CRM Software for Sales

After years of implementing Salesforce packages, here's a crucial security tip that could save your org from unnecessary risks: Stop Using "Install for All Users" Access for Package Installation! 💡 Best Practice Alert: Never use "Install for All Users" or "Install for Specific Profiles (Full Access)" when installing packages. Here's the secure way and better way: 1️⃣ Always install packages with "Install for Admins Only" access first 2️⃣ Use the package's Permission Set (base on role) if any 3️⃣ Create your own custom Permission Sets for granular control 4️⃣ Create Automation to assign/remove Permission Set 🛡️ Why This Matters: Better security governance Precise access control Prevents accidental exposure Easier maintenance and auditing 🎯 Real-World Impact: I've seen organizations struggle with overexposed package features simply because they chose "Install for All Users" during installation. Don't make this common mistake! Got questions about secure package implementation? Drop a comment or message me! ✨ Remember: Good security is about controlled access, not open access! ✨ #SalesforceAdmin #Salesforce #CRM #CloudSecurity #SalesforceImplementation

How I saved a tech company $128,557 in 22 days (without hiring more staff): $128,557. Gone. All because they didn’t trust their CRM to do its job. Here’s the story: - 185 employees - A growing tech company - Held back by CRM inefficiencies Their marketing director was wasting 5.5 hours a day on low-level tasks: Manually entering lead data into three CRMs: - HubSpot - Google Sheets - Salesforce The result? - Typos and bad data - Gut-feeling decisions - Delayed reporting Let’s crunch the numbers: 110 hours a month—lost. 165 working days a year—wasted. A staggering $128,557—down the drain. Here’s how we fixed it: First, discovery. We identified every inefficiency and bottleneck. Then, build. We integrated HubSpot with Salesforce and eliminated Google Sheets. Finally, testing. Everything was run in Salesforce Sandbox, approved, and launched. 22 days later, their system ran like clockwork. The result? 110 hours saved every month $128,557 in yearly costs eliminated And their marketing director? Back to focusing on real high-level work. P.S. What’s one inefficiency that’s holding your business back right now?

This startup just raised $33M to build the next-generation CRM. Here’s what I learned analyzing their position: I spoke with 3 industry experts on the CRM market. (On top of the 14 Attio employees and customers I talked to last March.) Here’s what I learned: – THE MARKET OVERALL The $101B CRM market is ripe for disruption. Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive all have their own weaknesses. And in small businesses, workspace tools like Notion or ClickUp are ubiquitous. Attio has secured $64M in total VC funding by challenging traditional assumptions about what a CRM can be. Their design-led, AI-powered approach is eating the CRM market from the bottom up. – MARKET POSITION The way I see the market… Attio is effectively competing against three different types of players within CRM: 1. Enterprise Incumbents 2. Modern Challengers 3. Core SMB CRMs Let’s define each. – GROUP 1: LEGACY INCUMBENTS The first group are your core CRM companies. These are the guys making the biggest of bucks: 1. Salesforce 2. HubSpot 3. Microsoft Dynamics 365 4. Oracle CRM On Demand 5. SAP 6. SugarCRM The biggest companies in the world default to tools like these. – GROUP 2: MODERN CHALLENGERS The final group Attio competes with are the modern challengers. These are tools like: 1. Pipedrive 2. Freshworks 3. Copper 4. Insightly 5. Zoho CRM 6. folk 7. Streak – GROUP 3: CORE SMB CRMS These are the well-known players like: 1. Notion (even though they don’t have a CRM specifically) 2. Airtable 3. Coda 4. Plain 5. monday.com 6. ClickUp Each of these players have their teeth deeply sunk into the design-forward SMB ecosystem. – HOW ATTIO COULD WIN Despite all this competition, the Attio team is betting on 3 credible ways to win: 1. Advanced AI agents 2. Powerful data model that works for any business 3. Automation of even the most complex workflows They’ll need to execute flawlessly in such a competitive market. – KEY TAKEAWAYS What makes Attio compelling is their modern UX + enterprise-grade, AI-native CRM. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/e6xe2ZzF For product leaders watching this space, Attio demonstrates you can create a compelling alternative even in red ocean markets. You just need to get a few product vectors really, really right.

