Built for Consulting Sales Managers

The CRM for the sales manager running pursuit across consultant sellers at a boutique shop.

A sales manager at a 5 to 60 person boutique consultancy runs a pursuit motion where the sellers are senior consultants with delivery hours, pricing is scoping-driven rather than list-driven, and the forecast rolls up across projects, retainers, and advisory engagements on three different cycle lengths. Strkr collapses that into one workspace with pursuit hygiene, consultant-seller enablement, Strkr AI drafting, and engagement margin tracking.

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Why buyers are here

Consulting Sales Managers: the daily pains.

Sales management at a boutique consultancy is a different motion than at a traditional big-firm consultancy or a product-sales SaaS floor. The sellers are senior consultants carrying delivery hours. Pricing lives in a scoping conversation rather than a list-price catalog. The forecast rolls up across projects (fixed-fee), retainers (monthly recurring), and advisory engagements (hourly or value-based) on three different cycle lengths. The founder is often still the senior seller and the senior reviewer at once. The default stack for a 20-person consultancy is HubSpot or Salesforce for records, HoneyBook for proposals, Notion for delivery boards, Google Sheets for the forecast, and the founder memory for everything else. The sections below show how Strkr collapses that into one workspace where the sales manager runs the pursuit cadence, the consultant enables the sell, and the forecast lives in a surface rather than a Friday-night rebuild.

Consultants sell between client work

Senior consultants carry 70 to 85 percent utilization targets.

A boutique consultancy sales manager runs a pursuit pipeline where every seller is a senior consultant carrying 70 to 85 percent utilization against active client work. A standard CRM assumes a dedicated AE spending the full week on pipeline. The sales manager who runs weekly cadence like a traditional sales team gets ignored because the consultants cannot sustain the touchpoint volume at utilization. Strkr ships a consultant-aware tier that tracks pursuit time against utilization, surfaces pipeline moves without demanding activity rituals, and lets the sales manager run a review that respects the dual role.

Three motions, one forecast

Projects, retainers, advisory roll into one number.

Projects close in 6 to 12 weeks at a fixed-fee shape. Retainers close with a scope ladder and a monthly recurring shape with annual renewal risk. Advisory engagements close on an hourly or value-based cycle with ad-hoc expansion. Rolling all three into one forecast inside a generic CRM means a Google Sheet with three tabs. Strkr runs native service forecasts that roll up to one number with the three motions treated distinctly, and the retainer renewal column captured as a first-class line.

Scoping-driven pricing

Pricing lives in a scoping conversation, not a list-price catalog.

Boutique consultancy pricing is a scoping conversation that reshapes value two or three times before signature. A $40K proposal reshapes to $25K at procurement review and then to $65K after discovery surfaces two more workstreams. A standard CRM holds one number on the opportunity and loses the trail of what moved. Strkr lets each pursuit carry a scope-version history on the record itself, with the current proposal, prior versions, and reasons for each shift pulled onto one timeline so the forecast moves with the shape.

Margin on the pursuit opaque

Engagement margin lives in the scoping spreadsheet, not the deal.

Every consultancy deal carries a scoping phase that estimates hours per consultant per week, loads a blended bill rate against a cost rate, and lands on a target margin that justifies pursuit. Today that math lives on the scoping lead desktop and never makes it back to the pursuit record. Pipeline reports show revenue only, and margin becomes a quarterly reconciliation surprise. Strkr lets the pursuit record carry a margin estimate alongside the booking number so the sales manager sorts pursuits by margin band and approves the margin before proposal.

Pursuit hygiene is the manager full-time job

The sales manager spends three days a week keeping hygiene clean.

Consultant sellers run cadence between client workshops, and the pursuit record drifts out of date within 48 hours. The sales manager spends three days a week chasing consultants for notes, follow-up status, and next-step dates. Strkr Flows draft the Monday follow-up email per pursuit, log calendar events to the pursuit automatically, and surface stale pursuits on a Monday list, so the sales manager runs hygiene in 20 minutes instead of three days.

Founder-seller handoff

The founder closes a deal and the sales manager rebuilds context.

In a 20-person consultancy, the founder is still the senior seller and closes six to eight deals a year the sales manager inherits mid-pursuit. The handoff happens in a Slack message and the sales manager rebuilds context from an inbox. Strkr runs a deal-room primitive that holds the founder-seller, the owning sales manager, the delivery lead, and the consultant team with role-aware visibility on one record, so the handoff is a status change rather than a two-day context rebuild.

How Strkr fits a boutique consultancy sales week

The primitives a consultancy sales manager actually uses.

