Follow-up that no longer improvises: CRM, playbook and a shared cadence

1. At a glance

Organization

Established services firm

Industry

B2B professional services

Engagement mode

Strategic mandate (Pipeline Sprint), then fractional leadership (Fractional CMO)

Format

A 6 to 8-week sprint, then a monthly cadence

2. The situation

Opportunities lived in individual emails and spreadsheets: the CRM was an address book and every rep followed up their own way. Nobody could say how many opportunities were lost for lack of follow-up — or why.

3. The decision to make

Should the firm hire a sales director to manage the team, or first install a shared system — CRM, playbook, follow-ups — that the existing team could own itself?

4. What we observed

• No shared sales stages: each rep qualified and followed up out of habit.
• Follow-ups fell through the cracks without anyone seeing it.
• CRM data was too unreliable to produce a defensible forecast.
• Onboarding new reps relied on shadowing, with no documented process.

5. What we built

• Sales stages and exit criteria defined with the team, from its own recent deals.
• The CRM reconfigured, data cleaned and migrated.
• Automated follow-ups and lead routing.
• A documented sales playbook: scripts, sequences, objection handling.
• Recorded training workshops, run on the team's real deals.
• A pipeline and forecast dashboard, then fractional marketing leadership steering the channels on a monthly cadence.

6. What changed

7. What the team keeps

• The configured CRM, the automations and the playbook — in the firm's own tools.
• The recorded workshops, reused to onboard the next reps.
• The monthly cadence of pipeline and channel reviews.