CRM for a Consultancy in 2025 and Beyond: A Complete Guide

03 July 2025

In the rapidly evolving consulting landscape of 2025, one constant remains: success depends on relationships.

Whether you’re a solo practitioner advising local businesses or a multi-partner consultancy delivering large scale projects, your firm’s value is built on the strength of its connections, trust with clients, and your ability to deliver complex work efficiently.

Yet as client demands grow, competition tightens, and remote collaboration becomes standard, managing these relationships has never been more challenging.

• Emails arrive by the hundreds
• Calendars fill with stakeholder calls
• Project notes are scattered across spreadsheets, inboxes, and messaging apps
• It’s no wonder many firms find critical client information slipping through the cracks. That’s where a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system comes in.

In 2025, a CRM isn’t just a contact list or sales pipeline tool. For consulting firms, it’s the command centre for the entire client lifecycle: from first introduction to project delivery, upsells, renewals, and referrals.

The right CRM helps you maintain visibility across complex engagements, streamline internal coordination, and most importantly, strengthen relationships in an authentic, scalable way.

But the cost of picking the wrong system is real.

Consultants forced to work around their CRM instead of with it will see lower adoption, duplicated effort, and lost opportunities. Meanwhile, a good CRM becomes invisible infrastructure: automating routine tasks, surfacing key insights, and freeing your team to focus on what they do best.

This guide is designed to help you make the right choice. It will show you what consultants truly need from a CRM in 2025, explore different categories of systems, offer detailed reviews of leading options, and share guidance on how to evaluate your choices.

If your consultancy has ever struggled to keep client knowledge centralised, ensure consistent follow-up, or scale personal networks into firm-wide assets, this guide is for you.

What Consultants should look for in a CRM

Choosing a CRM isn’t about comparing a list of features on a vendor’s website. It’s about aligning the system with how your consulting firm actually works. Unlike classic sales teams that chase leads down a funnel, consultants build long-term relationships, win repeat business, and grow through reputation and referrals.

Your CRM should support those goals. Here’s what to look for in 2025.

Relationship intelligence

Your firm’s network is one of its most valuable assets. Winning an engagement often depends on a warm introduction or knowing who in your firm already has a strong relationship.

Look for a CRM that goes beyond static contact lists. It should:

• Map internal and external relationships
• Visualise introduction paths through your collective network
• Automatically enrich contact records with updated information
• Alert you when key contacts change roles or companies
• This kind of relationship intelligence helps your whole team leverage its network to win more work.

Automated communication logging

Consultants live in their email and calendar. A CRM that relies on them manually logging every email or meeting won’t get used consistently.

Look for a system that can:

• Automatically sync with Microsoft 365 or Gmail
• Log emails and meetings with no extra effort
• Present a clear, threaded history of communications
• Offer strong mobile access so consultants can review or add notes on the go
• Automatic logging reduces admin work, improves data quality, and ensures your firm maintains a complete, reliable record of client
• interactions.

Workflow and task automation

Consulting work often follows repeatable but complex processes:

• Proposal approvals
• Client onboarding
• Delivery milestones
• Internal reviews

A CRM should support these with configurable, rule-based workflows. Look for capabilities like:

• Automatic task assignment
• Quote document generation
• Automated approval workflows
• Automation ensures nothing falls through the cracks, reduces human error, and frees consultants to focus on high-value work.

Advanced reporting and dashboards

Managers in consultancies need visibility into their business to make informed decisions. Your CRM should provide:

• Customisable dashboards tailored to partners, project managers, or BD teams
• Flexible reporting on pipeline health, forecasted revenue, staff utilisation, and activity levels
• The ability to segment and filter data to answer specific questions quickly.
• Better visibility helps firms plan resources, identify risks, and drive business development with confidence.

Integration with existing tools

Your CRM must work with the other systems you already use. This ensures data consistency, reduces double entry, and enables smoother workflows.

