionally, we aimed to create a user-friendly platform tailored for non-tech savvy individuals, ensuring a plug & play experience that could be set up in under five minutes.
During this phase, I also examined our competitors and alternatives in the realm of customer relationships, lead and deal management, and visualization from platforms like Pipedrive, HubSpot, and MessageBird. This exploration provided valuable insights into industry standards and user expectations, enabling me to discern prevalent design trends and best practices. We established a product roadmap that prioritized essential features for launch while allowing for ongoing product discovery and refinement. Our features were prioritized based on feasibility, potential impact, and alignment with business goals.
3. Concept and Ideation:
During the concept and ideation phase of Leadsales, I embarked on a journey of creativity and innovation to conceptualize features that would help our users. I designed the visual identity of the brand and product, featuring vibrant colors and modern styles that set the bar for future products and features. By infusing the interface with dynamic hues and contemporary design elements, I aimed to create an engaging and visually stimulating user experience.
After a couple of sprints dedicated to the design of basic wireframes and defining the initial layouts, I initiated the creation of a design system to ensure consistency across the platform. By establishing dynamic and reusable components and design guidelines, I facilitated collaboration among the development teams, enabling efficient iteration and maintenance of the product.
One of the key highlights of this phase was the creation of the funnel view, a dynamic visualization tool that offers users a comprehensive overview of their leads' progression through the sales pipeline. Drawing inspiration from established tools and feedback from our user research, I designed the funnel view to provide intuitive insights into lead status, allowing users to track and prioritize their interactions effectively using visual aids and common patterns.
I also provided prototypes for rapid testing and validation of our ideas. By creating interactive prototypes, I enabled stakeholders to visualize the proposed features and gather valuable feedback early in the design process. This iterative approach allowed us to refine our concepts quickly and iterate based on user insights, ultimately leading to a more polished and user-friendly CRM software.
My objective was that Leadsales embodied the perfect blend of functionality and aesthetics, poised to redefine the standards of lead management and communication in the industry.
4. Implementation and Iteration:
Following the initial implementation, we conducted user surveys and encountered several challenges that necessitated resolution:
Addressing Connectivity Issues: To mitigate constant disconnections, we introduced a status control feature and streamlined user actions, ensuring a smoother experience for our users.
Enhancing the Onboarding Processes: We restructured user roles, facilitating easier onboarding and account connecting processes. Additionally, we enabled support for multiple companies and teams, enhancing flexibility and scalability.
Consolidating Chat Platforms: To streamline communication, we integrated multiple chat platforms into a unified interface. This involved structuring contacts and implementing a user-friendly UI for seamless navigation across different digital channels.
Shortly, the users requested that we expand our offerings, and using the resources built in the initial pages we introduced a new mobile app, a chatbot for automated responses, and inline forms in a matter of weeks. These additions aimed to enhance the user experience and boost the overall revenue that we were getting.
Throughout these endeavors, I closely collaborated with developers to implement improvements and solve quality control issues. I continuously monitored user engagement and feedback through the customer success and social media teams. By iterating based on user data and evolving business needs, we drove continuous improvement and innovation, ultimately building the best platform in lead management and conversational commerce in Latin America.
Results
Leadsales has witnessed remarkable success and exponential growth during the past years.
Today, businesses that use Leadsales experience a boost of 400% enhancement in response time, a 50% surge in deal generation, and a remarkable 65% increase in sales.
With a daily processing capacity of over 250K WhatsApp messages and a presence in 15 countries, Leadsales caters to over 2,600 clients worldwide.
Recognized by accelerators like Berkeley SVC, and Startx, and partners like Shark Tank, Meta, Google, and Brex, and as a runner-up for Y Combinator, Leadsales is set for global expansion. They recently raised a $3.7 million seed funding round, underscoring its commitment to innovation and business empowerment.
As I reflect on Leadsales’ journey, I'm struck by the impact of UX/UI design as a key differentiator in the market.
Seeing users not just adopt but genuinely love and rely on our platform highlights the importance of empathy, user research, and intuitive design in driving engagement, loyalty, and revenue.