One thing I noticed while talking to small businesses is that WhatsApp often becomes their unofficial CRM.

A customer sends a message → someone replies → the conversation gets buried → nobody follows up → the lead is gone.

So we’re building Aerostic around that problem.

The idea is to bring WhatsApp, AI, CRM and automation into one place.

For example, a business can have an AI agent handle initial enquiries, qualify leads, follow up with people who haven't responded, and keep the customer information organized in a CRM. A human can step in whenever the conversation actually needs one.

The goal isn't to replace the sales team.

It's to remove the repetitive work around the sales team.

We're still improving the product, so I'm curious:

How do you currently manage customer enquiries that come through WhatsApp?

Spreadsheet? WhatsApp Business? CRM? Everything manually?

I'd especially like to hear what actually works and what doesn't.

Hi! we just rolled out a new CRM setup... and to be so real... it is a total flop. the sales reps are completely rebelling because the system requires way too many clicks just to log a basic update.

instead of using the platform... they've gone completely rogue. they are tracking everything in their secret Excel sheets... and they literally only log the deal into the CRM after it’s already closed-won... just to secure their commission check. like they are straight up refusing to touch the pipeline.

it's because our admin made the mobile layouts completely unusable... they added all these dependent picklists where you literally have to click through 12 dropdowns just to log a standard bolt-on attachment or a quick pricing tier change... so the reps just... don't do it.

management is completely blind to it because they only look at the final closed-won revenue numbers... but our pipeline forecasting is literally in the negatives. we have zero visibility because the system thinks we have $0 in the pipeline until a random $50k deal just spawns out of nowhere on Friday afternoon during the final vibe check... it's so bad.

has anyone successfully dealt with sales reps flat-out refusing to use a new CRM?? how do we fix the friction before this Excel shadow-IT completely takes over... it's getting weird.

You send over a strong candidate. Client says “great, we’ll review this week.” Then nothing.

How many days before you follow up? And is that an actual system a reminder, a recurring task or do you just remember eventually?

Asking because I’m researching how solo desks run day to day. Not selling anything.

No finance person on staff, just a founder wearing every hat. Curious how other small teams are actually managing idle cash without it becoming a part-time job. What are you using and is it worth the setup?

So I was manually testing emails forever and finaly found a better way. basically you find one verified email from the company (LinkedIn, press release, whatver) and then you can see their email pattern. like if you find [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), you know everyone else is firstname.lastname@

the annoying part is verifying each email after. i was using hunter for this but started getting too many bounces on thier "valid" emails. tried a few others too - Apollo shows you the company email format which is nice but the data quality has been hit or miss for me. someone on my team mentioned Prospeo does somthing similar, might check that out next

plus my manager keeps asking why our outbound bounce rate is so high and im like bro the email verification tools are lying to us lol

anyone else have tricks for this? especially for companies that use weird formats like first initial + last name or that dreaded firstname.lastname.countrycode@ format

Hey all, I do Dynamics 365 CRM development and could use a few extra projects. If your team's backlog is piling up or you need a second pair of hands for a sprint or two, I can help.

What I work with:

• C# plugin development (custom business logic, validations)
• Power Automate flows + Power Apps
• Dataverse config/customization
• Microsoft Graph API integrations with D365
• SLA/KPI troubleshooting and fixes

Happy to jump into an existing codebase, take on a defined ticket batch, or handle a scoped integration piece. Flexible on hours — treat this as overflow capacity, not a full-time ask.

DM me or comment if you want to chat scope/rate.

I bought a web domain that begins www.ratemy....com. I'm told that I need to learn Drupal if I'm going to set it up because it requires people to create an account. I've taught myself softwares here and there, but this seems like it's a whole beast. Should I dive in or is there something easier? (I also need it to be very secure).

Thanks!

I’m trying to clean up what happens between finishing a discovery call and updating the CRM. Right now I usually end up with half a page of shorthand, then spend another 15---20 mins turning it into something the rest of the team can follow.

workflow I’m trying to get to is:

1. Record and transcribe the call.

2. Pull out pain points, budget, timeline, decision makers, objections and next steps.

3. Check anything related to pricing, dates or customer commitments.

4. Put the cleaned up version into the CRM and use it for the follow-up email.

The third step is where I’m stuck. AI note taking can turn “maybe in Q4 if security approves it” into “planning a Q4 rollout,” which looks harmless in a summary but changes the meaning once someone sees it in the pipeline.

Any advice on making this less manual without letting bad notes into the CRM would be appreciated. Thanks.

Looking out for a CRMs that supports native integrations with Lead Sources like Angi, Thumbtack etc.also focused on all the home services lead sources

Speed to lead engine where AI talks to the leads as soon as the lead comes, qualifies it and if no response nurture until qualification etc.

Any platforms does this and could you share the website links if yes

Made a CRM that doesn't cost a fortune per seat lol

So I've built a CRM and honestly the pricing in this space is kind of wild — most tools charge tens of thousands just to get a few seats going, and it scales up fast the second your team grows.

Mine's done and up and running — ₹5k a seat, that's it. No weird tiers, no "contact sales" nonsense, no paying for 15 features you'll never touch.

Nothing fancy marketing-wise here, just figured there are probably other founders/small teams out there stuck in the same boat — priced out of the big CRMs but still need something that actually works (leads, dashboards, basic reporting, role access, etc).

If that sounds like you, hit me up in the comments or DM, happy to walk you through it and show you around.

In the world of AI, would you buy or build a CRM if you had the option to do so.

Imagine you have your startup, 6 figures ARR, 200 clients, currently need basic datapoints.

Need to keep track of the following:
- accounts
- deals
- contacts
- email
- activities
- revenue

And most likely integrate other tech stack like slack, meeting notes, etc.