Important integrations include:

• Email and calendar systems like Microsoft 365 or Gmail
• Document management tools such as SharePoint, Google Drive, or Dropbox
• Accounting and billing software like Xero or QuickBooks
• Marketing automation platforms such as Mailchimp or HubSpot
• Project management tools, internal portals, or bespoke systems via APIs
• Look for a CRM with strong, well-documented integration capabilities so it can truly act as your firm’s single source of truth.

Categories of CRMs for Consultancies

When you start researching CRM options, it quickly becomes clear there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. The market is crowded with tools, all promising to improve client management and boost sales. But for consulting firms, not all CRMs are equally well-suited.

Broadly, the CRM landscape breaks down into a few key categories. Understanding these categories helps you focus on options that truly align with your firm’s needs and avoid wasting time on those that don’t.

Simple sales-focused CRMs

These systems are built for small teams that need straightforward deal tracking.

• Affordable and easy to use
• Fast to set up with minimal training required
• Best for simple sales pipelines with limited complexity

Examples: Pipedrive, Capsule, Salesflare

Limitations: They often lack advanced automation, custom workflow support, or relationship intelligence features that consultancies need to manage complex engagements.

Marketing-focused CRMs

These platforms combine CRM functionality with powerful marketing automation.

• Great for firms investing in inbound marketing and lead nurturing
• Offer email campaigns, landing pages, and detailed engagement tracking
• Help manage content-driven lead generation strategies

Examples: HubSpot, Keap

Limitations: Their core sales pipeline models can feel too transactional and rigid for the nuanced, relationship-driven selling in consulting.

General-purpose sales CRMs

These systems aim to be all-in-one platforms that balance sales, marketing, and even support modules.

• Offer a broad feature set
• Include automation, pipeline management, basic marketing tools, and integrations
• Flexible enough for many industries with some customisation

Examples: Zoho CRM, Freshworks CRM

Limitations: Often designed for classic sales processes, so they may need heavy customisation to match a consulting firm’s unique workflows.

Enterprise-grade platforms

These are the heavyweights of the CRM world, designed for large, complex organisations.

• Highly customisable to fit almost any workflow
• Support for large user bases, multiple teams, and complex data structures
• Extensive integration ecosystems and partner networks

Example: Salesforce

Limitations: High cost, complexity, and significant implementation time. Often overkill for smaller firms that don’t need that level of complexity.

Bespoke and highly configurable platforms

These solutions are designed to adapt to your business, not the other way around.

• Support truly unique consulting workflows, approvals, and engagement models
• Allow deep customisation of data structures, user permissions, and automation
• Integrate seamlessly with other systems via APIs
• Can scale as your firm evolves over time

Example: Flight.

Strength: Instead of forcing you into a predefined sales model, these platforms let you design the system to match exactly how your consulting firm operates.

In-depth review of major CRMs for consultancies

This section offers a closer look at some of the most popular CRM options on the market, with an eye to their suitability for consultancies.

We’ll explore what each system does well, where it can fall short, and which types of consulting practices are best matched to it.

Flight

Best for: Firms needing a truly bespoke CRM that adapts to their unique workflows.

Flight is a highly configurable platform built to match your consultancy’s exact way of working, rather than forcing you into a standard sales process.

Key Features:

• Core CRM functions: contacts, email logging, tasks, notifications
• Configurable data models to reflect your unique client and engagement structures
• Advanced workflow automation with rule-based triggers and approvals
• Calculation and aggregation capabilities for revenue forecasts, profitability, and utilisation
• Branded PDF document generation triggered by workflows
• Secure online forms for collecting client or third-party data directly into the CRM
• Robust access controls for user roles and permissions
• Fully documented RESTful API layer for seamless integration with other systems

Hosting and Security:

• Each system is hosted in a dedicated AWS environment with its own server and database
• Twice-daily backups with point-in-time recovery options.
• Compliance including Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001 (via AWS infrastructure)