Strkr for consultancy sales managers is the same CRM every other role at the shop runs (founders, consultants, delivery, operations), with role-aware views and automation shaped around the consultant-seller motion. Everything below ships on every paid tier with no premium professional-services module gate. The primitives map to the five jobs a consultancy sales manager repeats every week: run pursuit hygiene across the consultant book, roll a service forecast, coach specific pursuits, track engagement margin, and manage the scope-version history on open proposals.

Pursuit pipeline

Discovery, scoping, proposal, SOW, close.

A consultancy-shaped pipeline with stages that match the real motion: Discovery call, Scoping conversation, Proposal drafted, SOW signed, Mobilization, Retainer live. Every email, every call, every scoping draft lands on the pursuit record automatically. The sales manager stops living in a HoneyBook inbox and starts living in a pipeline view.

Service forecast

Projects, retainers, advisory on one rollup.

Projects, retainers, and advisory engagements each roll up through their own forecast with motion-appropriate category math. Projects use commit, best case, and pipeline on 6-to-12 week cycles. Retainers use the same categories with a renewal column for the recurring book. Advisory carries an hourly or value-based cycle. The three streams combine into a firm number without a Google Sheet.

Scope-version history

Every proposal version on the pursuit timeline.

Each pursuit carries a scope-version history with the current proposal, prior versions, and a one-line reason for each shift pulled onto one timeline. The sales manager sees that a $40K pursuit reshaped to $25K at procurement and then to $65K after discovery surfaced two more workstreams. The forecast moves with the shape.

Consultant enablement surface

Next-step drafted on consultant workspace with one-click send.

Each pursuit renders a consultant enablement block with the next-step the sales manager proposed, the suggested email body Strkr AI drafted from the account context, and a one-click send button. The consultant acts in 30 seconds instead of agreeing to send and never sending, which keeps pursuit cadence running whether or not the week held two client workshops.

Pursuit hygiene score

A score that reflects how consultancies actually close.

Every open pursuit carries a hygiene score built from six inputs: meeting cadence with the economic buyer, stakeholder count, consultant engagement in the last two weeks, next-step date, scoping completeness, and referral chain depth. Sort the pipeline by hygiene and the five pursuits that need a consultant nudge this week surface above the fold.

Engagement margin on the pursuit

Margin estimate lives beside the booking number.

Each pursuit carries a scoping block with hours per consultant per week, a blended bill rate, a cost rate, and a target margin. The number lands on the pursuit record, surfaces in every pipeline report, and lets the sales manager sort pursuits by margin band. The scoping lead edits the block inline, and the sales manager approves the margin before proposal.

Strkr AI pursuit risk

The pursuit the consultant is overcommitted on, flagged early.

Strkr AI reads pursuit activity, email thread tone, meeting cadence, stakeholder movement, and scoping completeness, then flags pursuits where the consultant commit looks optimistic versus the signal. The flag opens into a specific reason so the coaching conversation is grounded in a case.

Deal-room primitive

Founder-seller, sales manager, consultant team on one record.

Strkr deal rooms hold the founder-seller, the owning sales manager, the delivery lead, and the consultant team with role-aware visibility on one record. The handoff when the founder closes a deal is a status change, not a two-day context rebuild from a Slack message.

What Strkr automates for a consultancy sales manager

The repeatable work the CRM should do before Monday.

The best boutique consultancy sales managers are the ones who automate the repeatable moves and spend the week on consultant coaching and account strategy. Strkr Flows handle the dozen automations every consultancy sales manager should run. The pattern below is what shows up in week two of every mid-sized consultancy deployment, and each flow respects that the sellers are consultants with utilization targets.

Forecast submit cadence

Monday open, Thursday nudge, Friday lock.

A weekly flow opens the forecast on Monday, nudges consultants on Thursday if submission is still open, locks submissions Friday 5 PM, and rolls each service number to the sales manager queue. Consultants who miss the lock surface on a sales manager list without a chase email going out.

Monday morning drafts

Every open pursuit gets a next-step draft at 7 AM Monday.

Monday 7 AM, Strkr AI drafts a next-step email per open pursuit from the account context and recent pursuit history, and queues each one on the consultant workspace for one-click send. Consultants act in 30 seconds, and the sales manager stops chasing across Slack DMs.

Scope-shift notification

A new proposal version pings the sales manager with the delta.

When a scoping lead posts a new proposal version on a pursuit, the flow logs the version, calculates the delta against the prior proposal, and notifies the sales manager with a one-line summary (opened at $40K, reshaped to $25K, reason: procurement asked for leaner Phase 1). The sales manager walks into the next consultant review already aware of every pursuit that moved.

Stale pursuit nudge

Pursuits past the per-stage threshold surface weekly.

