Return-Path: Delivered-To: andrew@sterlingcal.com Received: from reseller401.webserversystems.com by reseller401.webserversystems.com with LMTP id mJ6OK5fH1mi6OwkAchKAPA (envelope-from ) for ; Fri, 26 Sep 2025 12:04:23 -0500 Return-path: Envelope-to: andrew@sterlingcal.com Delivery-date: Fri, 26 Sep 2025 12:04:23 -0500 Received: from o168.ptr7383.mail.beehiiv.com ([159.183.140.223]:18336) by reseller401.webserversystems.com with esmtps (TLS1.2) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (Exim 4.98.1) (envelope-from ) id 1v2Brq-00000002b75-3wIM for andrew@sterlingcal.com; Fri, 26 Sep 2025 12:04:23 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=mail.beehiiv.com; h=content-type:date:from:mime-version:subject:reply-to:list-unsubscribe: list-unsubscribe-post:to:cc:content-type:date:from:subject:to; s=s1; bh=3KvPKTHUgUWelFhr87uHRti+BBgvph2dXKSchtZ/e0A=; b=VaSND2g9BZUEqZfLXDRK0EotfOtYXHXbjRESL6OsSS7hHUvaforqLy0gJ7zDFX7/obsR X0S1MjHubva/Egbx2d8OcweEUgnfYFfglS+Gu8NMBSPkvEzCjB62nF3Ton+u8E7nPg2ILl Y647NsweiQZzZmwfKFmmXkckUqwKPPpvzwtNAJVqr2JJtIaOuUVYAP7CXTe1Qe9RsRiMYU nUOe7MYeglzAE72qK/PnO9UAOztQpX7oyAfEtB31UTh80XFwdYNOjPplGs0gb9xInJmq6p OkYyTpXtPp7QE+0JzTrsbmfZG5RZtVuecfb+s5cTYfviM4gYhDcLlmiolRBrAN9A== Received: by recvd-55b9bbfc4b-8mrdv with SMTP id recvd-55b9bbfc4b-8mrdv-1-68D6C75C-DC 2025-09-26 17:03:24.285656372 +0000 UTC m=+9850728.329813972 Received: from NDAyMzQxODk (unknown) by geopod-ismtpd-17 (SG) with HTTP id VXgVMNzOQtG8yWp1bp0KCw Fri, 26 Sep 2025 17:03:24.218 +0000 (UTC) Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=cb16c44398ef713b5004e056bb063ed8b692d3cfb996c514b24b57185744 Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2025 17:04:11 +0000 (UTC) From: Collin Stewart Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Subject: Why Your CRM Sucks Reply-To: Collin Stewart Feedback-ID: =?us-ascii?Q?7ecd042d-510f-44c1-92ca-db4411d885c1=3Anewsletter=3A3c5b97ff-00a9-?= =?us-ascii?Q?4acc-916d-c137bca24b1d=3A23270855726497d?= List-Unsubscribe: =?us-ascii?Q?=3Cmailto=3A3c5b97ff-00a9-4acc-916d-c137bca24b1d+1d17dc26-c1df-44e?= =?us-ascii?Q?0-812a-883b6ad5b6bc+7ecd042d-510f-44c1-?= =?us-ascii?Q?92ca-db4411d885c1=40unsub=2Ebeehiiv=2Ecom=3E=2C?= =?us-ascii?Q?_=3Chttps=3A=2F=2Ffoundersedition=2Eco=2Funsubscribe=2FeyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbG?= =?us-ascii?Q?ciOiJIUzI1NiJ9=2EeyJzdWJzY3JpYmVyX2lkIjoi?= =?us-ascii?Q?MWQxN2RjMjYtYzFkZi00NGUwLTgxMmEtODgzYjZ?= =?us-ascii?Q?hZDViNmJjIiwicG9zdF9pZCI6IjdlY2QwNDJkLT?= =?us-ascii?Q?UxMGYtNDRjMS05MmNhLWRiNDQxMWQ4ODVjMSIsI?= =?us-ascii?Q?mxhc3RfcmVzb3VyY2VfZ3VpZCI6IlBvc3Q6N2Vj?= =?us-ascii?Q?ZDA0MmQtNTEwZi00NGMxLTkyY2EtZGI0NDExZDg?= =?us-ascii?Q?4NWMxIn0=2E6Y=5F-8VlfVfNHLo2re9MkY5Sd9gjvlb?= =?us-ascii?Q?lt8ielkEfr4cY=3E?= List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click sId: 3c5b97ff-00a9-4acc-916d-c137bca24b1d x-beehiiv-ids: =?us-ascii?Q?{=22account=5Fname=22=3A=22https=3A=2F=2Ffoundersedition=2Eco=2F=22=2C=22campaign=5Fid=22=3A=227?= =?us-ascii?Q?ecd042d-510f-44c1-92ca-db4411d885c1=22=2C=22c?= =?us-ascii?Q?ategory=22=3A=22newsletter=22=2C=22email=5Fgenerated=5F?= =?us-ascii?Q?at=22=3A1758906204=2C=22user=5Fid=22=3A=223c5b97ff-00a9?= =?us-ascii?Q?-4acc-916d-c137bca24b1d=22}?= x-beehiiv-type: newsletter x-list-id: 3c5b97ff-00a9-4acc-916d-c137bca24b1d x-list-owner: x-newsletter: https://foundersedition.co/p/why-your-crm-sucks x-newsletter-id: https://foundersedition.co/ x-newsletter-signup: https://foundersedition.co/subscribe X-SG-EID: =?us-ascii?Q?u001=2E7ozyt+tmjDsHnEocxX8pymFA2v5OOh2V4Pdr6hGVjZo99sLHT4OeEg7as?= =?us-ascii?Q?oEFtQzIa0qAOkk1QezFA4qrCcff9558yNK8x6zQ?= =?us-ascii?Q?0aLhxDCyAuB9kgcSLas3IIKR+fvCUJBBeoMUH=2Fj?= =?us-ascii?Q?h8mbTaI65kDThC2I5nA4DlqlE23ARSrPnOBQ7wu?= =?us-ascii?Q?xxOoKT55jg1u=2FLh2M0TO6A+9HqlzJkbPf2Pt4V0?= =?us-ascii?Q?bzEueiIOpg3SsuQcGM0bND9L9eVwrHmk7NpZ22N?= =?us-ascii?Q?8eEzf+SVRugLtGtP1vPhurWawCccg5zI0erbqHL?= =?us-ascii?Q?eyuc0f5s=3D?= X-SG-ID: =?us-ascii?Q?u001=2ESdBcvi+Evd=2FbQef8eZF3BpTL9BgbK5wfSJMJGMsmprD1ZcmFObA4po1bG?= =?us-ascii?Q?aUE6gycJ+LfRoc8X0Wm0MSorFVcoWHrIixZYD9z?= =?us-ascii?Q?w25Z143eglkAJWbQrLxndYtch6lhNuMZAjzTdhS?= =?us-ascii?Q?+p7WkO424Ipk13O34SdX8bx0Vq1+NisSaeD3Yhd?= =?us-ascii?Q?o9FY84daKyuCGGda09fPyC47P80mAslWpzWWNSV?= =?us-ascii?Q?wgxCeABpXp8O9L9fcyd4YXxGnHRgY1oueQpTC4v?= =?us-ascii?Q?rOkesCRL02c6ZI8qb=2FZT34bi+2KRBnALEpFfq16?= =?us-ascii?Q?HXSpmWy0TlvYmkYKt1agalUZ5N0JEyEcR80pYFR?