Pros:

• Truly bespoke: designed around your actual process
• Supports complex approvals, delivery workflows, and multi-stakeholder engagements
• Advanced automation reduces manual admin
• Strong integration options for email, accounting, project management, and more
• Dedicated infrastructure and robust security
• Continuous enhancements at no additional cost

Cons:

• Requires more upfront planning and configuration than an off-the-shelf CRM
• Best suited to consultants ready to invest time in designing the system they want

Verdict:
Flight is ideal for consultancies that want a system to support their process, not someone else’s. It’s especially suited for firms managing complex, high-value projects with unique workflows and strong requirements for security, integration, and automation.

Salesforce

Best for: Large firms with complex requirements and budget for customisation.

Salesforce is the world’s most recognised CRM platform. It’s incredibly flexible and can be customised to almost any workflow; but that power comes with cost and complexity.

Key Features:

• Highly customisable objects, fields, workflows, and automation
• Thousands of integrations via the Salesforce AppExchange
• Advanced reporting and dashboard capabilities
• Strong security and user permission management
• Scalable for firms of any size, including multi-office, multi-country setups

Pros:

• Maximum customisation potential for unique processes
• Huge integration ecosystem
• Excellent reporting and forecasting tools
• Can scale with firm growth indefinitely

Cons:

• High licensing costs (often £20–£60/user/month for basic tiers, £120–£240+/user/month for advanced tiers)
• Significant implementation costs (tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds for large deployments)
• Steep learning curve requiring specialist admins or consultants
• Out-of-the-box experience is sales-pipeline-focused, not designed for consulting.

Verdict:
Salesforce is a powerful platform that can be moulded to fit even the most complex consulting firm, but only if you have the budget and patience to invest in customising and maintaining it.

HubSpot

Best for: Firms with a strong inbound marketing strategy who want CRM and marketing automation in one.

HubSpot is known for its intuitive design and robust marketing features. It’s excellent for firms that want to generate leads through content and nurture them over time.

Key Features:

• User-friendly interface with minimal training needed
• Marketing automation: email campaigns, landing pages, workflows
• Sales pipeline management with clear stages
• Integrated email and calendar sync
• Built-in analytics and reporting tools
• Free tier available for basic use

Pros:

• Excellent marketing automation capabilities
• Easy to learn and adopt
• Clean, modern UI with strong user adoption potential
• Broad integration options with other systems

Cons:

• Sales pipeline focus may feel too rigid for bespoke consulting sales processes
• Marketing Hub Professional starts at around £640/month, with Sales Hub tiers around £40–£400/user/month
• Some features (like advanced automation) only available at higher pricing tiers
• Requires careful setup to avoid pushing clients through a generic sales funnel

Verdict:
HubSpot is a great choice for consultancies that do a lot of inbound marketing and want strong email automation. But consults relying on relationships and referrals may find its sales-pipeline-first design too limiting without significant adaptation.

Zoho CRM

Best for: Cost-conscious firms wanting an affordable, feature-rich general-purpose CRM.

Zoho CRM is known for its broad functionality at a competitive price point. It’s part of the wider Zoho suite, which can appeal to firms wanting all their software from one vendor.

Key Features:

• Contact and lead management
• Sales pipelines and opportunity tracking
• Workflow automation with rule-based triggers
• Custom fields and modules
• Email and calendar integration
• Reporting and dashboard capabilities
• Mobile app access

Pros:

• Very affordable (typically £12–£45/user/month)
• Flexible plans, including a free version for very small teams
• Good integration with other Zoho apps
• Active development with regular new features

Cons:

• Fundamentally designed for sales teams
• Requires significant customisation to match consulting workflows
• Limited relationship intelligence compared to more specialised tools
• Customer support can be limited, especially on lower tiers

Verdict:
Zoho CRM offers tremendous value for consultancies with tight budgets who are willing to invest time in configuration. It’s best for teams with straightforward needs or existing comfort with Zoho’s ecosystem.