🧑🏽💻 "I have no idea what I'm doing... but I'll figure it out." This is basically my everyday life working in a seed-stage startup, and I often rely on applying my data best practices to "non-data" business problems to unblock myself. 🚀 Most recently, I've been working on a migration from Hubspot to Salesforce, where I have limited experience in sales and these tools. But by reframing it into a data engineering problem, I all of a sudden have a wealth of knowledge to make this migration happen. 👇🏽 Here's how I approached it: 1. Determine what's the business use case and expectations from my business stakeholders? 2. Create a flow chart that logically maps out the process of going from "lead capture" to "discovery call" and how a lead's "status" changes throughout the workflow. 3. Map the workflow to an underlying architecture of our various tools and integrations to make this process happen, AND determine which data fields are being changed. 4. Determine all the data fields being used in our current system (Hubspot), then map them to the fields in the new system (Salesforce)-- it's unlikely these fields map 1:1, and thus, be sure to document all of your decisions as you are updating business logic. 5. Measure your baseline counts (e.g. lead counts by "lead stage") in your current (Hubspot) and new (Salesforce) systems. 6. Begin unhooking third-party integrations from the old system and move the integration to the new system so new "lead events" are not interrupted. 7. Test the updated integrations with known values-- for me, I went through the entire "sales journey" as if I were a "lead" by filling out our lead form with a test account, scheduling test meetings, etc., and ensuring the expected data shows up in Salesforce. 8. Begin backfilling data and iterating until your expected counts match in the old and new systems. Bonus: Create a doc that details the entire process and your decisions, as well as create a Slack channel to give real-time updates to ensure your business stakeholders are in the loop. 💯 With this reframe, I went from "How do I migrate from Hubspot to Salesforce!?" to instead, "I've done a database migration before, so let's apply it to Hubspot and Salesforce!" 👀 Check the comments below to see the impact already made to for one of my business stakeholders! #data #dataengineering #sales #salesforce

I met a sales team that tracks 27 different metrics. But none of them matter. They measure: - Calls made - Emails sent - Meetings booked - Demos delivered - Talk-to-listen ratio - Response time - Pipeline coverage But they all miss the most important number: How often prospects share your content with others. This hit me yesterday. We analyzed our last 200 deals: Won deals: Champion shared content with 5+ stakeholders Lost deals: Champion shared with fewer than 2 people It wasn't about our: - Product demos - Discovery questions - Pricing strategy - Negotiation skills It was about whether our champion could effectively sell for us. Think about your current pipeline: Do you know how many people have seen your proposal? Do you know which slides your champion shared internally? Do you know who viewed your pricing? Most sales leaders have no idea. They're optimizing metrics that don't drive decisions. Look at your CRM right now. I bet it tracks: ✅ When YOU last emailed a prospect ❌ When THEY last shared your content ✅ How many calls YOU made ❌ How many stakeholders viewed your materials ✅ When YOU sent a proposal ❌ How much time they spent reviewing it We've built dashboards to measure everything except what actually matters. The real sales metric that predicts closed deals: Internal Sharing Velocity (ISV) How quickly and widely your champion distributes your content to other stakeholders. High ISV = Deals close Low ISV = Deals stall We completely rebuilt our sales process around this insight: - Redesigned all content to be shareable, not just readable - Created spaces where champions could easily distribute information - Built analytics to measure exactly who engaged with what - Trained reps to optimize for sharing, not for responses Result? Win rates up 35%. Sales cycles shortened by 42%. Forecasting accuracy improved by 60%. Stop obsessing over your activity metrics. Start measuring how effectively your champions sell for you. If your CRM can't tell you how often your content is shared internally, you're operating in the dark. And that's why your forecasts are always wrong. Your move.

