Deal management that handles exchange rate movement, with data brought together in HubSpot | Unitemp Japan Inc.

About the client
Unitemp Japan Inc.
HP：https://www.unitemp.jp/
Industry: manufacturing and import trading
Employees: 4
Products: Sales Hub (Professional) / Service Hub (Starter)

Unitemp Japan Inc. (founded 2012, Machida, Tokyo) imports, sells and supports semiconductor manufacturing equipment from Unitemp of Germany, covering back-end packaging technology.
They work under the idea of being a bridge between Japan and Germany.

The problem: currency management in international business and scattered information, made worse by the wrong tool

Working to win new customers and grow revenue, Unitemp Japan faced challenges in making sales more efficient, digitising customer work, and handling the exchange rate movement that comes with international business.
As a first step they adopted a CRM from another vendor, and in the process ran into the following.

1. What went wrong with the previous CRM: the language barrier and the cost of learning the tool

The CRM they had adopted was their first CRM or SFA system, and because of what the product was, they never used it fully.

An overseas product, with documentation in English
The product was sold mainly outside Japan, so the interface and the documentation were largely in English. Understanding it took time, and learning the tool became the job.

Not enough support
It was their first system, and support was based overseas, so prompt help in Japanese was hard to get. Features they had paid for went unused.

2. A problem specific to international business: no handling of exchange rate movement

Because Unitemp Japan imports and sells German semiconductor equipment, exchange rate movement feeds directly into their margins and their decisions.
The previous CRM did not handle that.

No handling of complex cost calculations
Unlike domestic trade, importing means always taking exchange rates into account. Import consumption tax, international freight and other costs that rarely arise for domestic companies also had to be tracked accurately.

Inefficient data management
Because the previous tool had no exchange rate handling, converting foreign-currency costs into yen at the rate on a given date was done by hand. That was inefficient, and it also caused calculation errors and delayed an accurate view of cost and margin.

3. Inefficiency from a split between process and data

With existing tools and paper-based task management, data was scattered and working together was difficult.

Unclear deal progress, and scattered information
Tasks and email history with customers were spread around, so searching wasted time and sales slowed.

A gap between customer support and revenue
Enquiries about maintenance, and the paid repairs or added options that grew out of them, were linked by hand. That made the work cumbersome, risked missing chances to charge, and lost information in the handover from support to sales.

HubSpot implementation: a custom build that resolved the complexity of international business

To solve this, they looked at a new CRM or SFA. They chose HubSpot because it could be customised to match what they wanted to do and because the interface was easy to use.
Looking for a specialist to work alongside them, they came to NowVillage Inc.

What we did was mainly the following.

1. Making deals visible

We built pipeline-based progress management.
Deal stages were clearly defined, such as quotation sent and 80% likely to close, and made visible on a board. That gave a clear view of the sales process and let them judge from data which deals to focus on.

2. Automatic currency conversion

We custom-built automatic conversion from foreign currency to yen in HubSpot.
To handle the exchange rate risk at the heart of an import business, we worked through their calculation logic. Using custom properties and workflows, we built a feature that applies the rate on a given date to a cost entered in foreign currency and converts it to yen automatically.

3. Designing the move from maintenance to revenue

We designed a workflow that moves a ticket into a deal.
For cases where a maintenance enquiry grows into a repair or a new option, we built logic that hands data and tasks seamlessly from tickets in Service Hub to deals in Sales Hub, preventing missed revenue and making the work more efficient. HubSpot and Google Workspace
We designed the connection with Google Workspace (Gmail and Calendar) to log tasks and email automatically.
We connected the Gmail and Google Calendar they use daily with HubSpot, so that email history, tasks and meetings are recorded automatically against the relevant deal, removing a great deal of manual entry. That lets the sales team focus on the work that matters.

Results: the inefficiency around tasks and exchange rates is gone

With information that had been spread across paper and several tools now in a single CRM, searching no longer wastes time, and they tell us the biggest result is simply being able to get work done efficiently.

They have also seen the following.

1. International trade handled accurately and quickly

On exchange rates, costs entered in foreign currency are now converted to yen automatically at the rate on a given date. Manual calculation is gone, and accurate costing that accounts for currency movement supports faster decisions.

2. Sales and customer work connected smoothly

Managing deals visually on a board was described as a substantial improvement in clarity and ease of management. Connecting Google Workspace means email logs and tasks flow into HubSpot automatically, cutting non-core work in sales considerably. And the workflow that moves maintenance into paid work makes the path from support to revenue smooth and efficient.

3. More flexible working

With data in one place, the latest figures and progress can be checked not only at the office but while out or at home, which has made working more flexible.

A comment from Mr Kato, Representative Director of Unitemp Japan Inc.

“We used the previous CRM for customer and sales management, but much of the documentation was in English, which was stressful, and having to manage exchange rates by hand was a burden.
So we moved to HubSpot. NowVillage supported the implementation, understood the particular challenges of our international business, and custom-built the features we needed in HubSpot.

Now, alongside customer and sales management, costs are converted to yen automatically, so the sales side can focus on the work that matters, which is a great help.
Tasks and requests have moved from paper to digital, and with data in one place I can handle tasks and read email while out of the office.
Doing this ourselves would have taken a long time, so I am genuinely grateful for the expertise.”

They taught us how to use it carefully too, and we can now add and customise properties ourselves. Migrating let us build the efficient way of working we had wanted.”

More than anything we provided, it was the cooperation of everyone at Unitemp Japan that let complex custom requirements come together smoothly.

For manufacturers and trading companies with international supply chains in particular, whether a tool succeeds depends not on the number of features but on how accurately the things at the heart of the business – currency movement, unusual costing logic – can be reproduced in the CRM.

As a HubSpot Diamond Partner, NowVillage Inc. works on trust, expertise and care, digging into each client’s business model and supporting the adoption of a HubSpot that turns complex work into a simple system and gives accurate control of margin.

If you want to automate currency risk and costing that currently depend on individuals,
if past data is scattered and sales or support is losing time,
or if a previous implementation left you wanting proper support in Japanese,
and the limits of international trade or paper-based management are on your mind, or your current tool is not working, please get in touch。

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