= =?us-ascii?Q?nojdCInJCDUO4MDkX2hL=2FrfKHXkh8Fc0ko+LIU+?= =?us-ascii?Q?SKhXvDD2UxiYVgB?= To: "andrew@sterlingcal.com" X-Entity-ID: u001.RuZ2+X9IBGtjUb8qq3teHQ== X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.6 X-Spam-Score: -5 X-Spam-Bar: / X-Spam-Flag: NO --cb16c44398ef713b5004e056bb063ed8b692d3cfb996c514b24b57185744 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Mime-Version: 1.0 Hello Andrew,=20 _**Book update**__: we=E2=80=99re approaching the 1 month to launch date! I= =E2=80=99m planning two small in person events, October 10th in San Francis= co and November 3rd in New York. Let me know if either work for you. _ _**An offer**__: if you hit me back with your pre-order receipt and I=E2=80= =99ll create a mini-course showing how to implement the below system in Hub= spot/a spreadsheet. From field creation to setting up the right views to ho= w to write a good =E2=80=98next action=E2=80=99. We=E2=80=99ve reached 192= pre-orders already and I have something special planned for when we cross = 200=E2=80=A6_ _Onto the newsletter=E2=80=A6_ **tl;dr - you're not using it right.** This week I was working with a founder who had 75 deals in their CRM pipeli= ne. It=E2=80=99s crunch time and they _need_ to get some revenue coming in = the door in the next 3 months. When I asked them what they needed to do tod= ay to move deals forward, they stared at their Kanban board and said: "I do= n't know." Their CRM looked beautiful. Color-coded stages, deal values, probability sc= ores, fancy dashboards. But it was completely useless for the one thing tha= t actually matters: telling them what to do next. ## The CRM Trap Here's what happens to most founders: You set up a CRM because someone told= you that's what growing companies do. You spend hours configuring fields, = stages, and integrations. You import your contacts and start tracking deals= . _Or maybe you didn=E2=80=99t do any of this and just started adding deals= in randomly=E2=80=A6 No judgement, I=E2=80=99ve done it both ways. Both su= ck.=C2=A0_ Then you log in each morning and... what? You see a bunch of boxes with com= pany names and dollar amounts. Your brain has to work overtime just to reme= mber: What did we talk about? What were they waiting for? What's the next s= tep? So you end up managing deals through email, Slack, and your memory. The CRM= becomes a reporting tool for showing your cofounder you=E2=80=99re kinda d= oing something, not a productivity tool for closing deals. ## Why Every CRM Sucks at the Thing That Matters Most I built a CRM company as my first startup. We were trying to solve exactly = this problem: helping salespeople know what to do next. That experience tau= ght me something brutal about the CRM industry. Every CRM company is optimized for the wrong thing. They're built for marke= ting teams who want dashboards and reporting. They're built for sales leade= rs who want forecasts and pipeline reviews. They're not built for the perso= n actually trying to close deals. The fundamental problem: CRMs show you where deals are, but they don't tell= you what to do about it. You can see that "Acme Corp" is in the "Demo" stage, but that tells you not= hing. Did they reschedule three times? Are they waiting for pricing? Did th= ey go dark after the demo? Your CRM has no idea, so neither do you. ## The Only System That Actually Works After years of watching founders struggle with this, I've found there are o= nly two fields that matter: **Next Action:** What's the very next thing you need to do to move this dea= l forward? **Next Action Date:** When are you going to do it? That's it. Everything else is noise. Here's how it works in practice: Instead of "Demo," you write: "9/24: Demo scheduled for 9/26" with a date o= f September 26th. Instead of "Send proposal," you write: "9/24: Send proposal. Review meeting= booked with their boss on 10/2" with a date of October 2nd. Instead of "Follow up," you write: "9/26: FU to see if raise is close to cl= osing=E2=80=9D with a date of September 26th. Now when you log into your CRM each morning, you know exactly what to do. N= o guessing. No trying to remember. No digging through email threads. **Pro-tip**: if you need to do something, start your next action with a ver= b, eg. =E2=80=9Csend a proposal for x=E2=80=9D. This tells your brain exact= ly what you need to do and forces you to think through what to do next clea= rly instead of just brain dumping. If you have a next step scheduled, nice = work, write that instead, eg. =E2=80=9CFU meeting booked Oct 1st=E2=80=9D.