How I DOUBLED revenue by replacing 6 apps with 2 (and why sales teams should do the same)

When you work across dozens of sales teams, from scrappy startups to fast-growing SMBs, you develop a deep appreciation for what actually moves revenue forward. Not the shiny tools. Not the loudest trends. But thoughtful systems, clean data, and simplified workflows that empower reps to sell more and waste less time.

This past quarter has been a big one for my team and me. We launched our new website, tightened our brand, expanded our consulting bench, and doubled down on what we do best: building sales systems around HubSpot, Close, and high-leverage automations that replace manual effort.

Here’s a look inside how I think about sales operations, what’s working across the market, where teams waste the most time, and how I help companies create predictable revenue, without the fluff.

Focusing on the Tools That Actually Drive Sales

At this stage, I’m laser-focused on the platforms that consistently help teams scale:

1. HubSpot + Close as a tightly-operationalized CRM core

My team manages 10–15 HubSpot portals at any given time, and becoming a HubSpot partner sharpened our specialization even more. HubSpot works beautifully when the setup is intentional,clear lifecycle stages, proper attribution, automated handoffs, and clean reporting.

Close is a powerful complement for teams that want speed, calling-first workflows, and simpler processes.

The biggest misconception I see is that teams think the tool will fix their problems. It won’t. A good RevOps setup fixes their problems—and the CRM amplifies it.

2. Automation that actually reduces work—not creates more

A lot of teams say they want automation, but what they really want is something much simpler:

• Shorter sales cycles
• More consistent follow-up
• Fewer mistakes
• Less admin work
• More time for reps to actually sell

The problem is that most automations are bolted together across too many tools, or they’re built in a way that sounds good on paper but doesn’t reflect how reps really work. That’s how companies end up with five or six disconnected apps—each one “helpful” in theory but adding friction in practice.

What I build for clients is the opposite:
clean workflows, fewer systems, and automations that run quietly and reliably in the background.
That means sales processes, proposal flows, task triggers, and data hygiene systems that remove effort instead of creating it.

This is also where Portant becomes powerful. When a client is already on HubSpot, Portant lets us automate the operational stuff that normally clogs up reps’ calendars, generating paperwork, pulling records, syncing data, standardizing proposals, and eliminating steps that used to require manual copy-paste or separate tools. For the right use case, it consolidates entire chunks of a workflow into something that’s repeatable and fast.

My goal is always the same: fewer tools, smoother processes, and a system that supports sales instead of distracting from it.
By the time we finish a build, most teams are running cleanly on two or three tools instead of six—and the automations actually work because they’re grounded in the reality of how reps sell every day.

Is Cold Email Still Worth It?

Yes—but only if you know what you’re doing.

I’ve closed somewhere between $40k–$60k from cold email alone—and on a tiny number of actual meetings. That’s the thing most people don’t understand: when it’s done right, cold outbound doesn’t bring you dozens of low-quality conversations. It brings you a few absolutely perfect conversations.

My hit rate from cold email has often been:

• ~5 meetings generated
• ~4 of them closed into deals

The channel still works, but it’s harder than ever because of:

• Google/Microsoft restrictions
• Domain warmup requirements
• Multi-domain setups
• Workspace verification headaches
• The cost of maintaining entire sending infrastructures

This is why I rely on Instantly, and why I no longer bother trying to make HubSpot run true cold outbound. It’s simply not built for it.

Community-Based Selling: My Highest-ROI Growth Channel

Cold email works. But community works better.

I’m active in roughly 10 Slack communities, and the volume of referrals and warm introductions from those networks is one of the biggest contributors to our pipeline.

When I moved into community-based selling, my cost of acquisition dropped dramatically. These communities—especially RevGenius, where I’m a moderator—are full of sales and RevOps professionals who rely heavily on peer recommendations.

If you're not building presence in communities, you’re leaving money on the table.

Why I Don’t Waste Time on Channels That Don’t Pay Off

1. ‍LinkedIn. I’ll post there, and it generates some inbound, but spending hours manually prospecting on the platform is not something I’m interested in. The automation limitations mean the workflow rarely scales.‍
2. Trade shows. I’ve gotten one client from trade shows. One. They’re expensive, exhausting, and rarely ROI-positive unless you're selling enterprise.‍
3. Reddit. It works—but only if you engage authentically, and that takes time. I've pulled one client from it, but it's far from a predictable channel. When you run a lean consulting operation, you have to invest in channels that compound, not drain.

What Small Businesses and Startups Really Want From RevOps

Most of my clients are extremely price-sensitive—which means I have to be very honest with them about which tools are necessary and which aren’t.

They don’t care about enterprise bells and whistles. They care about:

• A CRM that isn’t overwhelming
• Sales sequences that reps will actually use
• Better pipeline visibility
• Less paperwork
• Fewer apps
• Automations that remove manual tasks
• Documentation that someone besides the founder can understand

When a team adopts a system that fits their workflow, their productivity improves immediately.

My Thoughts on AI in Sales Tools Right Now

Hot take:
Most AI inside CRMs in 2025 is still mostly noise.

The AI features HubSpot pushes—while ambitious—often end up cluttering the UI and adding steps instead of removing them. I see a lot of companies bolting AI into their products just so they can say they have it.

Is there potential? Absolutely.
Is it delivering at the level needed to transform sales processes right now? Not yet.

The winners will be the tools that use AI to eliminate busywork, not distract from real selling.

The Biggest Opportunities for Sales Teams in 2025

Across every client, I see the same pattern. The sales teams that outperform:

1. ‍Standardize their pipeline. Clear stages, clear rules, clean handoffs.
2. ‍Automate only what should be automated. Not every step needs automation—just the painful ones.‍
3. Use fewer tools, better. Consolidation beats expansion every time.‍
4. Build workflows around rep behavior, not ideal behavior. If you build your system around how reps should act instead of how they do act, nothing sticks.‍
5. Invest in RevOps early. A good process lets you scale. A bad one bottlenecks you at exactly the wrong moment.

How I Think About the Modern Sales Stack

One of the most underrated opportunities for sales teams right now is replacing paperwork-heavy, repetitive processes with automation that actually lives inside their CRM. That’s where Portant has been genuinely valuable for the teams I work with.

What I appreciate about Portant is that it lets me automate document generation, proposals, and workflows directly inside HubSpot without forcing reps into another platform. For small businesses and startups, especially the ones I work with who are extremely cost-sensitive and stretched thin—reducing context switching is huge.

Where Portant shines is in the unsexy parts of sales ops:

• pulling structured CRM data into standardized documents
• eliminating manual proposal creation
• streamlining approval flows
• reducing time spent chasing down missing information
• keeping reps focused on selling instead of admin

One of my clients uses Portant for a pretty unique use case in the auto-titling space, an industry that’s still basically drowning in paper. Portant allowed us to automate parts of their title document workflow using data already stored in HubSpot. It’s not your typical “sales proposal” setup, but that’s the point: the tool flexes for non-traditional workflows where automation replaces slow, outdated processes.

I’m always evaluating whether a tool is truly worth it for startups, and Portant makes sense when the alternative is reps spending hours on manual document tasks. When automation can replace that with a single click, the ROI becomes immediate.

My Mission at Groove Consulting

I built Groove Consulting because I love taking messy sales systems and turning them into something that feels like breathing: simple, predictable, repeatable.

We don’t sell complexity.
We don’t push bloated stacks.
We build systems that work for humans first.

If your team is scaling and feeling the friction, I can help.

Want to see how we build sales systems that scale?

Check out Groove Consulting on Portant’s partner page 👉 https://www.portant.co/partners

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