Kristen McGarr has spent over 20 years helping businesses implement CRM systems that actually work. Her core belief is that the future of CRM isn’t about more technology, it’s about more humanity. For CPA firm owners who have tried a CRM, abandoned it, or never started one at all, that perspective changes the conversation entirely.
Kristen is the founder of Adroit Insights and CRM Growth, a growth strategist, fractional chief revenue officer, and CRM implementation specialist. She works across platforms like Zoho, HubSpot, and ActiveCampaign, and she is known for making complex systems genuinely approachable. In this conversation, she gets specific about the problems she sees most often in accounting firms: systems that are over-configured, features that never get used, and adoption that stalls because the CRM feels like administrative work rather than a growth tool.
The most actionable part of this episode is Kristen’s framework for building a pipeline when you have never tracked one before. She calls it the three R’s: renewals, referrals, and recent conversations. For renewals, look at one-off projects that could become recurring revenue and clients you haven’t heard from yet this year. For referrals, send a simple email during busy season asking for introductions and reviews. For recent conversations, think about who mentioned a challenge you rolled right past without addressing. The irony, as Kristen points out, is that tax season is exactly when firms have the most contact with clients and the most opportunity for all three, even though it feels like the worst possible time.
The conversation covers:
- Why most CRM failures come down to adoption and over-configuration, not the wrong platform
- How firms end up using only 10 to 20% of the CRM functionality they are paying for
- Why consistency and predictability are the real foundations of scalability, not just growth
- How to maintain business development outreach during tax season without doing it manually
- The three R’s for building a pipeline from scratch: renewals, referrals, and recent conversations
- What to look for when choosing a CRM: integrations, reporting, and flexibility to grow with you
- Why trusting your gut on vendor relationships matters as much as evaluating the technology
Kristen’s approach strips away the complexity that keeps most firms from ever getting real value out of a CRM. Her advice is consistent throughout: start simple, solve for the 90% of problems you actually have, and build a system that can grow with you rather than one you have to replace in a year.
This episode is for firm owners curious about what a CRM can actually do for their practice when implemented well, leaders wondering how to maintain business development momentum through busy season, practitioners ready to build a pipeline but unsure where to start, and anyone who has tried a CRM before and walked away frustrated.
BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Brannon Poe intro and podcast welcome
00:14 – Introducing Kristen McGarr, founder of Adroit Insights and CRM Growth
00:57 – Kristen’s core belief: the future of CRM is humanity, not more technology
01:17 – Why most CRM implementations fail: adoption and overcomplicated configuration
02:07 – The demo trap: why what you see is rarely the off-the-shelf product
02:47 – Most firms use only 10 to 20% of their CRM’s actual functionality
03:03 – Where AI fits into CRM today and why it shouldn’t be trusted 100%
03:56 – Signs a CPA firm is ready to scale versus needing to fix its foundation first
04:17 – Why consistency and predictability matter more than fast growth
05:02 – How predictable, even revenue throughout the year affects accounting firm valuation
05:48 – The tax season surge and dip problem and how to create more consistency around it
06:05 – Why business development gets dropped during busy season and how to fix that
06:37 – The growth-ready system: templated outreach that still sounds like you
07:49 – How to automate personalized outreach without doing it manually every time
08:21 – Why spacing out outreach matters more than frequency
08:41 – Turning client education into shareable case study content for prospects
09:17 – The three R’s: renewals, referrals, recent conversations
09:36 – Renewals: how to spot recurring revenue opportunities in your existing client base
09:53 – Referrals: why sending referral emails during busy season is low effort, high return
10:26 – Recent conversations: catching the tax planning and advisory needs you rolled past
11:09 – The irony of tax season: it’s your busiest time and your biggest pipeline opportunity
11:31 – Why a transactional accounting firm cannot function well without a CRM
11:53 – Kristen’s three-part CRM checklist: integrations, reporting, and flexibility
13:06 – Funny story: the vendor lesson that led to building an internal team
14:22 – Why trusting your gut early on a bad vendor fit saves time and money later
14:55 – How building an internal team improved client satisfaction across the firm
15:29 – Why picking technology vendors is especially hard for relationship-focused accountants
15:55 – The value of trusted resources and networks when evaluating new tools
16:11 – Book recommendation: “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss
17:09 – Where to find Kristen: LinkedIn and CRMgrowth.com
TRANSCRIPT
Brannon: I’m Brannon Poe, and this is The Accountant’s Flight Plan podcast, where you can enjoy engaging conversations about mergers and acquisitions and accounting practice management. Listen in on strategies to build a more fun and valuable accounting firm.
Welcome to The Accountant’s Flight Plan podcast. I have a wonderful guest today, Kristen McGarr, founder of Adroit Insights and CRM Growth. Kristen is a growth strategist, a fractional chief revenue officer, and a CRM implementation specialist with over 20 years of experience. She works on platforms like Zoho, HubSpot, and ActiveCampaign, and she is known for something pretty rare in the CRM world: making complex systems actually approachable. She is a sought-after global trainer and speaker who delivers actionable insights on CRM strategy, growth strategy, and relationship sales to business owners and teams at every level. One of her core beliefs is that the future of CRM isn’t about more technology, it’s about more humanity. A lot of CPA firm owners who have struggled with CRM implementation are going to find that perspective refreshing. Welcome, Kristen. Thanks for coming on.
Kristen: Thanks so much for having me. Appreciate that intro.
Brannon: Let’s start with accounting firms and CRM specifically. You have seen some implementations that have not gone well. Why do most CRM failures happen?