Pipedrive

Best for: Solo consultants or small consultancies wanting simple, visual pipeline management.

Pipedrive is well-known for its ease of use and highly visual approach to sales pipelines. It’s designed to help salespeople track deals through defined stages without fuss or complexity.

Key Features:

• Intuitive drag-and-drop pipeline views
• Contact and deal management
• Email integration with Microsoft 365 and Gmail
• Activity tracking for calls, meetings, and tasks
• Workflow automation with triggers and actions
• Mobile app with strong functionality
• Integrations with over 250 other tools, including Slack, accounting systems, and calendars

Pros:

• Very user-friendly with minimal training needed
• Highly visual interface makes pipeline management simple
• Affordable pricing for small teams (starting around £15/user/month)
• Good integration options to connect with existing tools
• Strong mobile app for consultants on the move

Cons:

• Fundamentally sales-focused with a traditional pipeline model
• Limited relationship intelligence; no mapping of who knows whom or referral paths
• Basic reporting that may not meet advanced needs
• Lacks built-in features for complex approval workflows or multi-stakeholder consulting engagements

Verdict:
Pipedrive shines for simplicity and ease of use. It’s perfect for solo consultants or small teams who want a no-fuss way to track opportunities. But for relationship-heavy consulting work or firms needing advanced workflow automation, it may feel too limited.

Capsule CRM

Best for: Solo consultants or very small firms needing basic contact and task management without complexity.

Capsule CRM is designed to be simple, affordable, and easy to adopt. It’s a good choice for consultants who just want to move beyond spreadsheets without investing in a heavyweight system.

Key Features:

• Centralised contact management with notes and history
• Simple visual sales pipelines for tracking opportunities
• Task and activity management to keep follow-ups organised
• Email integration with Gmail and Microsoft 365 for communication history
• Basic reporting and pipeline overviews
• Mobile app for managing contacts and tasks on the go
• Integrations with tools like Xero, Mailchimp, and Google Workspace

Pros:

• Very easy to learn and use with minimal setup
• Affordable pricing, including a free tier for very small use
• Clean, user-friendly interface that encourages adoption
• Decent integration options with popular tools

Cons:

• Basic functionality that may not scale with growing needs
• Limited workflow automation and customisation
• Lacks advanced reporting, forecasting, or analytics
• No relationship intelligence features to map referrals or network paths
• Mobile app is solid but not as full-featured as desktop

Verdict:
Capsule is an excellent no-fuss CRM for solo practitioners or micro-firms who just want somewhere to store contacts, manage tasks, and track simple opportunities. It won’t overwhelm you with features you don’t need, but it also won’t support more advanced consulting workflows as your firm grows.

Freshworks CRM

Best for: Small to medium consulting firms wanting an affordable all-in-one system that combines sales, marketing, and support features.

Formerly known as Freshsales, Freshworks CRM offers a user-friendly experience at a competitive price. It’s especially appealing for consultancies that want sales automation and basic marketing capabilities in one place.

Key Features:

• Contact and account management with full communication history
• Visual sales pipelines with custom stages and probabilities
• Email and calendar integration with Microsoft 365 and Gmail
• Marketing automation including email campaigns and lead scoring
• Built-in customer support module with ticketing
• AI-powered insights to help prioritise leads and deals
• Reporting and dashboards with custom views
• Mobile app for managing pipeline and contacts remotely
• Integrations with Slack, accounting software, and other tools

Pros:

• User-friendly interface that’s easy to learn and adopt
• Affordable pricing for the range of features offered
• Combines sales, marketing, and support in a single platform
• AI features that help with prioritising tasks and follow-ups
• Good mobile experience for consultants on the move

Cons:

• Sales-focused and can be too rigid for complex consulting processes
• Limited relationship intelligence; no native mapping of who-knows-whom or network strength
• Marketing automation is solid but not as advanced as dedicated tools like HubSpot
• Customisation options are good but can’t match Salesforce’s depth
• Integration options are broad but may require developer help for serious use cases

Verdict:
Freshworks CRM is a solid choice for consultants wanting an affordable, all-in-one system with sales and marketing automation. Its user-friendly design and good value make it appealing for smaller consulting firms. But firms focused on complex, relationship-heavy sales cycles may find it better suited as a starting point than a long-term solution.

