Customer Relationship Management Consulting

The “CRM” you know today is quietly dying. Not with a bang, but with a slow takeover. Look at the last few months: • ServiceNow buying AI workflow and GTM automation players • Clari acquiring Groove • Clari and Salesloft merging These aren’t just logos swapping hands. This is the quiet dismantling of the old Salesforce-style CRM stack. When I first got into sales, the CRM was the source of truth. We were told “if it’s not in Salesforce, it didn’t happen.” The reality? It was mostly a graveyard of stale notes and inflated pipeline. Fast forward to now, the action isn’t in the CRM…it’s in the revenue platforms that actually run sales. Pipeline inspection, buyer engagement, AI-driven forecasting, real-time deal orchestration. It’s like the difference between a dusty ledger and a live market ticker. The contrarian take? I think the future “CRM” won’t be a single system of record at all. It’ll be an ecosystem of orchestration layers, AI-first, deeply integrated, invisible to reps. By the time you “log into” something, it will have already updated itself and acted on your behalf. The CRM will stop being a place you go and start being something that works around you. The real winners here? Not the companies that own the most logos, but the ones that nail: • Seamless AI-powered interoperability • Sales team adoption without force • An actual lift in win rates, not just prettier dashboards I’ve lived through 4 different “end-all” CRM rollouts. Each promised transformation. Most delivered… more admin work. This M&A wave? It feels different. If they execute right, sales leaders might finally stop fighting the tech stack and start trusting it. What do you think? Are we watching CRM’s evolution, or its obituary? #FutureOfSales #SalesStrategy #AIForSales #ModernSelling

Why did customer growth change? The problem is rarely a missing metric. It’s that we look at CRM metrics in isolation. In reality, CRM is a system. A few examples from this map: 1) 𝗔 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀; if the Time to the 2nd purchase is increasing, the base goes down. 2) 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲; and still hurt long-term growth if the 1st order value rises while the Time to 1st purchase slows down. 3) 𝗖𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀; but revenue churn shows whether you’re losing low-value or high-value customers. None of these metrics are “wrong”. They’re just incomplete on their own. That’s why we built this CRM metrics map to show how metrics influence each other, not just how they trend. -- 📌 Save this if you work with retention, or growth. 🔁 Repost if you’ve seen dashboards that hide more than they explain.

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.

I flew to Nashville to help the Veregy team book more meetings through LinkedIn for their SKO. Plot twist... they're not in SaaS. They're in energy services. Think building efficiency... Maintenance... K-12 districts... Public sector. Way different than my normal crowd. Most of you are going to read this and be like wait.. "LinkedIn doesn't work there." My friends... it works everywhere. Just have to look at it differently. Here are 3 strategies we built together: 1. Get on camera. Like... actually do it. They're a relationship business. So why are we hiding behind text... I told them to look at their contact list and LinkedIn connections.. and send 1-minute personalized videos. In a space where NOBODY is doing this, even one video makes you the person they remember. We even had someone record a video LIVE during our session and send it to a prospect on the spot. Absolute legend behavior. 2. Stop chasing the 20-year veterans Most of their potential clients have been at their districts forever. Super comfortable and not looking to change. So we flipped it. Filter for people less than 1 year at the company in Sales Nav because the new leaders want to make impact and want quick wins. These people are your way in. 3. Your customers are your best sales weapon They already have amazing relationships with their current districts. I said... use that as outreach. Reach out to similar districts and say: "Recently worked with [district name] and they were experiencing (x, y and z). We came in for a building audit and helped them (result). Are you seeing the same challenges?" As I talk about often.. this is inviting them into the conversation. We call this a Spark Message.. you already have the leverage and the trust. Use it. It's fun teaching very experienced sellers new techniques on social. You see the light bulbs start going off because they see exactly how they can do that new thing in their role. Shout out to Vincent Esparza for bringing me in. This crew was fun and lively. Hoping y'all have a great 2026.

We’ve just stepped into a business doing £2m+. They don’t need more people. They need a better way of running. What we found: → CRM not set up to manage reality → No consistent sales or delivery process → Phone + enquiry handling unstructured → Reporting = manual, delayed, unclear Why they brought us in: They knew they could double output… with the same headcount. What we’re implementing: → CRM configured around actual workflow (not just a database) → Call handling + enquiry structure to increase conversion → Playbooks across sales and delivery → Live dashboards, daily visibility Outcome: More output. Same team. Clear control. Most businesses don’t have a people problem. They have a system problem.

Recent headlines suggest CRM is disappearing. But what does that really mean? A good week-end reflection. Over the past year, vendors like Salesforce, Microsoft, and HubSpot have begun embedding AI directly into collaboration tools employees use (Slack, Teams, or email). Users no longer need to open the CRM. This is supposed to make traditional CRM interfaces obsolete. Some recent examples: - Salesforce: AI in Slack allows users to query customer data, update opportunities, and generate summaries directly within conversations. - Microsoft Dynamics 365: Integration with Teams and Microsoft Copilot captures meeting notes and updates CRM records automatically. - HubSpot: Emails and meeting transcripts are logged automatically, keeping CRM records up to date in the background. Consulting and analyst perspectives reinforce this trend. McKinsey and Accenture call it “workflow-embedded AI”: Insights and actions happen inside the tools employees already use. What this looks like: Traditional CRM: User → opens CRM → updates record → continues work AI-embedded CRM: User → works in Slack / Teams / email → AI updates CRM automatically The CRM remains the system of record. But its interface gradually disappears from daily work. How I see it: 1. This is more than a usability improvement. It is a platform competition between collaboration platforms (Slack, Teams), AI assistants, and CRM platforms. Whoever wins may control the enterprise customer ecosystem. 2. This all makes sense. People spend most of their day in collaboration tools and communication platforms, not inside CRM systems. Adoption may finally improve if users no longer feel like they are feeding a system. 3. Customer processes may become less transparent: If interactions happen primarily through AI agents and collaboration tools, visibility into the sales process may become harder. Organizations need even stronger discipline around data quality, data models, governance, and AI supervision Executive takeaways: 1. CRM interfaces may become less visible, but architecture, data quality, and governance are more critical than ever. 2. Executives should evaluate collaboration platforms as part of their CRM and AI architecture strategy. Not as standalone tools. 3. Organizations must remain cautious about overdependence on AI and collaboration ecosystems, to avoid new forms of vendor lock-in. #CRM #salesforce #AI