= =C2=A0 ## Two Habits That Change Everything The system only works if you build two simple habits: **Every morning:** Open your "Active Opportunities" view first thing. Befor= e Slack, before email, before LinkedIn. Look at what's due today and do tho= se things. I=E2=80=99d say =E2=80=9Cbefore coffee'=E2=80=9C but want it to = be realistic=E2=80=A6 **Every Friday:** Run "Follow-Up Friday." Pick five deals from your nurture= pipeline and do something with them. Send an email, make a call, check if = their situation changed. Just five things. That's it. If you happen to do m= ore? Awesome.=20 I intentionally keep the initial ask of each of these habits small to make = them easy to repeat. What I find typically happens is that once I start, I = end up doing more than just 5. But this gives me permission to only do 5 th= ings and still consider it a win. =20 The magic isn't in doing more work. It's in building the discipline to neve= r let good opportunities die from neglect. ## Why This Matters for Early Revenue When you're an early-stage founder, revenue risk doesn't come from a lack o= f leads. It comes from deals slipping through the cracks because nobody fol= lowed up at the right time. I've seen founders lose $50K deals because they forgot to follow up when th= e prospect said "circle back in Q4." I've seen companies miss their fundrai= sing targets because half their pipeline went stale while they were chasing= new leads. Your CRM should be your memory, not your burden. It should make you faster,= not slower. It should tell you what to do, not what happened. ## A Personal Productivity Tool, Not a Reporting Dashboard Stop thinking about your CRM as a reporting tool. Start thinking about it a= s a personal productivity system. The goal isn't to impress your investors with clean data and beautiful char= ts. The goal is to never lose track of a deal that could have closed. When you're the founder doing the selling, your CRM has one job: help you r= emember what you promised to do and when you promised to do it. If it's not= doing that, it's broken. ## Making It Stick The hardest part isn't setting up the fields. It's building the discipline = to actually use them. Every time you talk to a prospect, immediately update the next action. Ever= y time you send an email, log what you did and what happens next. Every tim= e you think about a deal, capture that thought in the system. Your goal is "mind like water"=E2=80=94a concept from David Allen's Getting= Things Done. When everything you need to remember is captured in a system = you trust, your brain can focus on selling instead of remembering. ## The Bottom Line Your CRM doesn't suck because it's missing features. It sucks because you'r= e using it wrong. Stop trying to track everything and start tracking the only thing that matt= ers: what you need to do next. Set up two views: Active Opportunities (sorted by next action date) and Nur= ture Pipeline (for Follow-Up Fridays). Add next action and next action date= to every deal. Use it every morning and every Friday. That's it. No fancy workflows, no complex automations, no expensive add-ons= . Just a simple system that tells you what to do next. Collin=C2=A0 **PS -** If enough people are interested, I'll create a mini video course s= howing exactly how to set this up in HubSpot=E2=80=94the specific views, fi= elds, and filters that make it work. Hit reply if you want me to build it. **PPS -** If you don=E2=80=99t have a CRM, awesome! Check out the google sh= eet template from my =E2=80=9C[don=E2=80=99t buy a crm](https://foundersedi= tion.co/p/don-t-buy-a-crm)=E2=80=9D post.=20 =E2=80=94=E2=80=94=E2=80=94 You are reading a plain text version of this post. For the best experience,= copy and paste this link in your browser to view the post online: https://foundersedition.co/p/why-your-crm-sucks --cb16c44398ef713b5004e056bb063ed8b692d3cfb996c514b24b57185744 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Mime-Version: 1.0 Why Your CRM Sucks
<= td align=3D"center" valign=3D"top" style=3D"border-width:0px 0px 0px 0px;bo= rder-style: solid; border-color: #FFFFFF;border-radius:10px 10px 0px 0px;ba= ckground-color:#FFFFFF;" class=3D"c">
3D""
= = =