Salesflare

Best for: Solo consultants and small consulting teams who want maximum automation with minimal admin work.

Salesflare is designed to remove as much manual data entry as possible, appealing to lean consultancies that want to spend less time updating CRM records and more time on client relationships.

Key Features:

• Automated data capture from email signatures, social profiles, and communication history
• Email and calendar integration with Microsoft 365, Gmail, and Exchange
• Timeline view for a complete, chronological record of client interactions
• Customisable sales pipelines with drag-and-drop stages
• Email sequences for automated follow-ups
• AI-powered suggestions for next steps
• Mobile app for easy access on the go
• Integrations via Zapier, Slack, Outlook, and other tools

Pros:

• Highly automated, reducing manual data entry
• User-friendly and modern interface
• Designed for small teams with limited admin resources
• Good integration support with popular tools
• Helps maintain a complete communication timeline without effort

Cons:

• Fundamentally sales-focused, designed around a linear pipeline
• Lacks advanced relationship intelligence like mapping warm introduction paths
• Limited customisation for complex consulting workflow
• Not built for large teams or multi-service practices
• Marketing features are basic compared to more comprehensive platforms

Verdict:
Salesflare is excellent for small consulting practices that want to reduce admin work. Its automation is helpful, but it’s built with a classic sales pipeline mindset. Consultancies relying on complex relationship management or needing advanced custom workflows may find it too limited.

Keap CRM

Best for: Small consultancies wanting an easy-to-use CRM with strong built-in marketing automation.

Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) is known for combining CRM capabilities with email marketing and basic invoicing. It’s especially popular among smaller consultancies that want to professionalise their marketing and client communications without investing in multiple tools.

Key Features:

• Contact management with detailed records and segmentation
• Visual sales pipelines with custom stages
• Email marketing automation with templates, campaigns, and sequencing
• Appointment scheduling with integrated calendar bookings
• Invoicing and payment processing
• Automation builder for rule-based workflows
• Mobile app for client management on the go
• Integrations with Xero, QuickBooks, Gmail, and other tools

Pros:

• All-in-one approach, reducing the need for separate tools
• User-friendly design ideal for non-technical users
• Strong marketing automation for email campaigns
• Decent contact management with tagging and segmentation
• Helps solo consultants and small firms look professional without big budgets

Cons:

• Limited relationship intelligence; doesn’t map who-knows-whom or referral paths
• Simplistic for firms with complex consulting processes
• Better suited for repeatable, productised services than bespoke engagements
• Advanced features and higher contact limits can get expensive, with UK pricing typically £100–£300+/month depending on plan
• Reporting is solid but not advanced enough for firms needing in-depth analytics

Verdict:
Keap is a solid, user-friendly choice for small consulting firms wanting to level up their marketing and client management in one step. It’s especially helpful for f consultancies offering productised services with clear packages. But if your firm depends on complex, relationship-driven sales processes, you may quickly hit its limitations.

When to choose a bespoke solution

Selecting a CRM is about more than comparing features or picking the cheapest monthly subscription. For many consultancies, especially those delivering complex, high-value work, an off-the-shelf CRM often doesn’t fit well.

This is where bespoke or highly configurable CRM platforms come in. They’re designed to adapt to your business, rather than forcing you to change your process to match their sales model.

