From Spreadsheets to
Single Source of Truth
Client: A growing education consulting company
Services: CRM setup, clean data, and lead nurturing
Educational Consulting Company
20x
email list growth
+7%
MQL increase
This education company was stuck in spreadsheets and missing opportunities. After a CRM and email overhaul, they grew their qualified list 20x, re-engaged dormant contacts, and started converting faster, with less manual work.
Challenges
The team kept leads in different Microsoft Excel sheets. Duplicates piled up, and no one could see the full story. Without clear segments or follow-ups, warm prospects went cold.
The process wasn’t built to scale, and it was holding them back.
Approach
I created a four-step playbook (Discover, Clean, Build, Train) and used weekly check-ins to keep the team moving together.
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Discover: Audited lead sources and set up an auto-capture system so new leads landed in one central CRM, tagged with their lead source.
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Clean: Scrubbed 2,000 + rows, removed duplicates, and filled missing fields to give the team reliable data.
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Build: Migrated clean records into HubSpot, webinar tools through Zapier, and integrated logic and lead filtering in Calendly. I tagged every lead from webinars, guides, and quizzes so the team could trace each customer’s path and personalize follow-ups.
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Train: Ran hands-on sessions and quick-reference playbooks so sales and ops teams could use HubSpot with confidence and keep data quality high.
Results
In the first twelve months after launch, the numbers spoke for themselves: after I set up the new CRM and automated workflows, the team grew their qualified list from 1,000 to over 20,000 leads.
Even more importantly, they saw more leads turn into real sales opportunities. The number of marketing-qualified leads more than doubled, from 6% to 13%, which helped them build a stronger, more reliable sales pipeline.
Key benefits:
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More qualified leads without more ad spend
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Smarter follow-ups that actually converted
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A system that runs in the background while the team focuses on sales
Why It Worked
I established clear roles, biweekly sprints, and strict data checks that kept everyone aligned. By implementing tight integrations, I turned scattered tools into a single smooth CRM system.
This wasn’t about adding more tools - it was about making them work together. By building a simple, scalable system, the team stopped wasting time on admin and started spending more time with qualified leads.
Tools used: HubSpot Marketing & Sales Hubs, Calendly, Zapier Paths (conditional logic)
From 1K to 20K: Fueling the Lead Engine
By mixing gated content (including a Harvard guide that got 700+ downloads), campus-specific tools, and quizzes, each tagged to HubSpot, I added 19,000 warm contacts with zero ad spend.
The weekly webinars and newsletters kept prospects engaged and moving toward sales readiness, turning the list into a real growth engine.
Each touchpoint was designed to support the full lifecycle, nurturing leads all the way down the funnel.
