Interview with Juan San Lorenzo, President & Lucas Arlego, Commercial Manager & Federico Suarez del Solar, Development Manager at Brainshock
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Global sales, zero guesswork
With Kommo, a CRM built for online education, Brainshock overcame geographical barriers, expanded its sommelier courses across countries, and automated its operations to scale globally.
Formate Sommeliers: a school born from necessity
Online education was a largely untapped niche until a few years ago. But when the crisis that shook the entire world hit in early 2020, people everywhere started to see the potential of virtual tools, and Brainshock was no exception.
Brainshock is a technology company that offers value-added software solutions, along with implementation, marketing, and channel management services. Its main focus is building custom online learning platforms for each client.
Juan San Lorenzo, president of Brainshock, saw the need and potential of online education even before the pandemic.
“Latin America is a huge territory. Online learning isn't just a training or education tool — it's also a way into the workforce for small businesses in far-flung regions.”
That need is what gave rise to Formate Sommeliers, an online school for sommeliers created by Brainshock to meet the growing demand for online sommelier training in Argentina and Latin America, both major wine-producing regions.
Formate Sommeliers offers comprehensive online sommelier training, along with wine tasting and history classes. Its main market is Argentina, though it has since expanded into Brazil, with an eye on other markets across Latin America and English-speaking countries.
But how do you teach a fully sensory career through online platforms? Lucas Arlego, Brainshock's commercial manager, admits the pandemic forced the team to get creative.
“We had to figure out a way to keep that learning going. We landed on two approaches: first, we shipped the wines directly to students. At the same time, we sent the same bottles to the instructors. Classes were held live over Zoom or Meet, with everyone working from the same material. It was a quick fix, but it worked out really well.”
That solution required serious logistics to pull off. What Brainshock needed was a tool that could bring together every communication function the business relied on — and after plenty of trial and error, Kommo came to the rescue.
A global vision for sommelier education
Brainshock's goal with Formate Sommeliers is to provide complete, comprehensive sommelier training, delivered virtually and remotely.
Formate Sommeliers aims to become an international benchmark in sommelier training, and expanding internationally is a necessary step to get there.
Giving proper attention to prospects, students, and even instructors and wine suppliers required strong internal and external communication — something few CRMs on the market could deliver.
Logistics across borders
Shipping wine bottles for classes to students spread across different regions was a major logistical challenge, especially given how complicated it was to source European wines, package them, and ship them out.
But that wasn't the only hurdle. Capturing leads through Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, communicating with students, and coordinating with teachers and suppliers turned into a monumental task.
On top of that, going international and expanding into new countries remained one of Formate Sommeliers' main goals.
In situations like this, communication is everything, and Federico Suárez, development manager and program director at Formate Sommeliers, knew it.
“Posting on social media, managing Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, all the messages from people interested in enrolling... we really couldn't keep up. We needed a tool that let us handle that volume of information and respond in time. Because if you don't respond, you lose the lead.”
And only a CRM tool for online education could deliver those communication features. That said, Kommo wasn't the first option Brainshock tried.
“We tried a few CRMs before. But we landed on Kommo because none of the others could solve what we needed.”
In search of a CRM for online education
Brainshock needed an easy-to-use tool that combined every communication feature the business relied on to manage Formate Sommeliers, from social media integrations to chatbot building for automated replies.
Other CRMs for online education offered similar tools, but in the end, none of them won over Brainshock's team.
Kommo was the right solution for Brainshock
“Other CRMs had the same tools, but either implementation was harder, or they charged for each feature separately. That's why we chose Kommo.”
With Kommo, Brainshock found a CRM built for online education with all the integrations they needed, a visual chatbot builder, easy-to-use sales pipelines, and powerful analytics tools, all on a single platform, with no extra charges per feature.
“We use Kommo for almost everything: communicating with prospects, students, and suppliers; managing emails; handling social media and WhatsApp channels. Everything is integrated — it's part of our daily routine.”
How Brainshock expanded its online sommelier courses into new markets with Kommo
How exactly did Kommo help Brainshock internationalize and optimize its online sommelier education business?
Step #1: Setting up a chatbot
Brainshock created a chatbot to handle incoming inquiries automatically. It guides leads by sharing relevant information and files, answering common questions, and preparing potential students for personalized follow-up from the sales team.
What's more, thanks to a bot configured in Portuguese, they were able to break into the Brazilian market with almost no friction.
“We use bots to handle all of our first-line support.”
Step #2: Integrating Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp
Using the integrations available in Kommo, Brainshock made it easy to receive messages across social media. As a result, every incoming message from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp was organized in one place, letting anyone on the team check messages and see where each customer stood.
With the help of advanced analytics, Brainshock was able to measure message volume, customer satisfaction levels, and the effectiveness of their marketing and sales strategies.
“Through Kommo's analytics and reports, we can track how much time each person spends on the platform, how many replies they send, and how many replies come through each channel.”
Step #3: Sorting leads and customers into different pipelines
By sorting leads and customers into specific pipelines, Brainshock boosted sales performance while improving service quality, since each customer's needs and interests were clearly identified. This made it possible to sell a course to a lead, a new product to an existing customer, or extra training to enrolled students.
That's not all; intuitive pipelines also helped streamline communication within the company, as well as with students and suppliers.
“You can send a closing message to a customer, and they respond with a satisfaction survey. That also lets us rate the service we provide.”
Overcoming the growing pains of expansion
Thanks to Kommo CRM, logistics and communication problems for Formate Sommeliers are a thing of the past. The sales process, shipping wine and materials for online classes, communication with suppliers and instructors, and overall organization have all reached a smooth, efficient flow.
Meanwhile, Kommo Salesbot and marketing integrations have made it easier to enter new markets and manage ad campaigns, bringing global expansion within reach.
With their processes optimized, Brainshock can focus on improving their online sommelier training strategies.
“We want every student to feel satisfied and give them a perfect learning experience.”
Ready to connect a CRM for online education?
Setup isn't difficult, but if it feels intimidating, reach out to one of our amazing Kommo partners — they're ready and waiting to help your team start using a CRM for online education today.