Why off-the-shelf CRMs fall short for consulting

Many mainstream CRMs were built for traditional sales teams. They excel at:

• High-volume, short-cycle product sales
• Simple, standardised stages like lead, qualified, proposal, closed-won
• Speed and scale over nuance

But consulting sales are different. Consultants often deal with:

• Long, trust-based sales cycles
• Customised scoping and multi-stage approvals
• Multiple internal and client stakeholders
• Relationship-driven introductions and referrals
• Ongoing client management long after the sale

Trying to force consulting processes into a rigid sales pipeline creates frustration, poor adoption, and lost opportunities.

Signs you need a bespoke CRM

Not every consultant or consultancy needs a bespoke platform. But you might if:

• Your engagements don’t follow one simple, linear sales process
• You win work through relationships and referrals, not cold leads
• Your internal workflows are complex or unique
• You want to manage delivery, billing, and approvals within the same system
• Data security and privacy are critical, with client expectations to match
• You expect to evolve your services or processes over time

A bespoke CRM can become a strategic asset rather than just another piece of software.

Advantages of a Bespoke solution

Investing in a configurable CRM tailored to your firm offers real benefits:

• Exact fit: The system reflects your workflows and data needs perfectly
• Improved adoption: Staff actually use it because it matches their day-to-day tasks
• Workflow automation: Reduces manual errors, speeds approvals, and ensures consistency
• Relationship visibility: Maps your network to enable warm introductions and cross-team collaboration
• Branded document generation: Automate proposal, contract, and reporting outputs
• Data security and compliance: Dedicated hosting and role-based permissions protect sensitive data
• Adaptability: The system can evolve as your firm’s services, markets, and processes change

Integration considerations

Selecting a CRM isn’t just about the features it offers in isolation. Even the most advanced system will fall short if it can’t work smoothly with the other tools your team relies on every day.

Integration turns your CRM from a standalone database into the central hub of your firm’s operations. It ensures data consistency, smooth workflows, and better collaboration.

Common systems to integrate

Your CRM should connect with the systems you already use. Typical integrations for consulting firms include:

Email and calendar:

• Automatic logging of emails and meetings
• Visibility of communication history with clients
• Easy scheduling from within the CRM

Examples: Microsoft 365, Gmail, Exchange

Document management:

• Storing and sharing key client files
• Managing proposal versions and contracts securely

Examples: SharePoint, Google Drive, Dropbox

Accounting and invoicing:

• Linking client billing status to CRM records
• Smoother hand-off from sales to finance
• Better forecasting of revenue and cash flow

Examples: Xero, QuickBooks, Sage

Marketing automation:

• Syncing contact lists
• Triggering targeted campaigns based on CRM data
• Tracking marketing engagement for leads and clients

Examples: Mailchimp, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign

Bespoke internal systems:

• Client portals
• Data collection tools
• Custom knowledge bases or intranets

Types of integration

When evaluating CRMs, it’s important to understand how integration is supported:

• Native integrations: Pre-built connections to popular tools, easy to set up but sometimes limited in depth.
• API access: Open, well-documented APIs let you build custom integrations with internal systems or niche tools.
• Webhooks: Real-time notifications between systems, useful for triggering specific actions.
• Middleware tools: Platforms like Zapier or Make that connect the CRM to hundreds of other apps without heavy development.

Data security and compliance in integration

Consultants often handle sensitive client data. Any integration needs to respect that.

Important questions to ask vendors:

• Is data encrypted in transit between systems?
• Can you set permissions for what integrated apps can access?
• Are integration logs and audit trails available?
• Is the integration GDPR-compliant?
• Where is client data stored and processed?

Vendor support and documentation

Integration is only valuable if you can actually use it.  Look for vendors that provide:

• Clear, well-maintained API documentation
• Example use cases and guides for developers
• Active support channels for integration questions
• Consulting or professional services to help with setup

For consultancies without large internal IT teams, vendor support can make the difference between a smooth integration and an expensive headache.

