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Innovating on a Microscopic Scale While Expanding Global Reach
It can be hard to imagine performing precise work at scales 90,000 times smaller than a human hair, yet that’s where Aerotech's innovations drive global impact. The designer and manufacturer of motion control and precision positioning systems is responsible for everything from life-saving heart stents, to semiconductors in smartphones, to calibrated mirrors in the James Webb telescope that allow humans to explore the universe.
Although the possibilities for Aerotech's technology are limitless, their challenges are much more down to earth: expanding their global business by winning new customers. To do that, the company had to maximize the productivity of their sales team, says Tilman Nadolsky, Sales Operations Manager.
Aerotech adopted Breeze, embeded into Sales Hub, to streamline routine tasks and gain deeper insights into customer needs. With AI-powered insights, the sales team prioritized high-value leads and engaged more effectively. As a result, Aerotech increased their win rate and reduced the time to close, allowing sales reps to build stronger relationships with prospective clients.
Accelerating AI adoption across Aerotech in three months
Like many manufacturers, Pittsburgh-based Aerotech faces intense competition for qualified labor. The issue reached a boiling point at the start of the 2020 pandemic when the company introduced automation and AI to supplement its manufacturing process. That initiative led them to consider other areas where AI could have a positive impact.
“We compete intensely on labor, not product. Finding talent became very difficult, so we had to find ways to supplement our manufacturing process with AI and automation in ways we never had to think about before,” Tilman explained.
The innovation-driven company didn’t want to adopt AI just for AI’s sake. They believe AI shouldn’t replace the human touch, especially in sales, where personal connection is vital.
"AI helps organize and coordinate many different activities for our salespeople, so they can spend more time engaging with customers, more time in front of their customers, and more time out on the road," Tilman says.
Tilman’s goal was clear: streamline processes without overwhelming the team or losing the human touch. With HubSpot’s Sales Hub, they found a solution that balanced AI-driven efficiency with the personal connection that defines their sales strategy. HubSpot’s intuitive interface made AI adoption quick, with the sales team fully onboarded within three months. Of the three sales software options Aerotech considered, only HubSpot could deliver within the desired timeframe of three months.
It worked because HubSpot built the Sales Hub interface as a salesperson would expect. From there, it became easy to adopt the hub’s AI features . Rather than being a new process, it felt familiar from the start.
“Change management is tricky, but HubSpot, being the intuitive and easy-to-adopt tool it is, made it easier to get half our company on the platform.” Within three months, Aerotech’s entire marketing, sales, and service organization was using the same ecosystem, a feat that Tilman calls “incredible.”
With their new AI-driven system in place, Aerotech shifted focus from maintaining the status quo to expanding into new markets. Previously reliant on repeat business, which accounted for as much as 80% of their sales, they aimed to capitalize on new opportunities and drive growth by targeting and winning new customers.
This strategy required an organizational shift for the sales team, which had to scale their efforts without increasing headcount. Tilman wanted to deliver better tools to enable them to find and win prospects.
Breeze provided reps with detailed research and competitive insights, enabling them to quickly prioritize and understand their most promising leads. With so much more background information at their fingertips, the sales team has become much more effective at qualifying leads. "For a salesperson responsible for up to 1,500 different accounts in their territory, the ability to understand what is a good fit and what is not a good fit without having to do a ton of extra legwork allows them to focus their time and prioritize who they should be going after," Tilman says.
Armed with Breeze Copilot (ChatSpot) and AI-driven sequences, Aerotech’s sales reps prepared for meetings faster and approached prospects armed with comprehensive information.
"Our sales team goes into that first meeting with a prospect armed with a lot more information than they would have if they were relying on manual research," Tilman says. This preparation, combined with the AI-Guided Actions feature, empowered salespeople to take the right steps at the right time, dramatically improving their win rate.
Incorporating these tools alongside automated sequences has increased Aerotech’s win rate for new business opportunities from 15% to 25% while increasing the average deal size by $10K. Meanwhile, the team has drastically cut its average time to close by more than half, from 309 days before they started using HubSpot to 135 days today.
Tilman attributes these stats to an enhanced customer experience. By leveraging HubSpot AI, Aerotech’s sales people stay in closer contact with prospects and demonstrate a deeper understanding of their unique challenges. This personalized, well-researched approach has not only improved engagement, but also built stronger relationships that customers notice and appreciate.
"Our team is armed with information about the customer's orders, competitors, relevant news, and challenges they face," Tilman says. "This preparation allows them to drive value and show how Aerotech can help solve their problems."
“AI has improved the quality and quantity of interactions with our customers, enabling us to communicate in a hyper-personalized way and at a set cadence, which they appreciate.”
Maximizing efficiencies saves 18 hours weekly for more customer engagement
With sales reps operating across 15+ countries, maintaining a consistent sales approach was challenging. Aerotech needed a unified system to ensure every rep had a single source of truth for each account.
“Having a unified view of our customer in HubSpot—where our sales, service, and marketing teams all operate—allows us to have a single source of truth for that account,” Tilman says. Aerotech always captured valuable customer intelligence, but it was scattered across different systems. Now, HubSpot’s AI features surface insights that were previously buried, allowing sales reps to make data-driven decisions faster.
“Artificial intelligence has done a great job of uncovering those insights that were sitting there, things that may not have been obvious to our sales team, and bringing them to life,” Tilman says.
Having all of Aerotech’s sales tools and data in one place saves a "tremendous" amount of time, in addition to the time saved by automating activities like writing meeting summaries. According to Tilman’s estimate, HubSpot’s new AI sales forecasting tool saves the sales team 18 hours per week—extra time they can spend walking customers through onboarding or answering questions.
“AI is not a human replacement,” Tilman concludes. “It's a powerful tool that gives us more time back in our day, time that we spend expanding new business opportunities and building deeper, more meaningful connections with our customers.”
With HubSpot, Aerotech isn't just keeping up with the competition; they’re setting the pace for innovation in their industry.
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