Hello Andrew,

Book update: we=E2=80=99re approaching the 1 month to launch date! I=E2=80= =99m planning two small in person events, October 10th in San Francisco and= November 3rd in New York. Let me know if either work for you. <= /p>

An offer<= span style=3D"color:rgb(44, 62, 80);">: if you hit me back with your pre= -order receipt and I=E2=80=99ll create a mini-course showing how to impleme= nt the below system in Hubspot/a spreadsheet. From field creation to settin= g up the right views to how to write a good =E2=80=98next action=E2=80=99. = We=E2=80=99ve reached 192 pre-orders already and I have something special p= lanned for when we cross 200=E2=80=A6

Onto the newsletter=E2=80=A6

tl;dr - you're not u= sing it right.

Thi= s week I was working with a founder who had 75 deals in their CRM pipeline.= It=E2=80=99s crunch time and they need to get some= revenue coming in the door in the next 3 months. When I asked them what th= ey needed to do today to move deals forward, they stared at their Kanban bo= ard and said: "I don't know."

Their CRM looked beautiful. Color-coded stages, deal v= alues, probability scores, fancy dashboards. But it was completely useless = for the one thing that actually matters: telling them what to do next.

The CRM Trap

Here's what happens to most= founders: You set up a CRM because someone told you that's what growin= g companies do. You spend hours configuring fields, stages, and integration= s. You import your contacts and start tracking deals. Or maybe you didn=E2=80=99t do any of this and = just started adding deals in randomly=E2=80=A6 No judgement, I=E2=80=99ve d= one it both ways. Both suck.=C2=A0

Then you log in each morning and... what? You see a bunch o= f boxes with company names and dollar amounts. Your brain has to work overt= ime just to remember: What did we talk about? What were they waiting for? W= hat's the next step?

Why Every= CRM Sucks at the Thing That Matters Most

I built a CRM company as my first startup. We were tryi= ng to solve exactly this problem: helping salespeople know what to do next.= That experience taught me something brutal about the CRM industry.<= /p>

Every CRM company is optimized= for the wrong thing. They're built for marketing teams who want dashbo= ards and reporting. They're built for sales leaders who want forecasts = and pipeline reviews. They're not built for the person actually trying = to close deals.

The fun= damental problem: CRMs show you where deals are, but they don't tell yo= u what to do about it.

= You can see that "Acme Corp" is in the "Demo" stage, bu= t that tells you nothing. Did they reschedule three times? Are they waiting= for pricing? Did they go dark after the demo? Your CRM has no idea, so nei= ther do you.