How Flight handles integration

Flight is designed with integration in mind, knowing that most consultancies have an established tech stack they want to connect. Key integration strengths include:

• A fully documented RESTful API with secure, token-based access
• Granular permissions to control exactly what external systems can access
• Webhooks to enable real-time notifications and data updates
• Dedicated hosting for each client system in AWS for secure, compliant infrastructure
• Support for integrating with Microsoft 365, Xero, accounting tools, project management software, and bespoke internal systems
• The option for your in-house team or Flight’s specialists to handle integration work as needed

Cost and value considerations

Choosing a CRM is not just about picking the cheapest monthly subscription. For consultancies, it’s critical to understand the total cost of ownership and the value the system actually delivers.

A cheaper system that doesn’t fit your processes can become very expensive in hidden ways, while a better-fitting CRM often pays for itself many times over.

Obvious costs: Licensing and subscription fees

This is the first number everyone looks at, but it’s only part of the story.

• Low-end CRMs: Typically around £10–£30 per user per month (Capsule, Pipedrive, Salesflare)
• Mid-range options: Around £20–£65 per user per month (Zoho, Freshworks)
• High-end or enterprise systems: Often £100–£300+ per user per month (Salesforce, advanced HubSpot tiers)
• Bespoke/configurable platforms: Priced based on scope, often with more value-based pricing than flat per-seat fees

These headline prices can be misleading if you don’t consider the real costs to make them work for your firm.

Setup and implementation costs

Even if the monthly fee is low, getting a CRM up and running often has hidden costs.

Examples of setup costs:

• Internal staff time planning, configuring, and testing the system
• Data migration from existing systems or spreadsheets
• Customising fields, workflows, and reports to match your process
• Staff training to ensure adoption
• Hiring external consultants or vendor partners for complex setups

Salesforce, for example, is famous for high implementation costs, often running into tens of thousands of pounds even for mid-sized firms.

Customisation and development

CRMs vary widely in how much customisation they support and how much it costs.

Possible customisation expenses:

• Developer time for custom fields and objects
• Designing bespoke workflows and automation
• Building integrations with other internal systems
• Writing custom reports and dashboards

If your processes are highly specific (common in consulting), you may need to budget real time and money for this.

Integration Costs

Integration adds value but also cost.

Common costs include:

• Buying middleware tools (like Zapier subscriptions)
• Vendor or consultant time for integration design and testing
• Ongoing maintenance to handle API changes
• Security and compliance reviews

For firms with bespoke internal systems, good API access is essential, but using it effectively requires planning and resources.

Training and change management

A CRM that no one uses delivers zero value.

Hidden costs of adoption:

• Time spent training staff thoroughly
• Creating internal documentation or guidelines
• Managing the change so staff actually use the system
• Partner time championing and enforcing adoption
• Ongoing support and troubleshooting

Systems with steep learning curves often need far more investment in training.

Ongoing support and maintenance

Once you’re live, costs don’t stop.

Expect to budget for:

• Vendor support contracts or premium tiers
• Paying for new modules or features as your needs evolve
• Managing user permissions and accounts
• Keeping integrations working with other systems
• Responding to vendor price changes or new licensing models

The cost of poor fit

Perhaps the biggest hidden cost is choosing a system that doesn’t fit your consultancy.

• Low adoption because staff find it cumbersome
• Data scattered across spreadsheets and inboxes anyway
• Missed follow-ups leading to lost deals
• Confusion about who’s managing which opportunities
• Consultants wasting hours on admin instead of client work

How bespoke platforms like Flight price differently

Many consultancies worry bespoke means “expensive,” but that’s not always true.

Platforms like Flight are priced to reflect total value rather than just per-user licences.

• Configuration costs are planned up-front to design exactly what you need
• Hosting is dedicated and scaled to your firm
• Support and maintenance are included under a clear SLA
• Continuous improvements and module updates delivered without surprise charges
• You avoid paying for unused features or bolt-ons

Instead of layering costs to work around a generic tool’s limits, you invest once in something that actually fits.

