Reach out if you want a custom built CRM

I handle sales at a small B2B software company, and we're trying to get a better handle on our pilot process before it gets too messy. We sell reporting software, and prospects usually want to test it with their own data before committing. The tricky part is that it's not really a self-serve trial. Someone from our team often has to help with the import, get the first report working, and follow up when they run into issues.

We're tracking deals in our CRM, but it's hard to get a clear picture of how much time we're spending on pilots and which ones actually turn into customers. Some leads move through setup quickly, others go quiet halfway through, and sometimes we only realize how much work went into a pilot when we're looking back at the deal.

I'm considering setting up a more structured process to track each pilot's stage, setup tasks, blockers, and outcome. We might also start charging for pilots that require a lot of hands-on work, but I'd want to understand our conversion rates first.

For those running B2B sales through a CRM, how do you track pilots from the initial request through setup and conversion without creating a ton of admin?

I handle sales at a small B2B software company, and we're trying to get a better handle on our pilot process before it gets too messy. We sell reporting software, and prospects usually want to test it with their own data before committing. The tricky part is that it's not really a self-serve trial. Someone from our team often has to help with the import, get the first report working, and follow up when they run into issues.

We're tracking deals in our CRM, but it's hard to get a clear picture of how much time we're spending on pilots and which ones actually turn into customers. Some leads move through setup quickly, others go quiet halfway through, and sometimes we only realize how much work went into a pilot when we're looking back at the deal.

I'm considering setting up a more structured process to track each pilot's stage, setup tasks, blockers, and outcome. We might also start charging for pilots that require a lot of hands-on work, but I'd want to understand our conversion rates first.

For those running B2B sales through a CRM, how do you track pilots from the initial request through setup and conversion without creating a ton of admin?

Reach out if you want a custom built CRM

Hi guys, just looking for a few tips here. Our business uses old legacy software and has a lot of flaws, I come from teck background and my skills are being overlooked as I am new to the company. What's the best way to propose it? It can make the work we do so much quicker. I am thinking of a presentation and demo, but I also want to include factors like time management and extracting reports and stuff.

He montado una web para ayudar a autónomos y pequeñas empresas a elegir CRM sin tener que tragarse 20 páginas comerciales de cada proveedor.

La idea surgió porque cuando buscas “qué CRM elegir” acabas encontrando comparativas que muchas veces mezclan planes, precios y funciones sin explicar para qué tipo de negocio tiene sentido cada uno.

He intentado reunirlo de una forma bastante sencilla: comparativas de HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, Freshsales y monday CRM, opciones gratuitas, CRM para autónomos, diferencias según el tamaño del equipo, WhatsApp, automatizaciones, etc.

Todavía está empezando y me vendría muy bien feedback real, sobre todo de gente que use un CRM en su negocio.

¿Qué información echáis de menos normalmente cuando buscáis una comparativa de este tipo?

La web es: crmaldia.es

Hi guys, just looking for a few tips here. Our business uses old legacy software and has a lot of flaws, I come from teck background and my skills are being overlooked as I am new to the company. What's the best way to propose it? It can make the work we do so much quicker. I am thinking of a presentation and demo, but I also want to include factors like time management and extracting reports and stuff.

I'm probably like a lot of you who have tried lots of crms and inevitably fall back to old patterns, or get so behind on logging notes and activity that I dread going back in. I think I finally solved this forever for me.

I have Claude review my emails and proposals three days per week, then follow some instructions about making recommendations for updates to companies, people, and deals. Then in the morning when the notification comes in I just look through the list, confirm or ask for adjustments, and then let Claude do the updating.

Honestly, I haven't spent much time in the CRM interface in a while! And I'm so happy about it. Because my records and data are spotless, and the grunt-ish work of updating is all handled by Claude. For now that data is becoming more useful because I use it as context for Claude to do more research and other things.

I can't see myself ever going back to manually using a CRM with the exception of some special occasions, like setting up different kinds of lists or workflows for special pushes or new product releases or things like that.

I'm probably like a lot of you who have tried lots of crms and inevitably fall back to old patterns, or get so behind on logging notes and activity that I dread going back in. I think I finally solved this forever for me.

