Hi,

How do I find contracts for integration development between Ceasar and ERP. Integration already exists need add additional features.

Looking for resources who can help.

Reading through the Jobber, Salesforce, and Odoo/Zoho threads that have been posted here recently, there's a pattern that keeps showing up and almost nobody names it directly: the CRM swap rarely fixes the actual leak.

The leak is usually one of two things, and neither shows up on a feature comparison chart.

1. Ownership, not speed. Most businesses think their problem is "we're too slow to respond." It's actually "nobody is specifically responsible for making sure nothing sits unanswered." Speed only breaks under load, when the person who usually handles it is busy. A CRM can automate a reminder, but it can't assign ownership if the business never assigned it in the first place. Swapping platforms without fixing that just moves the same gap into a nicer UI.

2. Quotes that go quiet. Almost every field-service and B2B CRM will track a quote once it's sent. Very few of them force a follow-up if the customer goes silent. That silence is where the money actually disappears, not in the CRM you picked. I've seen businesses discover they were losing 15-20% of sent quotes purely to "we sent it and moved on," and no platform swap fixed that until someone made follow-up a required step instead of an optional one.

The businesses in these threads spending months evaluating Salesforce vs HubSpot vs Zoho vs Odoo are usually optimizing the wrong variable. The real question before any of that: what's your workflow when a lead goes quiet, and whose job is it to notice? If you can't answer that in one sentence, the new platform will just make the same gap look more expensive.

Curious if others here have seen the same thing, does a platform migration actually fix this, or does the underlying process problem just follow you to the new tool?

Does anyone have experience with both dynamics 365 CRM and salesforce CRM?

I’m still a novice when it comes to customizing and updating the CRM but I’m finding dynamics not the most intuitive system. And I struggle to make small changes in what we have at the moment. So I wonder if Salesforce is a bit more intuitive or will have the same hurdles. Or is it a skill issue?

Good evening from PA! I’m looking for a CRM that is relatively inexpensive as the one others on my team use is over $100 a month and as a newer agent I’m not quite yet in a position to be able to put that out due to other life circumstances. I understand you get what you pay for- and I do intend as I build my sales and acquire more states to use the same software they do. But at least something for now. I work captive, and with policy holder leads. Thanks!

I recently started my home service business with my partner (5-6 months), we are just 2, and we’re at the point of needing a platform, and was on the lookout for one. Every time I would search online for a platform it seems like Jobber is always insane with the amount of ads, so I made a trial and a demo and I’m just not happy at all with that price. And the sales rep we did the demo with was quite arrogant when we had a few questions.

Do you guys have any alternatives?

A few alternatives I landed on were Housecallpro, but the Trustpilot reviews seem a bit scary.

We’re also looking into CIientility and are happy with the price and the features for the price, and Workiz, however their price seems to be hidden.

Thank you for any suggestions.

We're a healthcare booking platform in Vancouver, about to roll out appointment reminders and two‑factor auth via SMS (plan to release in 2 weeks). Never done this before, and I'm drowning in provider options – Twilio, Vonage etc, you name it without me.

I don't want to pick something that's cheap at sign stage but becomes a nightmare later with deliverability issues or terrible support when something breaks.

For ppl who've been sending SMS at scale – what's been rock‑solid for you? Anything you wish you'd known before signing up? Hidden fees, integration headaches, regional quirks with phone codes? I'd rather learn from your scars than make my own haha. Cheers!

I've worked with enterprise CRM systems for years and keep seeing the same trade-off: simple systems eventually become limiting, while powerful systems become expensive and complicated to configure.

I'm exploring a different architecture.

Instead of building another fixed CRM, the underlying platform consists of configurable objects, fields, relationships, pages, permissions, automations and reports.

Sales would just be the first module. Support, Projects, Planning, etc. can extend the same underlying customer and business data.

The AI doesn't generate software or arbitrary code. It can only configure capabilities that already exist in the platform.

So you could say:

"Add contract value to companies, put it next to ARR, and create a follow-up when an opportunity stays in Proposal for 7 days."

The system creates a plan → shows exactly what will change → validates it → you approve it.

The part I'm most interested in is migration. Rather than asking a company to make a big-bang switch, the idea is to analyze the existing CRM, map its objects/fields/processes, preview the new setup and eventually allow teams/modules to migrate progressively.

I've attached a visual explaining the concept.

I'm specifically NOT looking for "cool idea" feedback. I'd like to know: what would make you refuse to switch to something like this? What would I have to prove before you'd trust it with your real business data? And which part of this sounds less useful than I think it is?