How to Evaluate and Choose Your CRM

By now, you’ve seen just how many factors go into selecting the right CRM for your consultancy.

But knowing what’s out there is only the first step. The real challenge is evaluating your options thoughtfully so you choose a system that truly supports your team, your clients, and your growth goals.

Here’s a practical approach to guide you.

Start with strategy, not features

Many CRM projects fail because firms focus on ticking off feature lists instead of asking why they need a CRM at all.

Consider:

• What are your consultancy’s strategic goals?
  • Faster, more effective business development?
  • Better client retention?
  • Smoother project delivery?
  • Improved forecasting and visibility?
• What specific problems are you trying to solve?
  • Scattered data in spreadsheets and inboxes?
  • Missed follow-ups?
  • Inconsistent client experience?
  • Bottlenecks in approval or onboarding?

Align your CRM choice with your firm’s real business needs.

Map your current process

Before you choose a system, understand how you actually work today.

Ask:

• How do we find and qualify new clients?
• What steps are involved in scoping and proposal approvals?
• Who is responsible at each stage?
• How do we deliver engagements once won?
• How do we track billing and invoicing?
• How do we manage ongoing client communication and retention?

Mapping this out exposes gaps, duplication, and opportunities to automate.

Involve all stakeholders early

A CRM isn’t an IT purchase and is an investment in the entire operation of the consultancy.

That is why it is important to involve:

• Management stakeholders who need visibility and forecasting
• Business development teams who rely on network connections
• Consultants who need minimal admin overhead
• Finance staff managing billing and revenue
• Admin teams maintaining data quality

Early involvement ensures better buy-in and a system everyone will use.

Evaluate vendor fit

Not all CRM vendors understand consulting.

Ask:

• Do they have experience with professional services firms?
• Can their system handle complex, non-linear sales cycles?
• Are their onboarding teams familiar with consulting use cases?
• Do they offer help customising workflows to match your process?
• What does ongoing support look like?

A vendor that knows your industry can save you time and frustration.

Prioritise usability and adoption

A powerful system that no one uses is worthless.

Assess:

• Is the interface intuitive?
• How much manual data entry is required?
• Are workflows streamlined or clunky?
• Can the system adapt as your team’s needs evolve?

Make sure the CRM will make your consultants’ work easier, not harder.

Think about the future

Your CRM should grow with you.

• Can it handle more users as your consultancy expands?
• Is it flexible enough for new service lines or markets?
• Does the vendor commit to ongoing development and support?
• Can workflows and data models be easily modified over time?

A system that feels perfect now but is rigid later can be an expensive mistake.

Flight’s approach to evaluation

If you’re considering a bespoke solution like Flight, the evaluation process is collaborative.

• It starts with a deep dive into your existing workflows and pain points
• The system is then configured to match your approvals, data models, and client engagement process exactly
• Integration with existing systems is planned from the start
• Flight’s team supports testing, training, and rollout
• Continuous improvements are included, avoiding surprise costs down the road

Instead of buying a generic product, you design your firm’s CRM with expert support.

Conclusion and next steps

Choosing the right CRM is one of the most important technology decisions your consultancy will make this year.

It’s not just about picking the software with the most features or the lowest monthly fee. It’s about finding a system that genuinely aligns with how your firm works and supports the way you want to work in the future.

Consulting is a relationship business. Trust, reputation, and delivering consistent, high-quality work over time are what set you apart. Your CRM should be the central hub for managing these client relationships, helping you deliver the best possible experience at every stage.

Why consider Flight?

If you’re reading this and thinking:

“Our process is too unique for a one-size-fits-all CRM,”
“We’re tired of fighting systems that don’t fit,” or
“We want something that works exactly the way we do,”

Then a configurable platform like Flight might be the answer.

If you think Flight might be a better fit for your consulting business, get in touch with us today.

Contact us