How to Calculate Your Return on Investment for the HIPE CRM Module
Why should you implement the HIPE CRM module?
HIPE helps you centralize your customer data to secure your historical records, gain a 360° view of your customer performance, and measure progress.
With a comprehensive overview, our solution enables you to effectively build sales forecasts and better segment your customer base, while identifying, tracking, and capitalizing on opportunities so you can convert them more easily and quickly.
What is the purpose of ROI calculations?
In the world of CRM software, ROI promises are often spectacular: “300% increase in conversion rates” (Forbes), “42:1 ROI” (Nucleus Research), “tripled sales pipeline” (SuperAGI). These figures are widely circulated in white papers, sales presentations, and analyst reports. However, when we look at academic research in management, information systems, or B2B marketing, the narrative is markedly different—more nuanced, but also more robust. Researchers do not view CRM as a magic wand, but rather as an organizational and informational system whose impact depends heavily on the context in which it is implemented.
At Packitoo, we made a clear choice to develop a methodology for calculating CRM ROI that aligns with academic research while remaining practical for manufacturers.
What are some typical improvements?
- Improving the quality of customer information: Centralization, data reliability, and traceability of interactions
- Better coordination among teams across different departments: Alignment between sales, sales administration/customer service, quoting/methods, engineering, prepress, and production
- Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty: Improved sales follow-up, strengthened customer relationships, and consistent fulfillment of commitments
However, in an industrial setting (custom manufacturing), these gains are achieved through the reliability of the pipeline and forecasting, the prioritization of high-value-added opportunities, improved monitoring of strategic accounts, as well as enhanced contract management, service delivery, and claims handling. Unfortunately, these gains do not always immediately translate into spectacular figures, but they secure margins, reduce commercial risks, and improve long-term relationships.
For example, in a recent case study, a positive correlation was found between CRM usage and improvements in sales, profitability, and customer loyalty. The observed gains are driven by key factors such as the clarity of the CRM strategy, actual adoption by teams, and the integration of data quality with industrial processes and other systems (ERP, CPQ, MES).
The Packitoo Approach
At Packitoo, our approach to return on investment is based on two key factors:
1️⃣ Time saved
- Less data entry
- Less time spent searching for information
- Better preparation for appointments and quotes
- Direct assessment based on the hourly cost of the sales and pre-sales teams.
The effect on the conversion rate
- Better tracking of opportunities
- Pipeline prioritization
- Fewer losses due to oversights or inconsistencies
- Applying a conversion rate to the total value of quotes, the average order size, and the margin.
Rather than imposing a single figure, we recommend—as the researchers implicitly do—an approach based on scenarios:
- Conservative scenario: improvement in the conversion rate of +0.5 to +1 percentage point
- Base-case scenario: an increase in the conversion rate of 2 to 3 percentage points
- Ambitious goal: improving the conversion rate by 5 percentage points or more
(typically observed in organizations that are initially very loosely structured)
These assumptions are explained, discussed, and put into context; they are never presented as universal averages.
Data to enter for the CRM HIPE ROI calculation:
In a custom, make-to-order manufacturing environment, the most commonly used performance metrics for measuring the impact of a CPQ compared to manual processes (Excel, quotes via ERP, Word/PDF quotes, email approvals, etc.) are:
- The average time to issue a quote (following a customer request)
- The error rate in quotes (configuration / feasibility / price)
- The rate of requests for changes or revisions to quotes
- The quote-to-order conversion rate
- Pre-sales design time or design phase (Engineering Department, prepress)
- Average gross margin per order and margin variation
- Total quote-to-cash cycle time (from customer request to payment)
- The on-time delivery rate when the CPQ is integrated with the production ERP
- Customer satisfaction level (NPS or satisfaction score after quote/order)
Data to enter for the CRM HIPE ROI calculation:
Company A
A medium-sized company in the corrugated packaging sector, located near Bordeaux, France. Projected revenue of approximately €10 million. The company’s sales team typically generates 15,000 quotes per year, and it regularly participates in major packaging trade shows.
- Number of quote lines per year
- Average number of quote lines per sales proposal (to determine the number of quotes/sales proposals sent to customers)
- Average cart value per order
- Gross margin (contribution)
- Time spent by a sales representative or sales administrator preparing a quote
- Number of weeks worked per year
- Average hourly rate for a sales representative/sales administrator
- Number of sales representatives/sales administrators
- Estimated increase in conversion rates, thanks to faster and better-tracked responses
Detailed ROI calculation formulas:
1️⃣ Time saved on sales administration and sales tracking
Time saved = Weekly time saved per sales representative/sales administrator × Average hourly cost × Number of weeks worked per year × Number of sales representatives/sales administrators
2️⃣ Additional revenue thanks to an increased conversion rate
Profit from increased conversion rate = Number of quotes per year × Estimated profit per conversion × Average order value × Margin (contribution)
Data from Company A:
- 15,000 quote lines per year
- Average number of lines per quote (sales offer): 1.92
- Average basket size: €3,500
- Gross margin (contribution): 55%
- 2 hours saved per sales representative or sales administrator per week
- Number of weeks worked per year: 46
- Hourly rate: €38/hour
- Number of sales representatives/sales administrators: 8
- Estimated conversion gain: +1 point
📈 Calculations:
- Time saved: 2 × 8 × 38 × 46 = €28,000
- Profit from improved conversion rate: ((15,000 / 1.92) × 1%) × 3,500 × 55% = €150,400
💰 Total CRM module: €178,400 in annualized savings