From Spreadsheets to
Single Source of Truth
Client: A growing education consulting company
Services: CRM setup, data hygiene, lead nurturing, workflow automation, team training
CRM Build from Scratch
20x
list growth (1K → 20K)
6%→13%
MQL conversion rate
This education consulting company was managing leads across a patchwork of spreadsheets. Duplicates, inconsistent follow-ups , and warm prospects were going cold daily.
I built the CRM from the ground up: clean data architecture, automated nurture sequences, and a system that sales and ops teams could actually use. In the first eight months: list grew from 1,000 to 20,000 contacts, and MQL conversion rate doubled from 6% to 13%.
Challenges
Leads lived in multiple Excel sheets with no consistent tagging, no segmentation, and no visibility into where anyone was in the pipeline. Duplicates were piling up and follow-up was entirely manual.
The team had the interest and the content, they just needed a system that could scale.
Approach
I built a four-step playbook - Discover, Clean, Build, Train - and ran weekly check-ins to keep the project moving without disrupting the team's day-to-day.
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Discover: Audited lead sources and set up an auto-capture system so new leads landed in one central CRM.
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Clean: Scrubbed 2,000 + rows, removed duplicates, and filled missing fields to upload reliable data.
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Build: Migrated clean records into HubSpot, webinar signups through Zapier, and integrated logic and lead filtering in Calendly.
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Train: Ran hands-on sessions so sales and ops teams could use HubSpot with confidence and keep data quality high.
Results
In the first eight months:
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List grew from 1,000 to 20,000+ qualified contacts through gated content and webinars, with zero ad spend
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MQL conversion rate doubled from 6% to 13%, building a more reliable sales pipeline
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Manual follow-up replaced with automated nurture sequences, freeing the team to focus on sales conversations
Why It Worked
The system worked because it was built for the team that had to use it, not the team that built it. Clear roles, documented processes, and tight integrations meant the CRM stayed clean and usable after handoff.
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)
How the List Grew
Using gated content (including a Harvard admissions guide that drove 700+ downloads), tools and quizzes, I added 19,000 warm contacts to HubSpot. Weekly webinars and newsletters kept leads engaged and moving toward sales readiness.
Every touchpoint was designed to nurture leads across the full lifecycle, not just capture them at the top.