Your CRM thinks that deal is closing. Your buyer isn't even thinking about you. Monday morning pipeline review. Your rep says "500K deal, proposal stage, 80% probability." Three weeks later? Radio silence. Deal hasn't moved. Buyer isn't responding. Now you're scrambling to replace that revenue. I don’t know if you didn’t know but…  Your CRM stages measure what YOU'RE doing, not what the BUYER is thinking. That's exactly why your forecast accuracy is like flipping a coin. As a former #1 sales director who managed 110 reps, delivered $190 million annually in new business. I've seen this problem destroy quarterly forecasts, kill sales momentum, and get really good sales leaders completely fired. But I've also seen the fix. When organizations implement the ADVANCED method, their forecast accuracy jumps from 60% to 95% plus within the first quarter. ADVANCED tracks buyer progression, not seller activity: A - Acknowledged Problem (10%) Documented acknowledgment of a specific costly problem. "This security breach cost us $2 million and we need to prevent it." D - Documented Issue (15%) Written evidence. Email, internal memo, project brief. Something tangible that says this problem is real and needs solving. V - Validated by Team (25%) Multiple stakeholders agree this problem impacts executive-level metrics. Not one person complaining. A - Authorized by Executive (40%) An executive officially sponsors solving this problem. They've mandated their team to evaluate solutions. N - Narrowed to External (60%) They've decided they can't solve this internally. They're committed to buying from an external vendor. C - Chosen as Vendor (75%) You're the preferred vendor. They've stopped talking to competitors. The scope reflects all stakeholder input. E - Established Timeline (85%) Implementation timelines based on business outcomes. Not arbitrary dates. Timeline driven by business need, not sales pressure. D - Deal Terms Finalized (95%) Commercial terms agreed. Pricing approved. Contract in legal review. All decision makers confirmed. I was working with a $50 million e-health company. They had $30 million in pipeline in "proposal stage." When we applied ADVANCED? A very small percentage was actually at closing stage. Most hadn't gotten execs involved. Most didn't have multiple stakeholders. Most didn't have documented issues. They were sending proposals thinking deals would close. But they were creating false forecasts and fooling themselves. Your pipeline is either built on buyer reality or seller fantasy. There's no middle ground. — Sales Leaders, think you’re leaking revenue somewhere? You might want to check this out: https://lnkd.in/g8M-ah5s

If your “CRM transformation” still relies on end-of-month heroics and a spreadsheet called FINAL_v9_REALLYFINAL.xlsx, you’re not using your system—you’re working around it. Sustainable growth in a service business isn’t a software problem; it’s an adoption problem. Tools don’t fail—behaviour, process and governance do. Here’s where service businesses go wrong: 1. Buy the tool, don’t change the behaviour. The team keeps side docs; the CRM gathers dust. 2. Data capture is optional. Free-text chaos, no required fields, inconsistent stages = fantasy forecasts. 3. No clear ownership. No RevOps, no data stewards, no definitions everyone obeys. 4. Activity lives outside the CRM. Emails aren’t logged, calls aren’t tracked, “we’ll update it later” never happens. Adoption architecture (People → Process → Platform): 🔵 People: Train continuously. Explain the why (fewer status meetings, faster invoicing, cleaner pipeline). Create champions. Tie compliance to outcomes (yes, compensation if needed). 🔵 Process: Define lifecycle and stage gates everyone follows. Make key properties required at the right moments. Set SLAs, audit regularly, and stop progressing deals without the data. 🔵 Platform (HubSpot done properly): Required fields by stage; Playbooks for structured discovery; native email/calendar logging; task nudges (“no activity / update in 14 days—update or move on”); adoption dashboards (property completeness, deal hygiene, SLA hits/misses, user activity). This is just the basics—then you get to the clever stuff: guided selling, capacity-aware routing, renewal risk scoring, margin alerts at scoping… all of which only work if the foundations are solid. Takeaway: If you’re still blaming the tool, you don’t have a platform—you have a process problem. Adoption is a choice. #crmtransformation #datatransformation #hubspotpartner #professionalservices #revops #reportingdata #businessgrowth #growthenablement

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗳 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗥𝗠 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗲𝗱. I have participated in a few of them - they good ones and the one that fail. I've created a mini CRM Migration checklist to cover 4 key areas that you need to consider. ☑ Comprehensive Planning: Define objectives: Know your goals. Stakeholder engagement: Get everyone on board. ☑ Data Management: Data cleansing: Ensure accuracy. Data mapping: Align old and new systems. Know your ETL tool. Roll-out plan, go small, in waves until you do a full migration. ☑ System Integration: API configurations: Connect smoothly. Focus in details Testing: Validate every step. Test, and test, and test again. ☑ User Training: Training programs: Empower your team to help others. Support resources: Provide ongoing help. Every step, process, and tool is clear and straightforward. No jargon. Just actionable steps. What else could be part of this checklist?

