Military Fasteners + HubSpot

A connected foundation for proactive account growth.

Military Fasteners is modernizing its operational, ecommerce, sales, and service platforms at the same time. The opportunity is to build HubSpot alongside that new foundation so every customer interaction, RFQ, quote, order, service request, and buying signal can contribute to a more proactive and scalable growth model.

The objective is not simply to implement a CRM. It is to give sales and service teams a clearer way to prioritize accounts, follow up on opportunities, respond to customers, and measure performance.

Executive summary
Microsoft Business Central
Operational system of record
Shopify
Ecommerce experience
HubSpot
Sales, service, intelligence, and engagement
SmartBug
Architecture, implementation, integration, and enablement
The opportunity

One transformation. Multiple systems. One connected customer strategy.

Military Fasteners is moving away from a homegrown environment and introducing new platforms across ERP, ecommerce, tax, CRM, sales, and customer service. Each platform has an important role, but the value will come from how well the systems and teams work together.

A new inside sales motion

Military Fasteners is building a proactive inside sales team capable of managing hundreds of accounts per representative. Reps need prioritized work queues, account intelligence, structured follow-up, and clear performance expectations.

High-volume RFQ management

The team processes approximately 200 RFQs per day. Reps may have several hundred active quotes at one time, making consistent follow-up and management visibility difficult without automation.

Account coverage and retention

Leadership needs a clear way to identify growing accounts, declining accounts, dormant customers, high-value accounts without recent contact, and customers showing renewed buying intent.

A clearer sales and service model

The organization is evolving from a blended customer service and sales structure toward clearer ownership, better handoffs, and more measurable performance across both teams.

What SmartBug understands

The current opportunity and the desired future state.

Today

The current opportunity

  • No established CRM or structured sales process
  • Limited visibility into calls, emails, tasks, and rep activity
  • Inconsistent quote follow-up
  • No scalable ownership model for the long tail of customer accounts
  • Limited account growth, decline, and churn reporting
  • Multiple RFQ intake channels
  • A complex sourcing model for products that may not yet exist in the ERP item master
  • A need to minimize disruption during the Business Central rollout
Future state

The desired future state

  • Every account has appropriate ownership
  • Reps begin each day with prioritized accounts and actions
  • RFQs are captured, routed, tracked, and followed up consistently
  • Sales and customer service handoffs are visible
  • Customer and order history supports every interaction
  • Website and ecommerce behavior creates actionable sales signals
  • Leadership can measure activity, response time, conversion, account growth, and revenue
  • The architecture can expand over time without requiring another CRM replacement
The future-state operating model

The right system for the right job.

Shopify
  • Ecommerce storefront
  • Product browsing
  • Cart and checkout
  • Customer ecommerce experience
  • Online order and RFQ activity
Avalara
  • Tax calculation and compliance
HubSpot
Engagement layer
  • Companies and contacts
  • Account ownership
  • RFQ and opportunity tracking
  • Sales activities
  • Quote follow-up
  • Customer service
  • Website intent
  • Customer reactivation
  • Reporting and dashboards
  • Customer intelligence
Microsoft Business Central
  • Item and inventory master
  • Sourcing
  • Operational quoting
  • Sales orders
  • Fulfillment
  • Financial and transactional truth
Klaviyo
Phase-one ecommerce marketing
  • Browse abandonment
  • Cart abandonment
  • Existing ecommerce triggers
  • Existing campaign reporting

The final integration design will be validated jointly with Military Fasteners, RSM, Revenue Optics, HubSpot, and SmartBug. Specific Business Central object behavior is subject to technical validation and is not assumed to be native.

A day in the life of an account manager

From a list of accounts to a prioritized daily plan.

Today's priorities
  • 5high-value customers have not ordered in 60 days
  • 3active quotes expire this week
  • 2customers visited key product pages yesterday
  • 4accounts have not been contacted in 90 days
  • 1growing customer has increased order frequency
  • 3dormant accounts have recently re-engaged
Account workspace
Aerodyne Components, Inc.
Tier 1 · Owner: P. Twombly · 14 contacts
Growing
Company details
Contacts
Recent emails and calls
Order history
Open RFQs
Open quotes
Service tickets
Website activity
Recommended next action
Follow-up actions
The RFQ-to-order journey

A more visible RFQ and quote process.

01
RFQ received

Shopify product page · Website RFQ form · Shared email inbox · Direct rep email · Phone call · Proactive sales conversation

02
Customer and account identified

HubSpot checks existing account ownership, customer tier, previous orders, open quotes, and recent activity.

03
RFQ routed

Routed to existing account owner, customer service representative, round-robin queue, or specialized sourcing team.

04
Quote prepared

Business Central is expected to remain the primary operational quoting platform during the initial phase, subject to final architecture validation.

To be validated
05
Quote status returned to HubSpot

Quote number · Quote amount · Date sent · Expiration date · Quote status · Required follow-up date.