Generative AI surveys: where your feedback is interactive, valued, and promptly discarded. But hey, at least it’s efficient! Sorry, I know it’s a bit early to be snarky. Seriously though, closing the loop with your customers on their feedback - solicited or unsolicited - is a game changer. Start by integrating customer signals/data into a real-time analytics platform that not only surfaces key themes, but also flags specific issues requiring follow-up. This is no longer advanced tech. From there, create a workflow that assigns ownership for addressing the feedback, tracks resolution progress, and measures outcomes over time. With most tech having APIs for your CRM, also not a huge lift to set up. By linking feedback directly to improvement efforts, which still requires a human in the loop, and closing the loop by notifying customers when changes are made, you transform a simple data collection tool into a continuous improvement engine. Most companies are not taking these critical few steps though. Does it take time, effort, and money? Yes it does. Can it help you drive down costs and drive up revenue? Also, a hard yes. The beauty of actually closing the loop is that the outcomes can be quantified. How have you seen closing the loop - outer, inner, or both - impact your business? #cx #surveys #ceo

CRM is not dead. The old way of using CRM is. There is a growing narrative in the market that CRM is fading. That narrative misses the real shift that is happening. CRM as infrastructure is not going anywhere. What is going away is the outdated operating model that turned CRM into an administrative system instead of a growth engine. For years, legacy CRM environments have looked the same: • Highly customized • Expensive to maintain • Burdened with technical debt • Low adoption from frontline teams • AI added as a layer, not embedded in work That model created systems of record. It did not create systems of impact. What is emerging now is very different. CRM is becoming the revenue operating system for the enterprise. The conversation should not be about product names or feature lists. Customers do not buy technology catalogs. They buy outcomes: • Faster revenue execution • Higher seller productivity • Better customer engagement • Shorter time to value • Lower total cost to operate The modern model is built around a unified platform where humans and AI work together in the flow of work across Sales, Service, Marketing, and Contact Center. Key differences in this new approach: • AI is embedded directly into workflows, not bolted on • Adoption is a design principle, not an afterthought • Value is delivered in the first 90 days, not after a year • Implementations are measured in months, not multi-year programs • The focus is measurable business outcomes, not system configuration Companies still need secure customer data, governance, identity, and core business process infrastructure. That foundation does not disappear. CRM remains the backbone. What changes is how that backbone is used. Enterprises cannot afford to keep layering new agents and tools on top of already expensive, fragmented CRM stacks. The future model is: Simpler platform + lower cost + AI in the flow of work = better business outcomes. CRM is not dying. CRM is evolving from a passive database into the active operating system for customer engagement and revenue execution. That is a very different story.

A client recently asked, “We’ve always won with our prices, but now it’s not cutting it. What shifted?” Here’s what happened: The market evolved, customer needs shifted, yet their strategy stayed the same. After reassessing their approach and making a few key adjustments, we saw immediate results: customer engagement soared, brand loyalty grew, and sales exceeded expectations, without having to lower prices. The truth is—competing on price is a losing game. True success comes from standing out in ways that don’t rely on discounting. I call this the “Value-First Growth Strategy.” It’s about creating a brand that customers want to support, not just because it’s cheap, but because it speaks to their values and needs. Here’s how to apply it: 🔸 Focus on Your Brand’s Story • Share your brand’s mission, its values, and the purpose behind what you do. • People connect with stories that resonate with their beliefs. The benefit: A powerful story creates a deeper connection, making your brand unforgettable. 🔸 Offer Exceptional Customer Experience • Create a seamless and personalized experience for every customer. • Make communication easy and every touchpoint memorable. The benefit: A great experience drives loyalty and referrals that go beyond price. 🔸 Create Emotional Connections • Engage your audience by speaking to their hopes, challenges, and dreams. • Build messages that feel personal and relevant. The benefit: Emotional connections foster lasting relationships that transcend cost. 🔸 Be a Thought Leader in Your Industry • Share valuable insights and engage in meaningful conversations within your niche. • Position your brand as a trusted advisor. The benefit: Being recognized as an expert builds credibility, making price less of a concern. 🔸 Create Exclusivity and Urgency • Offer special deals, limited-time products, or exclusive features. • Create a sense of urgency that adds premium value to your brand. The benefit: Exclusivity increases perceived value and drives urgency to act. 🔸 Highlight Social Responsibility and Sustainability • Show how your brand supports causes that align with your audience’s values. • Communicate how you’re contributing to positive change. The benefit: Consumers gravitate toward brands with a purpose and are willing to invest in that alignment. 🔸 Keep Improving Your Product or Service • Continuously refine your product or service to meet evolving customer needs. • Commit to quality and innovation. The benefit: Continuous improvement shows your dedication to excellence, justifying your pricing and fostering trust. The truth? Standing out without competing on price is all about the value you offer, and the connections you create. How are you differentiating your brand without relying on price? Drop a comment! ⸻ ♻️ REPOST if this resonated with you! ➡️ FOLLOW Rheanne Razo for more B2B growth strategies, client success, and real-world business insights.