About ZIMA Dental UK
ZIMA Dental UK is the UK-based arm of ZIMA, a company behind the Dental Pod - the UK's first ultrasonic oral appliance cleaner for the dental professional market. ZIMA sells direct-to-consumer, but experienced strong inbound interest from dental practices wanting to stock and resell the pods to their patients. The B2B segment - managing practice accounts, inbound lead qualification, demo pod dispatch, and reorder cycles - became the core commercial challenge as the team grew. For a physical product sold on a repeat purchase model, connecting Shopify to Attio and automating the account management lifecycle was the only way to scale without scaling headcount.
The Challenge
ZIMA's B2B commercial operation was running across three disconnected systems. Leads came in through a signup form, were tracked manually in Gmail, and orders lived in Shopify - with no connection between them. A sales team managing 300+ inbound leads per month had no visibility on which leads were stagnant, which practices had ordered previously, or when existing customers were due to reorder.
Three specific problems drove the engagement:
No pipeline visibility. The sales team had no way to see which leads were stuck in the funnel, which demo pods had been sent without a follow-up, or which practices were close to converting. Lead management was happening in Gmail, which meant no shared visibility and no automation.
Shopify and CRM disconnected. When a practice placed an order, nothing updated in the CRM. The team had no way to know, from a single record, how many orders a practice had placed, what their total spend was, or when they were likely to reorder.
Account management built on guesswork. Existing customers were managed reactively - waiting for them to come back - rather than proactively. There was no system to identify when a practice was approaching their expected reorder window or had gone silent.
Our Approach
Novlini has been embedded with ZIMA as a retainer partner since late 2025, across two engagement phases, with Victor as lead consultant.
Phase 1 - Attio Implementation and Shopify Integration
Full Attio workspace designed and configured for a B2B dental product sales motion. Two distinct pipelines built: a Sales pipeline for new practice acquisition (from form submission through demo pod dispatch, trial, and first order), and an Account Management pipeline for existing customers.
Shopify connected to Attio via N8N: every new B2B order triggers an automatic update on the corresponding practice record in Attio - updating the order count, total spend, last order date, and expected reorder date. Practice matching logic built to handle the specifics of the dental market, including practices that submit through different contacts or email domains.
Customer verification flow built: when a practice completes the B2B signup form on Shopify, a webhook triggers in N8N, which creates or updates the practice record in Attio and moves it into the verification stage. Account approval then automatically advances the practice to the active pipeline.
Zapier integration for tiering: practices are automatically tiered based on their cumulative order value, giving the account management team instant visibility on their highest-value accounts.
Phase 2 - Account Management Automation and Reorder Logic
The account management pipeline rebuilt around a reorder prediction logic. For each practice, the system calculates the expected reorder date by averaging the time between previous orders and adding that interval to the last order date. Pipeline stages - Monitoring, Approaching, Due Soon, At Risk, High Risk, Churned, Re-engaged - update automatically based on how close a practice is to their expected reorder date.
Lemlist sequences connected to Attio: when a practice reaches a reorder stage, the account manager can enroll them in a targeted sequence directly from Attio. If the practice replies to any email in the sequence, they are automatically moved to the In Conversation stage. Churned practices that respond to a win-back sequence are moved to Re-engaged.
Technology Stack
Attio - CRM, sales pipeline, account management pipeline, practice records (source of truth)
Shopify - B2B order management (connected to Attio via N8N)
N8N - automation layer (Shopify to Attio, verification webhook, order lifecycle)
Zapier - tiering automation (order value to practice tier)
Lemlist - outbound sequences for reorder and win-back (connected to Attio)
The Results
ZIMA went from a disconnected stack with no pipeline visibility to a system where every practice, every order, and every reorder window is tracked and actioned automatically.
Stagnant leads no longer invisible - the sales team can see exactly which practices are stuck at each stage and what action is needed
Every Shopify order reflected in the CRM - practice records update automatically on each order, no manual entry required
Reorder timing tracked per practice - expected reorder date calculated automatically, pipeline stages updating as the window approaches
Churned customers re-engaged systematically - win-back sequences triggered automatically when practices go silent, replies moving them back into active account management
Account management tier visible at a glance - practices tiered by cumulative spend, giving the team instant prioritization
Why It Matters
A physical product sold on a reorder model has a different CRM problem than SaaS. There is no monthly subscription to renew. Revenue depends on the team knowing which practices have pods sitting unsold, which are running low, and which have gone quiet. That knowledge lives nowhere useful if the CRM is not connected to the order system.
For any B2B product company with a high-volume inbound motion and a repeat purchase model - whether in healthtech, dental, medtech, or e-commerce - connecting Shopify to Attio with a proper reorder prediction logic and automated account management pipeline is the foundation of a scalable commercial operation.