06
Automated follow-up

Follow up after one business day · Reminder before expiration · Escalation on no activity · Personalized outreach · Manager notification for high-value stalled quotes.

07
Order created

The resulting Business Central or Shopify order updates the customer record and reporting in HubSpot.

The goal is not to force every quoting activity into HubSpot on day one. The goal is to make sure every RFQ and quote has clear ownership, visibility, follow-up, and measurable outcomes.

Phase-one HubSpot foundation

Build the capabilities that deliver value first.

WORKSTREAM 01

Sales Hub Enterprise

  • CRM architecture
  • Companies and contacts
  • Account ownership
  • Sales teams and permissions
  • Inside sales workspace
  • Account segmentation
  • Tasks, sequences, and playbooks
  • Pipelines and opportunity management
  • Outlook integration
  • Sales activity reporting
WORKSTREAM 02

RFQ and quote follow-up

  • RFQ intake design
  • RFQ record or custom object
  • Assignment and routing
  • Sales-to-service handoffs
  • Quote status tracking
  • Follow-up workflows
  • Stalled-quote escalation
  • RFQ and quote reporting
WORKSTREAM 03

Service Hub Professional

  • Shared support inbox
  • Ticket pipelines
  • Ticket assignment
  • Inquiry categories
  • Response tracking
  • Knowledge-base foundation
  • Common order, shipping, certification, and documentation inquiries
  • Foundation for future Customer Agent capabilities
WORKSTREAM 04

Marketing Hub Professional

  • Website activity tracking
  • Customer reactivation
  • High-intent customer alerts
  • Account-based lists
  • Email campaigns for dormant customers
  • Coordination with Klaviyo
  • Marketing and sales visibility
WORKSTREAM 05

Data Hub and integrations

  • Business Central integration
  • Shopify integration
  • Data mapping
  • Customer deduplication
  • Source-of-truth rules
  • Historical-data strategy
  • Data-quality automation
  • Integration monitoring
What HubSpot should own

Clear ownership across the platform stack.

HubSpot should own

  • Sales and service engagement
  • Account ownership
  • Rep activities
  • RFQ workflow
  • Opportunity follow-up
  • Customer-intent signals
  • Customer support workflow
  • Customer reactivation
  • Management reporting

Business Central should own

  • Inventory
  • Item master
  • Product sourcing
  • Operational quote record
  • Sales orders
  • Fulfillment
  • Financial records
  • Transactional truth

To be validated

  • Creation of quotes in HubSpot
  • Handling of nonstock custom products
  • Product and item synchronization
  • Quote-to-order writeback
  • Tax workflow
  • Historical quote migration
  • Klaviyo replacement timing
Reporting and leadership visibility

From activity reporting to account intelligence.

Sales execution

Calls
Emails
Meetings
Tasks completed
Accounts contacted
Follow-up compliance

RFQ and quote performance

RFQs received
RFQs assigned
RFQs quoted
RFQs not quoted
Quote turnaround time
Quote conversion rate
Quotes approaching expiration
Stalled high-value quotes

Account management

Growing accounts
Declining accounts
Dormant accounts
Customers without recent orders
High-value accounts without recent contact
Revenue and order-frequency trends

Customer service

Ticket volume
Inquiry categories
Response time
Resolution time
Backlog
Repetitive inquiries
Self-service opportunities
Phased roadmap

A controlled rollout aligned to the ERP transformation.

Timeline is illustrative and dependent on Business Central readiness and technical validation.

  1. PHASE 1

    Alignment and architecture

    June 2026
    • Confirm business outcomes
    • Finalize sales and service responsibilities
    • Map RFQ-to-order process
    • Define systems of record
    • Review integration requirements with RSM
    • Confirm implementation roles
    • Finalize scope and timeline
  2. PHASE 2

    HubSpot foundation and integration build

    July – August 2026
    • HubSpot data model
    • Sales and service configuration
    • Account ownership
    • RFQ workflow
    • Business Central integration
    • Shopify integration
    • Reporting foundation
    • Initial automation

    Work should be coordinated carefully around the Business Central August cutover.

  3. PHASE 3

    Validation and user acceptance testing

    August – September 2026
    • Data validation
    • Workflow testing
    • Integration testing
    • RFQ and quote-status testing
    • Dashboard validation
    • Pilot-user feedback
    • Launch-readiness review
  4. PHASE 4

    Training and controlled launch

    September – early October 2026
    • Administrator training
    • Sales training
    • Customer service training
    • Role-based documentation
    • Controlled team rollout
    • Launch support
  5. PHASE 5

    Optimization

    Post-launch
    • Adoption review
    • Workflow refinement
    • Reporting improvements
    • Commerce Hub pilot
    • Klaviyo evaluation
    • AI and service automation roadmap
Clear implementation responsibilities

A collaborative model with clear ownership.