Something small businesses transitioning to CRM often struggle with is the timing of the implementation process. Getting the timing right is probably just as important as choosing the right CRM for your team, but it’s often overlooked.

Most small businesses follow one of two approaches here: There’s the deliberate approach, where warning signs are identified, a stable implementation window is established, and a plan is deployed to ensure team members actually use the system after implementation. Then, there’s the reactive approach, where things chug along regardless until something breaks completely, and they are forced to carry out the implementation during the chaos.

Going the reactive route has teams importing data into a live pipeline and undergoing training when they already have too much on their plates. These teams also often end up configuring the system for their current emergency situation, instead of setting it up for long-term growth, all of which typically leads to terrible adoption rates.

The trick is to know when a window of opportunity is coming so that you can employ the deliberate approach. There are some common signals to look out for here, which include:

• You need to ask two to three people to determine the status of a single deal
• It’s taking longer than usual for new hires to get up to speed
• Your sales cycles are getting long, even though your team is growing
• You’re gathering more data than ever, but forecasting still feels like a guessing game

If these signals start surfacing regularly, you have an opening to plan and implement your migration from your existing system (spreadsheets or data organization tool) to a fully fledged CRM.

It may not feel like the ideal time to take on a significant system switch, because teams are likely at their most stretched at this point, but it’s the perfect time. The important thing is to see it as a strategic change and not just a reaction to the chaos. It’s a crucial moment of growth marked by an upgrade in your organization’s processes, and it requires careful planning and deliberate implementation.

What has your experience been? Did your business wait too long, or was the timing right for CRM implementation?

We brought in Scalelist for the past couple weeks after seeing it mentioned here. The UI is clean and the filters are pretty thorough - you can drill down by industry, company size, job titles, the usual stuff. Data quality seems decent, maybe 70-80% accuracy on emails from what I've spot checked.

The pricing is where it gets tricky. Their starter plan is like a hundred bucks a month for 1,000 verified emails, which feels steep compared to other lead list building tools. Also noticed their mobile number coverage is pretty limited - only found numbers for maybe 15% of my contacts.

Biggest frustration is the search speed. Running a search with multiple filters can take 30-45 seconds, which adds up when you're building multiple lists. Their Chrome extension is buggy too - crashes half the time on LinkedIn.

We've been looking at UpLead as well but their credits system is confusing and I keep hearing mixed things. Also been eyeing Prospeo which seems to have better mobile coverage from what I've read.

Anyone else using Scalelist for outbound prospecting? How's your experience been? curious what others think about it specifically before I fully commit to switching.

Third price increase in two years. We're a 6-person team and just got notified our HubSpot plan is going up again. At this point I'm paying for a brand, not a product. Agree?

Started looking at self-hosted options last month. First It looks doable: spin up a VPS, export contacts from HubSpot, import, done. I even ended up putting together a comparison of self-hosted CRMs you can run on your own server.

Then I had testing a few on a cheap instance on Serverspace, $9/month for 2GB RAM, and it actually ran fine. Some of the UIs are pretty dated, but the core functionality is all there.

What's making me hesitate is the maintenance side. Updates, backups, potential downtime with HubSpot someone else deals with all of that. I set up a daily backup cron job during testing, but if anything goes wrong, I'm the one taking on all the risk. Do you guys think it’s worth it?

For those who've actually moved off HubSpot or Salesforce to something self-hosted CRM - was the maintenance overhead worth the savings? Did anything break badly at a critical moment? And did your non-technical teammates adapt to a different interface without too much friction? I’m trying to figure out if this is a smart move or if I'm about to trade a monthly bill for a different kind of headache…

Im an automation guy and recently got into GTM engineering so im interacting with the CRM alot.

Obviously my CRM is like 80% automated. Everything from tracking buying signals, filling in lead context, and even enrichment and messaging. Only real work is handling the replies when they come in (no AI of course)

I thought this was standard practice but this sub is telling me otherwise...

So question is, what CRMs are you guys using? Are you not taking advantage of the automation features in them?? If not, why not? For context Im using Twenty on a small VPS

Building CRM architecture has been the highlight of my days recently

I built this mainly around keeping the sales side organized when you're managing multiple leads and deals.

It has:

→ Follow-ups, so you can quickly see what needs attention

→ Deal health to get a quick overview of how things are progressing

→ Weighted pipeline to estimate the value of your current opportunities

→ Connected companies, contacts and deals

→ Won/Lost views to keep the active pipeline clean

→ A “Why Lost” field to keep track of patterns over time

I’ve been refining the workflow for a while and thought I’d share it here in case it’s useful for anyone managing a similar pipeline.