Monday 7 AM, Strkr identifies every open pursuit past the per-stage age threshold with no consultant activity in the window. Drops a nudge on the owning consultant dashboard and attaches the batch to the sales manager consultant review. The weekly review opens with the stale list surfaced.

Scoping handoff flow

Pursuit moves to proposal, scoping lead gets the brief.

A stage transition from Discovery to Proposal triggers a scoping handoff flow: the brief lands with the designated scoping lead, the margin block opens for edit, the sales manager is notified, and the pursuit is tagged with the scoping lead for accountability.

Risk-flag digest

Monday email, five pursuits, two paragraphs each.

Monday 7 AM email: the top five Strkr AI risk-flagged pursuits with the specific reason per pursuit and a suggested consultant conversation. The sales manager walks into the Monday consultant review with the risk list in hand.

Retainer renewal flow

Retainer pursuits surface 60 days out.

Calendar auto-log

Consultant calendar events land on the pursuit automatically.

When a consultant takes a client meeting that matches a pursuit (account match on calendar invite), the flow logs the meeting on the pursuit record with duration, attendees, and auto-detected agenda. The pursuit record stays current without a consultant manually logging activity after every call.

What a sales manager sees that consultants do not

The sales manager tier that respects the consultant workspace.

A sales manager tier that creates a parallel UI the consultants cannot see is a tier that breeds mistrust. Strkr keeps the workspace identical for sales manager and consultant, then adds a sales-manager-only overlay for firm pipeline rollup, consultant benchmarks, risk-flag inbox, margin visibility, and private coaching notes.

Firm pipeline rollup

Every consultant pipeline on one scrollable view.

The sales manager firm rollup shows every consultant pipeline on a single screen, grouped by service and then by consultant, sorted by stage and close date. Filter by segment, lead source, deal size, margin band, or hygiene score.

Private consultant notes

Sales manager notes consultants do not see.

Notes captured during a consultant 1:1 can be marked private to the sales manager or shared with the consultant. Private notes feed the annual review view and the consultant development dashboard. Shared notes become visible with action items queued.

Submit-lock override

The sales manager read beats the consultant read when it has to.

Consultants submit their weekly category calls through the Friday workflow. The sales manager overrides the consultant call per pursuit where the read differs, and the override carries a one-line reason the consultant sees on Monday. The forecast number that rolls up is the sales-manager-adjusted number.

Risk-flag inbox

The pursuits Strkr AI flagged, in one list.

Every Strkr AI pursuit risk flag across the shop lands in a sales-manager-only risk inbox. The sales manager triages each flag in two clicks: dismiss (false positive), schedule coaching (creates a task tied to the pursuit), or escalate (routes to the founder with the flag history attached).

Scope-shift timeline

The full shape of every pursuit on one record.

Each pursuit timeline shows every scope version with the delta from the prior proposal and a one-line reason. The sales manager walking into a difficult pursuit review scrolls the timeline in two minutes and arrives knowing exactly how the pursuit got where it is.

Margin visibility

Every pursuit margin visible to the sales manager.

Consultants see the margin estimate for their own pursuits, and the sales manager sees margin across the shop. The sales manager runs a margin review to spot pursuits priced too thin for the hours scoped, approves the margin before proposal, and defends pricing discipline with grounded numbers.

Consultant benchmarks

Consultant against shop average.

Every consultant metric (pursuits opened, win rate, deal size, cycle time, referral revenue) renders against the shop average on the same tile. The sales manager spots the consultant a quarter outside the average on cycle time and runs a specific coaching session instead of a generic conversation grounded in no numbers.

Head-to-head

Strkr vs HubSpot plus HoneyBook plus Notion plus Sheets.

Most 5 to 60 person boutique consultancies run HubSpot or Salesforce for records, HoneyBook or Dubsado for proposals, Notion or Asana for delivery, a Google Sheet for the forecast, Slack DMs for the referral motion, and founder memory for everything else. The stack is six surfaces, six logins, and six places where the shop number drifts. Strkr collapses that into one workspace with one bill.