The Only System That Actually Works

After years of watching founders struggle w= ith this, I've found there are only two fields that matter:

<= /td>

Next Action: What's the very next th= ing you need to do to move this deal forward?

Next Action Date: When are you going to do it?

<= /td>

That's it. Everything else is = noise.

Here's how i= t works in practice:

In= stead of "Demo," you write: "9/24: Demo scheduled for 9/26&q= uot; with a date of September 26th.

Instead of "Send proposal," you write: "9/24: S= end proposal. Review meeting booked with their boss on 10/2" with a da= te of October 2nd.

Ins= tead of "Follow up," you write: "9/26: FU to see if raise is= close to closing=E2=80=9D with a date of September 26th.

Now when you log into your CRM each morn= ing, you know exactly what to do. No guessing. No trying to remember. No di= gging through email threads.

Pro-tip: if you need to do something, start your next action with a verb, e= g. =E2=80=9Csend a proposal for x=E2=80=9D. This tells your brain exactly w= hat you need to do and forces you to think through what to do next clearly = instead of just brain dumping. If you have a next step scheduled, nice work= , write that instead, eg. =E2=80=9CFU meeting booked Oct 1st=E2=80=9D.=C2= =A0

Two Habits That Change Everything

The system only works if you build two simple habits:

Every = morning: Open your "= Active Opportunities" view first thing. Before Slack, before email, be= fore LinkedIn. Look at what's due today and do those things. I=E2=80=99= d say =E2=80=9Cbefore coffee'=E2=80=9C but want it to be realistic=E2= =80=A6

= Every Friday: Run &quo= t;Follow-Up Friday." Pick five deals from your nurture pipeline and do= something with them. Send an email, make a call, check if their situation = changed. Just five things. That's it. If you happen to do more? Awesome= .

I intentionally keep= the initial ask of each of these habits small to make them easy to repeat.= What I find typically happens is that once I start, I end up doing more th= an just 5. But this gives me permission to only do 5 things and still consi= der it a win.

The magi= c isn't in doing more work. It's in building the discipline to neve= r let good opportunities die from neglect.

Why This Matters for Earl= y Revenue

When you'= ;re an early-stage founder, revenue risk doesn't come from a lack of le= ads. It comes from deals slipping through the cracks because nobody followe= d up at the right time.

I've seen founders lose $50K deals because they forgot to follow up wh= en the prospect said "circle back in Q4." I've seen companies= miss their fundraising targets because half their pipeline went stale whil= e they were chasing new leads.

Your CRM should be your memory, not your burden. It should make you= faster, not slower. It should tell you what to do, not what happened.

A Personal Productivity Tool, Not a Reporting Dashboard

Stop thinking about your CRM as a report= ing tool. Start thinking about it as a personal productivity system.=

The goal isn't to impress= your investors with clean data and beautiful charts. The goal is to never = lose track of a deal that could have closed.

When you're the founder doing the selling, your C= RM has one job: help you remember what you promised to do and when you prom= ised to do it. If it's not doing that, it's broken.

Making It Stick

= The hardest part isn't setting u= p the fields. It's building the discipline to actually use them.=

Every time you talk to a pros= pect, immediately update the next action. Every time you send an email, log= what you did and what happens next. Every time you think about a deal, cap= ture that thought in the system.

Your goal is "mind like water"=E2=80=94a concept from D= avid Allen's Getting Things Done. When everything you need to remember = is captured in a system you trust, your brain can focus on selling instead = of remembering.

The Bottom Line

You= r CRM doesn't suck because it's missing features. It sucks because = you're using it wrong.

Stop trying to track everything and start tracking the only thing tha= t matters: what you need to do next.

Set up two views: Active Opportunities (sorted by next action= date) and Nurture Pipeline (for Follow-Up Fridays). Add next action and ne= xt action date to every deal. Use it every morning and every Friday.=

That's it. No fancy workf= lows, no complex automations, no expensive add-ons.

Just a simple system that tells you what to do= next.

Collin=C2=A0

PS - If enough people are intere= sted, I'll create a mini video course showing exactly how to set this u= p in HubSpot=E2=80=94the specific views, fields, and filters that make it w= ork. Hit reply if you want me to build it.

PPS - If you don=E2=80=99t have a CRM, awesome! Check out the= google sheet template from my =E2=80=9Cdon=E2=80=99t buy a crm= =E2=80=9D post.

3D"yt"3D"in"=
 

Update your ema= il preferences or unsubscribe here

© 2025 Predictable Revenue: Founders Edition

#304 210 Carrall Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 2J1, Canada

3D"beehiivPowered by b= eehiiv