Switching CRMs is one of those decisions most teams put off longer than they should. It touches nearly every part of the business, and getting it right takes planning, coordination, and buy-in from the people who’ll use it every day.
We brought together three sales leaders who’ve been through it to share what they learned, how to get the migration right, and how to tell if it’s paying off:
- Zac Muir, VP of Revenue at Sisu, moved his team off Salesforce and HubSpot and onto Close
- Mariah Williamson, co-founder of RevPilot, has run hundreds of migrations for founders and sales teams
- Elijah Cramer, VP of Sales at LaneFinder, joined right after his CEO made the switch and started out as a self-described HubSpot loyalist.
Here’s their advice for every stage of a CRM migration, from spotting the first warning signs to measuring the results.
Knowing it’s time to switch CRMs
Every sales process has some friction. The question is whether your CRM is making it harder for reps to do their jobs. Look for the everyday workarounds, missed follow-ups, and training headaches that signal it’s time for a change.
“I was so lost in the weeds of managing the business that I hadn't really put myself back in the rep shoes and said, what are they dealing with and what's going to make their life easier?”
Zac Muir, VP of Revenue at Sisu
- Look at where onboarding time goes. How much time do new hires spend learning the CRM versus learning your customers, your product, and how to sell? If you’re over indexing on teaching reps which fields to fill in, it might be time for a simpler system.
- Spend a day doing your reps’ job. Make calls, send texts, and work through follow-ups. If you spend more time updating records than working leads, your CRM needs a closer look.
- Find out where leads and information fall through the cracks. Missed follow-ups, sticky notes, and customer conversations on personal phones can signal that your CRM isn’t supporting the way reps work. When important details stay outside the system, leads get missed and leadership can’t trust the data.
- Count the cost of staying put. Lost leads, slow onboarding, and unnecessary software bills belong in the decision alongside migration costs and retraining.
“What’s being underestimated is the cost of not switching. You’re losing leads, you may be overpaying for a system. There’s these other costs that are being underestimated that aren’t even being talked about in that process.”
Mariah Williamson, Co-founder at RevPilot
Choosing the right CRM for your organization
A long feature list won’t tell you whether a CRM fits your team. Start with what your reps need to accomplish each day, then test how easily they can do it.
“Without adoption, you have nothing inside of a CRM.”
Mariah Williamson, Co-founder at RevPilot
- Write down your non-negotiables before booking demos. Be specific about the problems you need to solve. For Sisu, that meant a dedicated number each rep could use for calls and texts, automatic activity logging, and an API they could build on.
- Match the system to your sales process. Consider your team size and how complex your process actually is. Every extra layer should serve a clear purpose.
- Use the trial to test everyday adoption. Have reps contact a lead, find conversation history, and manage follow-ups. Watch how quickly someone new gets comfortable and whether they can keep records updated as they work. A CRM should be easy to use without constant reminders from leadership.
“I started asking, how quickly can somebody get in here and actually do their job, and is the system actually built for them? Because if it’s built for them, they’re gonna use it. Not only are they gonna use it, but they’re gonna enjoy it. And adoption just becomes second nature.”
Elijah Cramer, VP of Sales at Lanefinder
Prepping the migration
Migration prep is your chance to fix what isn’t working. Decide which processes, fields, and customer history belong in the new system before you start moving data. You can choose to start from a clean slate, or migrate your current sales process over, but before you decide, take the following tips into consideration.
“The blank canvas actually let me see the business for what it is today and actually identify problems and start building processes around what we need now.”
Elijah Cramer, VP of Sales at Lanefinder
- Map your current sales process and the one you want. Follow a lead from first contact to closed deal, including manual steps and automations. Identify missed follow-ups, unnecessary fields, and admin workflows that can live elsewhere. Keep what helps reps sell or supports a clear business decision.
- Plan any overlap between systems. If you’ll run both CRMs temporarily, preserve the original record IDs so you can match records and fill gaps. Sisu used this approach while getting everything into Close in about a month.
- Get reps involved before launch. Explain what’s changing, why it helps, and how they’ll learn the new process. Give them a chance to flag concerns before the system is built.
“If there aren't any decisions being made off of those fields, we get rid of it. It's just noise inside of the system.”
Mariah Williamson, Co-founder at RevPilot
Migration and after
Once the new CRM is live, watch what changes in your team’s day. Faster onboarding, fewer support requests, and more consistent follow-up help show whether the migration is doing its job.
“We probably saved six figures on our tech stack. It’s more about the requests going down and the work actually getting done. Our activity has gone way up.”
Zac Muir, VP of Revenue at Sisu
- Track problems in one place. Give reps a clear way to report broken workflows or bad data like a slack channel or ticketing system, then monitor the volume. Sisu’s internal RevOps requests fell from about 80 a week at their peak in Salesforce to around 10 in Close.
- Measure how quickly new reps get productive. Watch how much onboarding goes toward selling skills and customer knowledge versus learning the CRM. At LaneFinder, about 90% of onboarding time now goes toward understanding customers, the product, and how to sell.
- Check whether leadership trusts the data. A simpler process should make records more consistent and forecasting more reliable. Look for fewer gaps and less guesswork.
- Track savings alongside selling activity. Lower software bills are useful, but so is giving reps more time to work leads. Sisu reported six-figure tech stack savings alongside increased sales activity.
“Reps are following a more simplified process and they have data that they now trust to then make decisions off of. So leadership trusting the data and reps reducing admin time would be two big indicators for us that our clients typically see.”
Mariah Williamson, Co-founder at RevPilot
Take the first step toward a better CRM
If your team struggles with your CRM, you can do better. If you're ready to see what a rep-first CRM looks like, check out these 3 sales leaders' full stories in our on-demand webinar.