What matters	Strkr	HubSpot + HoneyBook + Notion + Sheets
Number of surfaces the sales manager opens Monday	1 (Strkr)	6 (HubSpot, HoneyBook, Notion, Sheet, Slack, memory)
Service forecast rollup	Native rollup across projects, retainers, advisory	Google Sheet with three tabs reconciled Friday night
Consultant pipeline view	Native consultant-grouped rollup with utilization context	HubSpot pipeline report filtered by owner
Consultant enablement surface	Next-step drafted on consultant workspace with one-click send	Sales manager chases consultant across Slack DMs
Scope-version history	Native scope-version timeline on the pursuit	Three Google Docs the scoping lead keeps on desktop
Pursuit hygiene score	Native score built for consultancy motion	Sales manager rebuilds hygiene manually every Monday
Pursuit risk flags	Native Strkr AI flags with specific reasons	Sales manager eyeballs the pipeline Thursday
Engagement margin on the pursuit	Margin block beside the booking number	Scoping spreadsheet on the scoping lead desktop
Retainer renewal pursuit	Auto-opens 60 days before contract end	Calendar reminder in the consultant inbox
Monthly cost per seat (stack)	One per-seat line, see pricing page	Four to five per-seat lines stacked

See the CRM built for the sales manager at a boutique consultancy.

Start a trial with the full sales manager stack enabled: pursuit pipeline, service forecast, scope-version history, consultant enablement surface, pursuit hygiene score, engagement margin on the pursuit, Strkr AI pursuit risk, deal-room primitive, retainer renewal flow. One bill, one workspace, one source of truth for the pursuit cadence. Migrate from the HubSpot plus HoneyBook plus Notion plus Sheet stack in an afternoon and keep every account, pursuit, retainer, and open scoping block intact. The pricing page lays out the per-seat line in full.

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Common questions

Consulting Sales Managers buyer FAQ.

Can Strkr handle a forecast that mixes projects, retainers, and advisory on different cycles?

Yes, and it is the primary reason boutique consultancy sales managers adopt the product. Strkr runs native service forecasts that treat each motion with its own category math: projects use commit, best case, and pipeline on 6-to-12 week cycles; retainers use the same categories with a renewal column for the recurring book; advisory carries an hourly or value-based cycle with ad-hoc expansion. The three streams combine into one firm number without a Google Sheet, and the sales manager sees per-service contribution at a glance.

How does Strkr handle a consultant selling between client workshops?

Strkr ships a consultant-aware tier that respects the dual role. Each pursuit renders a consultant enablement block with the next-step the sales manager proposed, the suggested email body Strkr AI drafted from the account context, and a one-click send button. The consultant acts in 30 seconds per pursuit instead of agreeing to send and never sending. Strkr Flows draft the Monday next-step emails per pursuit, log calendar events to the pursuit automatically, and surface stale pursuits on a Monday list, so pursuit cadence runs on time whether or not Thursday held a client workshop.

How does the scope-version history actually work on a pursuit that reshapes three times?

Each pursuit carries a scope-version history on the record itself. The current proposal, prior versions, and a one-line reason for each shift pull onto one timeline. When a scoping lead posts a new proposal version, Strkr Flows log the version, calculate the delta against the prior proposal, and notify the sales manager with a one-line summary (opened at $40K, reshaped to $25K, reason: procurement asked for leaner Phase 1). The forecast moves with the shape, the margin block updates with the version, and the sales manager walks into the next consultant review knowing exactly which pursuits moved and why.

Can a founder close a deal and hand off cleanly to the sales manager?

Yes. Strkr runs a deal-room primitive that holds the founder-seller, the owning sales manager, the delivery lead, and the consultant team with role-aware visibility on one record. The handoff is a status change rather than a two-day context rebuild from a Slack message. For boutique consultancies where the founder is still the senior seller, the deal-room primitive keeps the pipeline accountability clean while the delivery continues to run with the right people on the record. The founder sees their closed-won pursuits, the sales manager inherits a complete record, and the consultant team runs delivery with full context.

How does Strkr handle retainer renewals on a boutique book?

Retainer engagements open a renewal pursuit automatically 60 days before contract end, assigned to the owning consultant with current engagement data pre-attached. The renewal flows through the same forecast primitives as a new engagement, so the shop number captures renewal risk in the same column that holds net-new pipeline. For consultancies running an account-manager role separate from the consultant, the renewal pursuit assigns to the account manager with the consultant tagged as the delivery lead. The retainer renewal flow replaces a calendar reminder in the consultant inbox that half the time gets ignored.

What does Strkr cost for a 20-person boutique consultancy?

Starter is $29 per seat per month, Pro is $59, and Scale is $119. Most 20-person boutique consultancies land on Pro for the pursuit-centric features, Products module for retainers, Projects module for delivery, and forecast primitives. For 20 seats that is $1,180 per month on Pro. The Strkr AI module is an opt-in $49 per month that includes 5,000 Strkr AI calls, which covers next-step drafting, SOP drafting, scope-shift summaries, and the Monday risk digest for a shop this size with headroom. The 14-day trial includes every surface so the sales manager can run a live Monday consultant standup through Strkr before the first invoice lands.

Also considering

Related combinations.

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