Every MSP I know has had the “CRM debate.”
HubSpot or Zoho? Salesforce or Pipedrive? Or maybe you’re still hanging onto an Excel sheet with 27 hidden columns and three people forgetting to update it.
I’ve been there. When I ran my MSP, we’d spend weeks talking about tools and almost no time writing down what was supposed to happen after a lead came in. Spoiler: the tool didn’t matter because our follow-up process was too slow.
Later, at Giant Rocketship, I saw what happens when you do it the other way around: write the process first, then make the CRM obey it. Suddenly, leads didn’t vanish into a black hole. Sales reps knew exactly what to do next. And most importantly, I could measure it.
This post isn’t about choosing the “perfect” CRM. It’s about building the follow-up engine that turns whatever CRM you pick into an actual revenue machine.
The MSP Reality: Tools Don’t Close Deals
Back in my MSP days, we bought a shiny new CRM and congratulated ourselves like we had just solved sales forever. But without a process, it quickly turned into a graveyard. Deals sat in “Proposal Sent” for months. Nobody logged calls. Our “pipeline” was a guessing game.
The problem wasn’t the CRM.. it was us. We had no written process for what happened from “lead in” to “deal closed.”
Lesson learned: a bad process in a great CRM is still a bad process.
Write the Playbook First
Forget features and integrations for a minute. Grab a whiteboard or a napkin (I’ve done both). Write down the simple sales path:
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Lead comes in.
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Discovery scheduled.
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Discovery done.
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Proposal sent.
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Decision pending.
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Closed won/lost.
Now, for each stage, define:
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Entry criteria: what qualifies it? (E.g., Discovery is only “scheduled” if the calendar invite is on the books.)
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Tasks: what must happen? (E.g., send recap email, create next step task.)
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Cadence: when do those touches happen? (Day 0, Day 2, Day 4, etc.)
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Exit criteria: what must be true before the deal moves on?
When I finally did this, I realized we’d been skipping steps constantly. One rep would send a proposal without discovery. Another would mark a deal as “lost” without even logging the last call. No wonder our pipeline was junk.
Turn the Playbook Into CRM Automation
Once you’ve got the playbook, then the CRM decision gets easy.
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In HubSpot, you can build Sequences for follow-up, force required fields at each stage, and set SLA reminders (“first call within 15 minutes of lead creation”).
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In Zoho, you can build Workflows and Blueprints that literally stop a rep from moving a deal unless the required info is filled in.
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Even in Pipedrive, you can set up activity requirements so every deal always has a “next step” task.
At Giant Rocketship, we learned to treat the CRM like a stubborn toddler. It only does what you force it to do. If you don’t enforce required fields, you’ll get blank notes. If you don’t enforce tasks, you’ll get dead deals.
Automation is just process, baked into software.
Minimum Features You Actually Need
Forget the 100-slide CRM pitch decks. For an MSP, you need:
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A pipeline with clear stages.
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Task queues with owners and due dates.
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Sequences or workflows to enforce follow-up.
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Integrations to your calendar, quoting, and PSA.
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Reporting on: first-touch speed, next-activity coverage, and stage aging.
That’s it. Everything else is gravy.
The Follow-Up Engine in Action
Here’s what our follow-up engine looked like once we finally got serious:
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New Lead: Auto-assign rep. Task to call in 15 minutes. If not done, manager alerted at 30 minutes.
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Discovery Scheduled: Auto-send agenda. Task for rep to research PSA data and prep questions.
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Discovery Completed: Required fields: seat count, pain points, current stack. Auto-generate recap email template.
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Proposal Out: Follow-up cadence built in: 3 touches in 10 days, including a case study.
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Decision Pending: Weekly nudge until deal closes. If stalled, auto-enroll in nurture.
That system took us from “pray and spray” to actual predictable follow-up. And it worked no matter what CRM we were in.
Where I Failed (and What Fixed It)
When I ran my MSP, I thought the answer was “hire a sales guy and let him do his thing.” Wrong. Without a process, every rep did something different. One guy was a pit bull, another sent one email and gave up, and I had no way to measure either.
At Giant Rocketship, we flipped it: write the process, then build it into the CRM. The reps hated it at first (“it feels robotic”), but guess what? Close rates went up, and new hires could ramp faster because they weren’t making it up as they went along.
The big fix wasn’t the tool, it was finally treating sales like we treated tech support: with SLAs, documented workflows, and escalation paths.