I have Claude review my emails and proposals three days per week, then follow some instructions about making recommendations for updates to companies, people, and deals. Then in the morning when the notification comes in I just look through the list, confirm or ask for adjustments, and then let Claude do the updating.

Honestly, I haven't spent much time in the CRM interface in a while! And I'm so happy about it. Because my records and data are spotless, and the grunt-ish work of updating is all handled by Claude. For now that data is becoming more useful because I use it as context for Claude to do more research and other things.

I can't see myself ever going back to manually using a CRM with the exception of some special occasions, like setting up different kinds of lists or workflows for special pushes or new product releases or things like that.

We use Attio and it seems well made for this use case but I think all CRMs will go in this direction very soon if they aren't already there.

With salesforce CPQ reaching end of sale we have been thinking of switching to another solution. This is bc we are not sure how much salesforce will continue inventing in it even though we still have the option to renew our license.

The biggest thing holding is back is how we have already built into our current setup. we have 3 yrs of pricing logic, custom rules, approval workflows, product configs and integrations that our sales team relies on every day.

Moving to another system sounds simple but rebuilding all that could be a much bigger project than we expect. that is why we are trying to understand costs beyond the software license. we want to understand things like migrating data, recreating pricing rules, connecting the systems, training the team and hiring consulatnts.

For those who have gone through salesforce CPQ migration what were the biggest hidden costs and was it worth it?

With salesforce CPQ reaching end of sale we have been thinking of switching to another solution. This is bc we are not sure how much salesforce will continue inventing in it even though we still have the option to renew our license.

The biggest thing holding is back is how we have already built into our current setup. we have 3 yrs of pricing logic, custom rules, approval workflows, product configs and integrations that our sales team relies on every day.

Moving to another system sounds simple but rebuilding all that could be a much bigger project than we expect. that is why we are trying to understand costs beyond the software license. we want to understand things like migrating data, recreating pricing rules, connecting the systems, training the team and hiring consulatnts.

For those who have gone through salesforce CPQ migration what were the biggest hidden costs and was it worth it?

My sales team pretty much lives inside Salesforce and we found that our old calling setup was becoming a pain in the ass.
Reps would make calls in one app, then just make one of those “mental notes” to enter the outcome into Salesforce later. You can guess how that worked out for us… notes were late, vague, or missing altogether. Not just because people were being careless - it's just that we're all human and when you're working through a long call list, manual admin is one of the first things that are going to slip.

But the problem we wanted to solve was actually pretty simple. We just needed calling to fit into the CRM worklow so useful call information would end up on the right contact, account or opportunity without someone having to remember to copy everything over manually later on.

That made it easier for us to compare providers, given that pretty much every platform these days says, "We have full Salesforce integration, trust me bro." The devil's in the detail. We wanted to know what's being logged, where it goes, and how much work's left. We looked at RingCentral, Dialpad, and Aircall.

RingCentral can create call logs automatically. It also has Activity Sync that can associate calls from RingCentral devices with contacts. You can configure the automatic call logging settings too, which could come in handy if your admins want more control over what's written back.

Dialpad also caught our eye, as it can log calls and messages as Salesforce activities, and then associate them with leads, contacts or accounts. I really liked that you can choose between recording calls as Salesforce tasks, Dialpad call log records, or both. Pretty useful.

We also liked Aircall because it felt close to how our reps already work. It has click-to-dial, can give reps helpful contact context, and it can sync call activity back to the right record. That solved the issue I mentioned before about someone having to remember to update the activity history after every call.

We took a look at the Power Dialer and Voicemail Drop features on the professional plan for our outbound team too. You have to check the plan structure carefully - the full Salesforce integration isn't available on every Aircall plan.

Of course, I wouldn't choose any of these based on a product page or on watching a demo and don't expect you to either. You've got to ask each vendor to connect a test environment and run some of the calls your team actually makes - the whole shebang from completed calls, missed calls, transfers, recordings, and follow-up notes.

That's going to show you pretty quickly what lands in the CRM and what still needs to be handled manually.