Military Fasteners

  • Executive decisions
  • Process validation
  • Data access
  • User participation
  • Testing and acceptance
  • Internal change leadership

Revenue Optics

  • Inside sales operating model
  • Rep roles
  • KPIs
  • Account coverage strategy
  • Sales coaching model
  • Outbound messaging strategy

RSM

  • Business Central
  • Shopify implementation
  • Avalara implementation
  • Business Central customizations
  • ERP technical access
  • ERP-side integration support

SmartBug

  • HubSpot architecture
  • HubSpot implementation
  • Data model
  • Automation
  • Reporting
  • Integration design and development
  • Testing and QA
  • Training and enablement
  • Launch support

Military Fasteners should not be expected to act as its own HubSpot implementation team.

Phase-two opportunities

Designed to expand as the foundation matures.

Ecommerce marketing consolidation

Evaluate whether HubSpot should eventually replace some or all Klaviyo programs.

Commerce and CPQ expansion

Pilot HubSpot quoting for standard, repeatable, or stocked-product use cases.

Customer Agent

Automate common order-status, shipping, certification, and FAQ inquiries.

RFQ intelligence

Explore OCR, document parsing, data extraction, enrichment, and assisted quote creation.

Prospecting and market development

Support proactive outreach into new markets and verticals, including nuclear energy.

Advanced customer health

Combine order frequency, revenue trends, engagement, open quotes, and support history into account health scoring.

Decisions to validate

The decisions that will shape a successful phase one.

  1. 01

    When should HubSpot implementation begin relative to Business Central go-live?

  2. 02

    Will RFQs be represented as deals or as a dedicated custom object?

  3. 03

    Which RFQ and quote fields must flow from Business Central into HubSpot?

  4. 04

    Which system owns formal quote creation during phase one?

  5. 05

    What customer identifier will connect records across systems?

  6. 06

    How much historical order and quote data is required?

  7. 07

    Which Klaviyo workflows remain active during phase one?

  8. 08

    Which service channels should be included in the initial launch?

  9. 09

    Who will own HubSpot administration after go-live?

  10. 10

    Which capabilities are required for October and which can follow later?

What clients say

Trusted by organizations that need more than a vendor.

SmartBug has been a great partner to work with. They took the time to understand our complex environment and helped identify opportunities to provide better data to our sales team through the HubSpot sync. We recommend working with them if you need someone who understands marketing automation, complex integrations, and developing systems to empower your teams.

Joshua Van Kley
Adair Homes

Our company leverages SmartBug's vast knowledge of HubSpot in multiple domains. They assist us with sales and marketing analytics, ran implementation for our support platform, and are generally available to answer any questions we have. They are truly an extension of our team and serve as trusted advisors to our executives.

Davin Marceau
Access

SmartBug is an agency full of experts without all the ego. From the very beginning of our partnership, every single SmartBug employee we've worked with has been very communicative and eager to help. They don't just get it done — they teach us why we should be doing it a certain way.

Elizabeth Yu
Quest Software
Why SmartBug

A partner built for the platform and the complexity around it.

Military Fasteners needs more than basic portal setup. The implementation requires an understanding of HubSpot, ERP and ecommerce integrations, high-volume sales processes, customer service workflows, reporting, data architecture, and organizational adoption.

HubSpot North American Partner of the Year — 2024 & 2025
HubSpot Impact Award winner
250+
HubSpot certifications across team
1,000+
HubSpot implementations delivered
HubSpot strategy and implementation

Translate the operating model into a scalable HubSpot architecture.

Integration and development

Coordinate HubSpot with Business Central, Shopify, and the surrounding technology ecosystem.

Revenue operations

Connect account ownership, RFQ management, follow-up, service, automation, and reporting.

Training and adoption

Give sales, service, leadership, and administrators the confidence to use the platform effectively.

"Partners like SmartBug Media are setting the standard for what impact looks like today—delivering measurable customer value and leading with innovation to help customers grow better."

Angela O'Dowd
VP, Solutions Partner Program, HubSpot
Recognized byHubSpot·G2·Clutch·Inc. 5000·Adweek
Recommended next step

Align the architecture before accelerating the build.

The recommended next step is a focused architecture and requirements sprint involving Military Fasteners, Revenue Optics, RSM, HubSpot, and SmartBug.

The sprint should produce
  • Final future-state process maps
  • HubSpot data model
  • RFQ and quoting architecture
  • Integration requirements
  • Source-of-truth matrix
  • Historical-data strategy
  • Roles and responsibilities
  • Confirmed implementation roadmap
  • Final scope and investment

Protect the ERP launch. Build the growth engine.

With the right architecture and division of responsibilities, Military Fasteners can introduce HubSpot without disrupting the Business Central transformation and create a scalable platform for account growth, customer service, and long-term innovation.