Scaling sales in sync: Circula uses automation to hit fintech heights

Time is money - and Manuel Ensinger knows that better than most.

As head of operations at Circula -  a software startup providing expense management solutions to 1,700 customers including Five Guys, Securitas and Omio - Ensinger is responsible for the efficiency of a company that processes millions of euros in business expense claims.

It is a fintech sector that is notoriously complex - so, when Ensinger needed to enhance Circula's digital marketing processes, he simplified.

Keeping sales systems in sync

"We use Make to sync our CRM data into Airtable," says Ensinger, whose company facilitates travel expenses, out-of-pocket expenses, credit cards and employee benefits.

"We have our salespeople add new lead data. We can enrich those leads and then push them to HubSpot.

"This is just something that is not really possible just with HubSpot, so it's great to connect HubSpot and Airtable through Make that way."

True to its name, Berlin-based Circula also uses Make's integration and automation platform to push its customer contacts data back from HubSpot to Airtable, ensuring its systems all stay in perpetual sync.

From intern to innovator

This workflow wizardry is a long way from Ensinger's starting point.

Munich-raised, the keen footballer admits to being lackluster at computer science at school.

But Ensinger has since seized upon the new wave of no-code tools, overtaking his tutors "to automate processes and solve complex problems fast" - the kind of tasks that once required programming skills.

Those new powers led him to the head of operations job, less than two years after college and after first joining Circula as an intern.

Now Enginser is using Make to activate his business-school background with a series of automatic, seamless software integrations that is moving his company forward.

Sales enablement at speed

By ensuring that the team’s data is always up-to-date, Circula has laid groundwork for better decision-making and faster action upon marketing leads, increasing the chances of closing deals.

Ensinger has also engineered an integration that builds reports on each hot lead, sending them immediately to sales staff via Slack.

"As a result of that automation, our sales team is definitely better enabled," Ensinger tells us.

"It's easier for them to hand off data from SDRs (sales development representatives) to account executives, for example.

"By automating these reports with Make, we have more time to spend on the things that actually matter."

Data integrity boosts prospects

Speed is not the only outcome - accuracy, too, has taken a leap forward.

"There is no failure through manual work.," Ensinger adds. There's no missing data, there's no unclean data - that really helped us with lead generation and also lead management."

When you are pitching to handle payments for finance departments in some of Europe's leading companies, attention to detail matters. For Circula, inaccurate information about a prospect could kill a sales conversation.

But, by building its pipes using Make, Circula is ensuring no data is leaked or contaminated

"We can analyze our data more accurately and reliably, and that really impacts our growth," Ensinger says.

Scaling sales for Circula

The kind of processes Manuel Ensinger has introduced to Circula are driving tangible growth for the company.

The company ranks among the FT1000 fastest-growing European companies, with a four-year growth rate of 1,987. It has also expanded to the Netherlands, adding to its operations in Germany and Spain, while opening a larger new office at home in Berlin.

Circula's mission is to "build the best European platform for employee spending", through its goal of "building a scalable and efficient go-to-market strategy".

By freeing-up the time that really does add up to money, Ensinger is helping the company do just that.

Just like Circula, you too can harness the power of Make to automate tasks, streamline workflows, and achieve growth in record time. Sign up for an account today and kickstart your automation-powered journey towards operational excellence.