Some say email tree, but I prefer customer experience blueprints. 😊 No matter what you call them, data-driven email nurturing workflows that are based on lifecycle stage, buyer intent signals, and content engagement are a sales enablement engine—and more so, they act as a strategic lever for aligning marketing and sales to accelerate revenue outcomes. So why don't more teams prioritize them? While workflows are less visible and not as flashy, viewing workflows as living GTM assets offers a framework for operationalizing personalization at scale—something most marketers want but few actually execute well. Here are some hard truths about nurture workflows: - Most marketers know they should personalize—but execution is the tricky part. Start by auditing your user journey and mapping your segmentations, trigger logic, and dynamic content. I like the whiteboard feature in Canva or a tool like Miro for this.  - Integration is everything. Marketing can build the journey, but Sales still drives the close. Full CRM sync powers pipeline velocity, accountability, and better conversion. Sales can’t act on signals they can’t see. - Quarterly performance reviews and workflow audits are non-negotiable. Treat nurture like any other campaign: optimize regularly based on buyer behavior shifts, sales feedback, and funnel performance. What worked last quarter won’t always work next. - And let's face it, personalization at scale is HARD to do. Even the best intentions won't go far without clean data, sharp segmentation, integrated systems, and—the most overlooked—time. Are you feeling guilty because you haven't optimized your workflows yet in 2025? At least you have them. Over 65% of B2B marketers don't even have established lead-nurturing programs, which supports why 80% of marketing leads don't actually convert to sales. (gulp) But fret not, B2B marketers that implement marketing automation have reported increased sales pipelines by as much as 10%! (phew) Whether you're just getting started or ready to review, use this as your call to action to optimize opportunities you may be overlooking. Even the best-run teams can benefit from quarterly workflow audits, behavioral trigger improvements, or segmentation refreshes. If you want more, these topics were featured in Brianna Miller's article for MarTech, "How data-driven email nurturing transforms the B2B sales funnel". I really like this article because it bridges theory to execution and reminds us that nurturing your customers isn't a one-and-done, it's a mindset. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gGqn2j8v #B2BMarketing #LIPostingDayApril #EmailMarketing

AI in Sales—Augment, Don’t Replace! 🚀 AI won’t replace salespeople. But salespeople who use AI strategically will outperform those who don’t. I’ve been in sales since Girl Scout cookies were 50 cents a box, and I’ve seen the game change. But nothing has been more transformative than AI. According to LinkedIn for Sales Connect monthly newsletter, AI can reclaim 29% of a rep’s time by automating admin tasks, data collection, and customer insights. The key? Using AI to amplify human strengths, not replace them. Yet, there’s a challenge: 60% of sales teams report being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of administrative work.AI can help offload up to 10 hours of non-selling tasks per week, effectively doubling selling time from 10 to 20 hours. That’s the kind of efficiency shift that drives real revenue. Here’s how to strategically automate without losing the personal touch: ✅ AI-Powered CRM: Let AI handle lead scoring, email follow-ups, and data entry so reps can focus on relationship-building. ✅ Smart Workflows: Use AI tools to automate routine tasks, freeing up time for strategic selling. ✅ AI as a Guide: Train your team to use AI-generated insights as a tool, not a crutch. Judgment and creativity still win deals! 📌 Actionable Step: Identify 3 repetitive tasks in your sales process (CRM updates, lead research, follow-ups) and integrate AI-powered automation. Measure the time saved and reallocate it to higher-value selling activities. AI isn’t the future of sales—it’s happening NOW. How is your team leveraging it? Let’s talk in the comments! #AIinSales #SalesLeadership   #WomenInSales #EnterpriseSales #1MillionWomenby2030