CRM for B2B SaaS

How to choose a CRM without regretting it in 18 months

The CRM decision is almost always reversed too late. Companies pick HubSpot because it's friendly, outgrow the reporting at $5M ARR, then spend nine months migrating to Salesforce mid-scale-up. Or they start on Salesforce to "look enterprise-ready" and burn $200K/year on licenses the team never fully adopts. Neither outcome is the CRM's fault — it's a fit question that nobody re-asked at the right stage.

$1M-$15M ARR: HubSpot wins. Fast setup, decent reporting, workflow automation that doesn't need a consultant. $15M-$50M ARR with a complex sales motion: Salesforce starts earning its price tag — nested territories, custom object modeling, integrations with contract management. Relationship-driven sales (VC, M&A, exec search): Attio is purpose-built for this and is what we'd use ourselves if we were starting today. Below $3M ARR, a relationship CRM beats a pipeline CRM because your real job is conversations, not opportunity stages.

The CRM you pick matters less than the data hygiene discipline you install around it. A messy HubSpot will outperform a pristine Salesforce every time, because reps trust the data they can see.