I’m also doing a small discount for the first 5 people who pick it up

Hey guys,

The #1 reason people abandon CRMs isn't missing features — it's friction. Nobody wants to spend 5 minutes typing client context into form fields after a coffee meeting or phone call.

I wanted a personal relationship tool that felt as fast as sending a quick voice message, so I built Shaks.

What makes it different:

• Voice Memos -> Relationship Data: Speak 15 seconds about your conversation. AI automatically tags client interests, promises made, and follow-up dates.

• Morning Coffee Digest ☕: A clean daily briefing of all follow-ups due today with 1-click batch outreach.

• Human-Sounding AI Drafts: Generates non-generic follow-ups tailored to your context, ready to send on WhatsApp or Email.

• WebRTC Card Scanner: Instant camera scanner for physical business cards.

• Spotlight Command Palette (Ctrl+K): Fast desktop search and quick action triggers.
check it out
Would love to hear how you manage your relationship pipeline on the go!

Hey everyone, just got my P&C license and started selling last week. I'm looking for some advice on CRMS.

What CRM do you guys recommend for someone just getting started? Ideally, I'd like something that also allows me to purchase leads directly through the platform, so I can manage the leads and follow-ups all in one place.

We’ve just made the move from being a HubSpot provider to an official HubSpot partner.

It was a reasonably big call for us as a small agency. We’ve been implementing and supporting HubSpot for clients for more than 10 years and have been to INBOUND for the last two, so we know the platform well. What’s new for us is building the partner side of the business more deliberately.

For those who have already been through this, what actually helped you build your HubSpot pipeline before reaching the tiers where HubSpot starts sending opportunities your way?

Was it existing clients, implementation projects, specialising in a particular HubSpot problem, content, outbound, co-selling, or something else?

And what would you do differently if you were starting again?

CRMs have so many features that it’s easy to end up using only a small part of what you’re actually paying for.

What’s one CRM feature you thought would be a game changer but ended up barely using?

Could be automation, reporting, lead scoring, AI features, integrations, anything really.

And what do you actually use every day that you couldn’t work without?

I’ve been building a CRM for small businesses, freelancers and agencies that combines lead generation and CRM in one place.

The main idea is simple:

• Find potential leads based on your target niche/location
• Collect lead details in one place
• AI Lead Generation Agent helps with lead research
• Organize leads inside the CRM
• Track lead status and follow-ups
• Manage notes and contact information
• Avoid keeping leads scattered across Excel, WhatsApp and different tools

I built this because I noticed a lot of small businesses/agencies are still manually searching Google/LinkedIn, copying leads into spreadsheets, and then struggling to follow up.

I’m currently improving the product based on real-world use cases.

If you run a freelance business, marketing agency, sales team, or small business:

What is the biggest pain you have with lead generation + CRM?

And if you already use a CRM, what feature do you wish it had that it currently doesn’t?

I’m especially interested in honest criticism — what’s useful, what’s unnecessary, and what would actually make you pay for something like this.

​

I’ve been working on a Notion CRM for small agencies and service businesses, and I’m at the point where I’d rather get honest feedback than keep adding random features.

The main workflow is built around:

Leads, companies, contacts and deals being connected

Deal health based on expected dates

Weighted pipeline value based on deal stage

Automatically organizing connected information when a deal becomes Won or Lost

I’ve included an example with realistic data so you can actually click through the workflow instead of just looking at screenshots.

If you were using this for your own business, what would you change, remove, or add?

Especially interested in anything that feels confusing, unnecessary, or like it would become annoying once the database gets bigger.

Hi there,

Are there any recommendations for how to collect/report/quantity the topics and problems customers contact customer service for?

Meaning the CS agent afterwards inputs what it's about, some context potentially etc.

Though effort and friction needs to be low to ensure adoption and usage.

If there are good commercial or open source solutions, I'd be happy to learn about them.

For moving forward, I'm at first thinking ieally DIY solutions as software implementation takes ages.

Hence successful DIY solutions that make use of, widely known office tools, Microsoft 365, excel, power BI or similar would be of special interest.

Wondering how to build up and grow the pre populated topic selection without insight into what's incoming yet? Any templates to get inspired by?

How's this kind of work step or software actually called in the CS/CRM field? Not even sure what to search for to learn about best practices...

Thanks a lot!

What CRM's do yall use to keep track of everything, and what do you like/dislike about them? Be as descriptive as you like lol