A vehicle broker was spending 40 to 60 minutes of manual admin on every deal: finding the right dealers, copying email addresses, creating tender documents, sending emails, and logging everything back to the client record. We built a Pipedrive CRM with a 600+ dealer database and Make.com automation that reduced that to 2 minutes per deal, allowing the business to scale from 5 to 20+ deals per week without hiring.
This project was built on Pipedrive, not monday.com. We work across CRM platforms because the right solution depends on the business, not on a preferred vendor. The architecture and automation principles are the same regardless of which CRM sits underneath.
The challenge
The broker sources cars for customers through a network of 600+ dealerships across multiple states. The process works by tendering to relevant dealers based on the vehicle make and the customer's location, then presenting the best options to the client. He also arranges asset finance for purchases.
Before we started, the workflow was entirely manual:
Finding relevant dealers meant searching through Outlook contact lists manually grouped by state and car make. For a customer wanting a Toyota in Victoria, the owner had to find the right list, verify it was current, and copy all the email addresses. 10 to 15 minutes.
Creating the tender document meant opening a template, filling in vehicle specifications, customer requirements, and delivery details. 15 to 20 minutes.
Sending the tender meant composing a BCC email to all matched dealers, attaching the document, and sending. 5 to 10 minutes.
Logging meant going back to the legacy CRM (used only for basic contact storage) and updating the client record. 5 minutes.
There was no deal pipeline visibility. No way to see at a glance how many deals were in progress, what stage they were at, or which ones needed follow-up. Email conversations were disconnected from deals. Dealer responses came back as separate email threads with no central comparison view.
The fundamental problem: scaling was linear. Every new deal required the same 40 to 60 minutes of manual work. The owner wanted to grow from 5 to 10 deals per week to 20+, but the manual process made that physically impossible without hiring.
What we built
Over 3 weeks, we delivered a full CRM implementation with automated dealer matching and tender distribution.
Two sales pipelines
Vehicle Brokering and Asset Finance, each with staged workflows and rotten-day alerts for deals that stall. Pipeline stages mirror the actual deal lifecycle from enquiry through to delivery. The owner now sees every deal at a glance: stage, value, age, and next action.
28 custom deal fields
Covering the complete tender document: vehicle specifications, registration details, delivery requirements, accessories, and finance terms. These fields serve double duty. They capture the information needed to manage the deal AND they automatically generate the tender email content. No separate document creation needed.
Dealer database
178 dealerships imported as organisations, each tagged with the car makes they carry and the state they operate in. 191 dealer contacts linked to their organisations with full contact details. 49 makes mapped across the network. 50 multi-make dealerships correctly consolidated so a dealer carrying Toyota and Mazda appears once with both makes tagged, not as two separate entries.
Vehicle enquiry web form
Replacing the previous email-based intake. Customer enquiries create deals directly in the pipeline with all details pre-populated.
Automated dealer matching and tender distribution
This is the core automation, built with Make.com:
- The owner fills in vehicle details on the deal (make, model, specs, customer location)
- He drags the deal to the "Tender Sent to Dealers" stage
- A webhook fires to Make.com
- Make.com matches dealers by car make and state using pre-built filter logic
- Up to 5 matched dealers are auto-populated on the deal record
- All matched dealer contact emails are fetched automatically
- A formatted HTML tender email is generated from the deal fields and sent via BCC to all matched dealers
- The email is logged to the deal timeline via smart BCC
- Reply-to is configured so dealer responses route directly back to the owner
The entire process from "drag to stage" to "tender sent" takes seconds.
The results
| Task | Before (manual) | After (automated) |
|---|---|---|
| Find relevant dealers by make and state | 10-15 min | 0 (instant matching) |
| Copy dealer email addresses | 5-10 min | 0 (automatic) |
| Create tender document | 15-20 min | 0 (generated from deal fields) |
| Send BCC email to dealers | 5-10 min | 0 (automatic) |
| Log email to deal/client record | 5 min | 0 (automatic) |
| Total per deal | 40-60 min | ~2 min |
At 20 deals per week, that is 12 to 20 hours saved weekly. The business can now handle 20+ deals per week without hiring, because the manual bottleneck has been removed.
Full pipeline visibility means every deal is tracked with stage, value, and age at a glance. Email history is logged to deals automatically. Dealer matching eliminates human error: no more wrong dealer lists, missed emails, or tenders sent without key details.
Key takeaways
The right CRM depends on the business, not the platform. Pipedrive was the right choice here because the owner needed a simple, focused sales pipeline tool with minimal complexity. A sole operator does not need the multi-board, multi-workspace architecture that monday.com offers. Platform selection should always follow requirements, not preferences.
Deal fields that generate output eliminate duplicate work. By designing the 28 custom fields to serve as both data capture and document generation input, we removed the entire step of creating a separate tender document. The deal record is the document.
Make.com automation transforms the economics of a one-person operation. The automation cost is a fraction of an employee's salary, but it removes the manual ceiling that prevented the business from scaling. This pattern applies to any brokerage, matching, or distribution business where the operator is the bottleneck.
We understand CRM architecture across platforms. Whether your business runs on Pipedrive, monday.com, or something else entirely, the design principles are the same: structure data to eliminate duplicate entry, automate the repeatable steps, and give the operator visibility into everything at a glance.
If your business model involves matching, tendering, or distributing deals across a network, the same automation approach applies. Book a free consultation and we will map out what it would look like for your operation.
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