I run Axenda, a small HubSpot and RevOps consultancy. Here’s the checklist I use when reviewing an existing automation setup.

Before building anything new, I check:

- Can two workflows update the same property? If so, which one should control it?
- Does every lead have an owner and a next action?
- Do pipeline stages have clear entry and exit criteria?
- Can someone explain why a contact enrolled in a workflow?
- When replacing an old workflow, which dependencies need to be checked before switching it off?

A useful starting point is a simple inventory: workflow name, trigger, properties it changes, dependencies and person responsible.

That makes it easier to spot conflicts before adding more automation. Workflow count alone doesn’t tell you whether the system works.

How do you document dependencies in your portal? A spreadsheet, naming conventions, or something else?

A CRM can organize sales, marketing, customer support, and customer data, but having more features doesn’t always mean having a better system.

For teams that have used different CRM setups, which features have genuinely improved your day-to-day workflow? And which features looked useful on paper but ended up being unnecessary?

I’m especially interested in hearing about practical experiences with automation, reporting, lead management, customer communication, and keeping data organized.

I have pretty much every license need advice on the best CRM to use.

I need to sent out individual msgs across to each of my clients and I want to categorize clients in a list of groups of people and have a way to send out independent msgs to each of these clients with options or opportunities to invest in bonds/stocks that are from private companies.

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I think most people enter the CRM space just to make a quick dollar off agency owners. They sell us pretty UI/UX and user seats, but they don't actually run the workflows.

Our current agency stacks are a mess. Most of us are stitching together four different SaaS tools, paying multiple subscriptions, and shipping proprietary client data to external cloud servers just to automate generic outreach. It’s fragile, expensive, and a massive compliance risk for your clients.

I spent years working in customer service and systems for companies like Apple, Verizon, Microsoft (under their Xbox account), etc. I know what operational bottlenecks feel like. I didn't build this to sell a flashy dashboard—I built a desktop workspace called P2COS because I needed to use it for my own agency-level outreach.

I've spent months researching & developing a self-contained architecture that runs highly advanced AI models locally on your machine. It completely eliminates cloud data leaks and cuts down API dependency.

I'm not asking anyone to completely stop what they are doing right now and migrate. But I want to show that software developed for the actual use case can protect your margins and your data privacy.

I have 100 Founder Lifetime Keys (not a trial, lifetime access) for agency owners who want to test it vigorously. Import your data—everything stays completely local on your machine. I've already submitted the .msix version to the Microsoft Store to ensure full ecosystem compliance, but right now I need raw, heavy workload testing from real businesses.

Put it through a brutal testing phase. Try to stretch its limits, break it if you can, and give me your unvarnished feedback on how it handles your day-to-day workflow.

Grab a key, throw your daily workflow at it, try to break it, and give me your completely unvarnished feedback:

[P2C-BYXE-LU9Y-HZMC-8WHN-SS4D]

Ps. I've released other applications for Android on the Google Play Store and additional marketplaces. This Windows project is something I've invested considerably more time into, and I'd like to understand how it performs outside my own environment.

My most popular app on the Google play store is 'FlowPilot - Automation'.

This is a weekly post for you to let out about something which happened this week for you in CRM that mattered: features, client requests that were either great or awful this week, and just generally chat CRM / CRM consulting chatter.

No self promo, just a place to share tales from the front-line of CRM!

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I followed Dreamforce 2026 closely and tbh the 21 announcements were impressive. AI working off real company data. Also you can have agents everywhere and have more visibility into what they are doing. Def it looked like a big step forward.

But 3 weeks later i keep coming back to one thing. Yes i saw a lot about asking an agent about your pipeline, finding info, taking action, etc. What i didn't see much of is what happens when the deals stops being clean. I mean the unexpected pricing exception or an approval that gets stuck becoz the one person who approve it is unavailable. Or a customer asking to change the billing schedule at the last minute lol.

Can an agent understand why a quote is an exception, know who is allowed to approve it, apply the right rules and make sure the next system gets the right info or do we still need RevOps in the background to sort out the mess? Or maybe I missed a session that went deeper on this

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a CRM management program for my brother. He runs a small pellet stove servicing business, its all mobile. My brother likes the model of Jobber, but the price isn't something they he can do right now.

Is there a better program for him to use that's more accessible financially? He is much more versed in this world than me, I'm just the tech person for this.

Thank you for any help!!

*One of the biggest things he's looking for is a way to send reminder text to his customers before the appointments*

Hey everyone,

We’re setting up Twenty CRM (twenty.com) as our self-hosted, open-source CRM and like it so far. Our main requirement is integrating it with Instantly for outbound email.

Our developer isn’t sure about the best way to handle the integration, so I’d love some advice:

• Has anyone integrated Twenty + Instantly?
• Is it possible via API/webhooks or something like n8n?
• If Twenty isn’t a good fit, are there any other free/open-source CRMs that integrate well with Instantly?

