What worked surprisingly well, and what completely fell apart?

Most sales coaching tools seem built for calls and video meetings. That leaves field teams with fewer ways to review real customer conversations. I am interested to know what has worked for teams in the real world. How do you track performance and give useful feedback after face to face meetings?

I’m researching how businesses handle client acquisition and I’m curious what everyone’s real workflow looks like.

What’s the single most time-consuming part of getting new clients?

Finding leads?

Cold emails?

Following up?

Managing conversations?

Something else?

I’d love to hear how you currently do it and what frustrates you the most. The more detailed, the better. I’m especially interested in workflows that actually break down in practice.

This morning, I watched a business owner do something we've all accepted as normal.

Open the CRM.

Open WhatsApp.

Open Gmail.

Open Calendar.

Open Analytics.

Open Facebook Ads.

Open Slack.

Open Notes.

Open Excel.

Then spend the next hour figuring out what actually needs attention.

None of those tools generated revenue.

They simply helped manage the work.

That got me thinking...

We've optimized software for features.

Not for decisions.

Business owners don't wake up wondering,

"Which dashboard should I open first?"

They wake up wondering,

Who needs my attention today?

We integrated a CRM into a local business's workflow. and their results improved noticeably. However, they still feel like the investment wasn't worth it. Have you ever seen clients struggle to recognize the value of CRM?

ive been running a small b2b sales outfit in melbourne for the last 3 years and client leads have doubled so i need a solid crm to track deals follow ups and pipeline without everything feeling scattered. hiring 2 new reps at the same time has been a nightmare with endless resumes and interviews taking over my week.

i started using a software to handle screening scheduling and candidate tracking which cut the chaos in half and now im looking for a crm that can pull in that data smoothly so the new hires hit the ground running with all the client info ready.

anyone found a crm setup that works well with talent tools for small teams like this? what actually delivered for you without extra manual work?

thanks heaps for any real tips i appreciate it.

Hey guys, I actually tried posting this on the cleaning sub but it didn't manage to go through so I thought I'd have more success here. Some options I'm looked at was Jobber, but it didn't seem appropriate for a 2-man only service. Other options I found on this sub was ZenMaid and Tofu, which looked appropriate as lightweight options but I want to weigh out my options.

Sorry if this question gets asked around a lot, but thanks guys!

We only message customers a handful of times a quarter, so paying for a full marketing suite never made sense. Tried Twilio first but it needs dev time we don't have. Ended up on Textedly because the entry plan is cheap, you can pause between campaigns, and 10DLC registration was handled inside the dashboard. SimpleTexting was the runner-up — slightly nicer inbox but pricier at our volume. If you're doing occasional blasts rather than weekly campaigns, the monthly price matters more than per-message rates. Happy to answer questions on deliverability, that part was the learning curve.

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!

hey there sales people, I'm researching about how sales teams use crm.

I'm curious about what is the most frustrating/annoying part of using the mobile app?

• following up with leads?

• creating activities

• notifications?

• working offline?

• updating records after customer visits or calls?

• anything that I missed ?

Tell me your insights on the comment.

I have seen a lot of sales managers struggle with the promises that their reps made to the customers or clients, then forget later in the process and when the issue resurfaces, the deal's already lost or cold.

How do you deal with these issues? Have you tried any tools or implemented any sort of system that worked for you?

Lately i have been seeing posts regarding smes having issues with adopting crms. Just curious about what issues they are facing and what solution have they adopted for that, if any?

Also if you are building something that happens to solve this, feel free to comment here or you can dm.