Interested to hear what other Salesforce heavy teams are using, and has anyone else found a setup where reps don't have to update records by hand?

My sales team pretty much lives inside Salesforce and we found that our old calling setup was becoming a pain in the ass.
Reps would make calls in one app, then just make one of those “mental notes” to enter the outcome into Salesforce later. You can guess how that worked out for us… notes were late, vague, or missing altogether. Not just because people were being careless - it's just that we're all human and when you're working through a long call list, manual admin is one of the first things that are going to slip.

But the problem we wanted to solve was actually pretty simple. We just needed calling to fit into the CRM worklow so useful call information would end up on the right contact, account or opportunity without someone having to remember to copy everything over manually later on.

That made it easier for us to compare providers, given that pretty much every platform these days says, "We have full Salesforce integration, trust me bro." The devil's in the detail. We wanted to know what's being logged, where it goes, and how much work's left. We looked at RingCentral, Dialpad, and Aircall.

RingCentral can create call logs automatically. It also has Activity Sync that can associate calls from RingCentral devices with contacts. You can configure the automatic call logging settings too, which could come in handy if your admins want more control over what's written back.

Dialpad also caught our eye, as it can log calls and messages as Salesforce activities, and then associate them with leads, contacts or accounts. I really liked that you can choose between recording calls as Salesforce tasks, Dialpad call log records, or both. Pretty useful.

We also liked Aircall because it felt close to how our reps already work. It has click-to-dial, can give reps helpful contact context, and it can sync call activity back to the right record. That solved the issue I mentioned before about someone having to remember to update the activity history after every call.

We took a look at the Power Dialer and Voicemail Drop features on the professional plan for our outbound team too. You have to check the plan structure carefully - the full Salesforce integration isn't available on every Aircall plan.

Of course, I wouldn't choose any of these based on a product page or on watching a demo and don't expect you to either. You've got to ask each vendor to connect a test environment and run some of the calls your team actually makes - the whole shebang from completed calls, missed calls, transfers, recordings, and follow-up notes.

That's going to show you pretty quickly what lands in the CRM and what still needs to be handled manually.

Interested to hear what other Salesforce heavy teams are using, and has anyone else found a setup where reps don't have to update records by hand?

Hi All,
I’m looking for a solid option for a WhatsApp bassist CRM but using coexistence since I need to keep my business account in place without disruption.

I also need to be able to integrate a phone service like ringcentral or justcall, since I believe calling from WhatsApp coexistence integration is not possible in the US.

Might also want to connect to claude or chatgpt, so that’s a plus.

Any recommendations?

Thanks!

* Sorry, i also posted this in r/marketingautomation but thought it might be more suited to this thread - for now i'm keeping it in both*

I'm debating an offer from a CRM agency (providing CRM services to clients). Think ad agency with some technical CRM people could be doing journey planning, creative development, deployment.

With all the new light weight CRM's and even the new SF MCA platform that has native language prompting for segmentation, email copy etc. - where is the future for these guys?

We run a small wholesale distribution business and have been debating whether adding a CRM would make much difference. Our reps know their customers pretty well and most of the order history is already in our ERP. But it's getting harder to keep track of which accounts need attention and where we're missing sales.

For anyone running a smaller distribution business has adding a CRM made a noticeable difference or is it just another system for reps to keep updated?

We run a small wholesale distribution business and have been debating whether adding a CRM would make much difference. Our reps know their customers pretty well and most of the order history is already in our ERP. But it's getting harder to keep track of which accounts need attention and where we're missing sales.

For anyone running a smaller distribution business has adding a CRM made a noticeable difference or is it just another system for reps to keep updated?

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!

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!

We built a system for a homeopathy clinic with three branches in Pune. The first thing we learned is that a treatment is a course of visits, not one sale, so the sales pipeline stops being the useful view.

What the owner actually needed was who is due back this week, who missed it, and what one branch knows about a patient another branch treated.

We ended up with a record per treatment course, a due date on every follow-up, and one patient record shared across branches. The lead-tracking part was the smallest piece.

Has anyone here used or built a CRM for a business where the real revenue is the repeat visit? What did you have to change from the usual sales setup?