We don’t need anything complex—just a simple CRM that can work alongside Instantly.

Any recommendations or experience would be really helpful! Basically we want a free crm with isntantly integration

Maybe people are creating their own CRM solutions using AI or moving to cheaper CRM solutions.

Anyone here using Odoo as their CRM?

I work with an Odoo Gold Partner in the UK and I’m curious to hear from people who are actually using Odoo day-to-day.

For those who have used it, what made you choose Odoo over something like HubSpot or Salesforce? And what do you think it does well (or badly)?
Also happy to answer any questions from anyone currently considering Odoo. I work with it, so obviously I’m not completely unbiased 😂 but happy to give an honest answer.

I am looking for a CRM that has:

- Ominchannel
- Kanban Board
- Sales Pipeline and Stages
- Automation
- Webhooks and API
- Not per-user price

What do you suggest?

We used to have Bitrix24 but they have increased the price 3 time in the last 3 months.

Sysadmin here, looking into how MSPs handle client reporting. From what I've read, many of you pull data from the RMM, M365 and backups, then paste it into slides or Word by hand.

Curious:

1. What tools do you use for client reports today?
2. Roughly how long per client per month?
3. Do your clients actually read them, or just the summary?
4. What's the most annoying part?

Full disclosure: I'm thinking about building something for this, so I want to understand the real problem first.

I am about to install open source CRM on server. Anyone have ever tried any open source l. Is it better the closed source and also do you get all the functionality in open source that are in closed source

Most of us have moved exhibitors over to phone-based QR scanning. It works well when everything cooperates, but the second the venue network gets congested or someone’s battery hits 5%, the complaints start rolling in.

Curious how other event teams are handling this with tools like Cvent Lead Capture, Whova, or Eventify.

Since these platforms rely on exhibitor-owned phones and the venue’s Wi-Fi (which sits outside the organizer’s direct control), what practical workarounds are you using?

Do you still provide any backup hardware?

Or is everyone fully expected to use their own phones now?

Any tips that actually reduce the last-minute chaos?

Would love to hear what’s working for you.

I often see questions here about which CRM to choose. People hope it will solve their problems and magically automate everything, but that’s not the case. I believe this step should be preceded by a functional client management system. Here is what I mean:

By "system," I don’t mean just another software or a tool. I’m talking about the fundamentals (processes, workflows, call it as you want): where leads come from, who is responsible for them, when follow-ups happen, what stages they go through, what information needs to be recorded, who takes over after the sale, and what happens if the process stalls.

If there is no clarity on these issues, you risk simply transferring the same chaos into CRM but with more fields and dashboards.

And even if you decide to implement a CRM without working out these processes beforehand, you still won't be able to skip this step. Someone will have to address these issues during implementation. Ultimately, you might find that the CRM adds extra problems rather than improving things.

What do you think? Should these processes be established before switching to a CRM, or is it totally ok to build them during the implementation process?

We're a small executive search firm that has all full desk recruiters at it who take on BD, Client mgmt, recruitment, candidate mgmt, etc. We use Bullhorn for our CRM/Database but it is a bit cumbersome for our firm and we're growing more and more frustrated with it's functionality - especially it's search function which we have found to really suck without exhaustive coding of profiles.

We are considering other platforms and leaning to leaner ones and preferably agentic backed. Attio is one platform we're looking into. Would welcome any and all recommendations/thoughts on platforms that you've found to work well as well as the POV on Attio if anyone has used it.

Something I keep running into with machinery manufacturers and dealers: AMC revenue rarely goes to a competitor. It goes to a spreadsheet nobody opened.

The pattern is usually the same:

- The AMC list lives in one person's Excel file

- The renewal date passes and nobody calls the customer

- The customer keeps calling for service, and the team keeps going because "they're an old client"

- A few months later someone realises you've been servicing that machine for free

Nobody decided to drop the contract. It expired while everyone was busy.

What seems to work for the companies that fix it:

1. One named owner per contract, not "the service team"

2. Reminders at 60/30/15 days before expiry, not on the expiry date

3. The engineer can see contract status before the visit

4. Management gets a monthly list of expiring and lapsed contracts, with value

You don't need special software to start. A shared sheet with date alerts gets you most of the way. It tends to break once you cross a few hundred contracts.

How are others handling this? Excel, an ERP module, a CRM, something else? And has anyone actually measured how much AMC revenue slips through?

Disclosure: I work at a company that builds a CRM for machinery businesses, so I see this a lot. I wrote a longer piece on it and can share if anyone wants it.

My manager is AI’s biggest advocate, and he recently put me on the spot: do I actually believe CRMs will still be relevant a few years from now? As our firm’s CRM admin, he challenged me to come to our next 1:1 with a compelling case for why the CRM platform is here to stay - - or, if AI is fundamentally changing the role of the CRM, a thoughtful plan for how we should pivot. Any thoughts? Sources I can check out? Is there a CRM we should be pivoting to (ClaudeForce comes to mind)?