How We Built Our Sales Automation Stack in 2025
We built Enrola because we couldn't find a tool that solved the specific problem we had. But before we started building, we tested everything we could find. Here's an honest account of what we tried, what worked, and what didn't.
The problem we were trying to solve
In 2024, our inbound volume had grown to the point where our small sales team couldn't keep up with first responses. Leads were sitting for hours. We were losing deals to faster competitors. The obvious answer was to hire more SDRs. We tried a different approach first.
What we tested
We tested three categories of tools: chatbots for the website, email automation sequences, and dedicated lead response platforms. Each had real limitations.
Website chatbots captured some leads but felt transactional. They answered FAQ-style questions well but couldn't handle a prospect who wanted to explain their situation in their own words. The drop-off rate when conversations got nuanced was high.
Email sequences worked for warming cold outbound, but for inbound leads, they were too slow and too generic. An automated email arriving 20 minutes after a form submission is not the same as a response — it feels like a confirmation receipt, not a conversation.
The dedicated lead response platforms were better, but the ones we tested in 2024 still felt fragile. Conversations broke down when prospects went off-script. Handoff to human reps was clunky.
What we actually built
We ended up building Enrola from scratch, focused on the specific problem: responding to inbound leads within 90 seconds, qualifying them through a natural conversation, and booking meetings directly into the sales team calendar. No chatbot, no email sequence — a genuine conversational qualification flow.
The tech decisions that mattered most: keeping the conversation in the channel where the lead was most comfortable (email, SMS, or website chat depending on context), configuring a qualification logic layer that could handle off-script conversations, and building a CRM sync that was real-time and native rather than Zapier-dependent.
What we'd do differently
Start with fewer channels. We tried to support four contact channels from day one and none of them were as good as they needed to be. Pick the one channel that matches your leads' behaviour, do it well, then expand.
Involve the sales team earlier. The qualification logic that works is the logic that reflects how your best sales reps think about a good lead. That knowledge doesn't come from product managers — it comes from sitting with your reps and asking what they actually want to know before they take a call.