Kristen: There are a couple of reasons we typically see. One is adoption. Most CRM systems, by design, feel like an administrative task and an administrative headache. Salespeople don’t want extra administrative work, and a busy accountant doesn’t want it either. The second is configuration. A lot of these CRMs are technically built for your industry, but they end up overly complicated, often unnecessarily so. When you focus on the basics and on simplicity, solving for the 90% of problems you actually have rather than the 10%, we see a lot more success.
Brannon: They advertise a lot of bells and whistles. We were on Salesforce for many years and switched to HubSpot a few years back. They are always rolling out new features, and you see the shiny thing and think, oh, that’s interesting. Do you see that causing problems too?
Kristen: Absolutely. One frustration I have with the CRM industry overall is that what you see in a demo is rarely the off-the-shelf product you are going to receive. It is generally something that has had tens of thousands of dollars of configuration already done to it. You walk away expecting those beautiful charts and graphs, and nobody tells you that yes, it’s possible, but you have to go build all of that yourself. It doesn’t come ready to go. Most people, even on bigger platforms like HubSpot, are using only 10 to 20% of the functionality they are actually paying for.
And now AI is in the mix too. Companies are rolling out their AI features, and honestly, those aren’t always as far along as they would have you believe. AI has its up days and down days. There are some genuinely great features that streamline processes, and even just being able to talk to an AI assistant and ask, how do I do this in my system, is a real benefit. But don’t trust it 100%. You always have to double check and look for the facts. That said, it has helped a lot of people who were previously hesitant about adopting a CRM feel more confident doing so.
Brannon: I hadn’t thought about that, but you’re right, it helps walk people through things. Let’s talk about growth. For accounting firms specifically, what are the signs a firm is ready to scale versus needing to fix its foundation first?
Kristen: When I think about scalability, I focus on consistency and predictability. You can grow without consistency. You can grow without predictability. But if you really want to scale, you need both. You need to know roughly what’s coming and when. We focus on what we can put into place around process, because process is the foundation. Without a consistent process, you won’t get consistent results, no matter how robust or beautiful the system is on top of it.
Brannon: From the mergers and acquisitions side, predictability is really important. You want to see revenue growth, it doesn’t have to be fast, but you definitely don’t want to see declines. And the more even the revenue is throughout the year, the better it looks when you go to sell.
Kristen: That ties into targeting and pricing too, and honestly touches a lot of aspects of firm management. The more insight you have into your data, the better decisions the firm can make. With accounting firms specifically, especially those doing tax work, you see these massive influxes and then big dips. So the question becomes: how do we create more consistency, or if it can’t be fully consistent year-round because of those seasonal surges, how do we at least make it predictable, so you know what’s coming and can plan accordingly?
Brannon: We were talking before we hit record about how a lot of CPA firms struggle to maintain consistent business development efforts because tax season interrupts everything. How do you help an owner who wants to scale create a more consistent process for that?
Kristen: There’s filling the pipeline, which is one piece. But even outside of that, it’s really about maintaining communication. If you’re in the throes of tax season, you don’t have time to be doing regular touch bases with clients or prospects unless it’s specifically about their taxes. We’ve actually built a growth-ready system designed for accountants that maintains a regular cadence of outreach and touch bases, even during the busy season. If you got prospects coming in right before or during busy season, you’re still getting personalized outreach that comes from your voice and your messaging, triggered automatically so you don’t have to be the one doing it manually. An administrative support person on your team could easily execute it. This came out of my work as a fractional chief revenue officer. It was such a critical component that I found a way to systematize it.
Brannon: So it’s templated. You create the templates once, and then it gets automated as much as possible.
Kristen: Exactly. If someone wants to do this on their own, it’s about thinking through a good outreach cadence. You don’t want to reach out six times in a two-week period. People will get annoyed, and if they didn’t respond to the first two or three messages, they’re not going to respond to the next three either, other than to mark you as spam. The key is spacing it out and providing value each time. Every accountant I talk to teaches me something. You all have so much knowledge to give. Take any tidbit, maybe a challenge a client brought to you, write it up in two or three sentences, have AI help craft the language, and send it out as a case study or example that helps other people. The more you educate people, the more they see you as a trusted resource they’ll come to when they’re ready to make a switch.
Brannon: For a firm that has never tracked pipeline before, is 30 days a good place to start, or are there other entry points?
Kristen: When people want to start tracking pipeline, it’s often overwhelming. Where do I even begin? I tell people to think about the three R’s: renewals, referrals, and recent conversations. For renewals, look at clients you may have done a one-off cleanup project for and consider whether that could become recurring revenue. Look at anyone you haven’t heard from yet this year for their taxes. Drop all of that into your pipeline so you don’t forget about it.
For referrals, one of my favorite things to do during the busy season is send out referral emails to clients. I have an accounting firm client who just did this, and she’s getting both direct referrals and a wave of reviews on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google. Getting that activity going is very simple, just an email or two, without taking much of your time when you’re already busy.
The last R is recent conversations. Who have you talked to recently, whether a networking partner, a referral partner, a potential client, or an existing client, who mentioned a challenge you rolled right past without really addressing? Maybe they need tax planning or ongoing accounting services. By thinking through those three R’s, you can build a solid pipeline quickly.
What’s ironic about tax season is that it’s exactly when you have the most contact with clients, the most opportunity for referrals, and the most opportunity for those recent conversations, even though it feels like the worst possible time.
Brannon: We’ve been on a CRM for years now. It is such a big part of our business because our model is transactional rather than recurring revenue, so we have to be really good at outreach. I don’t know how it could be done without a CRM. We struggled with Salesforce because it was such a complicated system. If someone is thinking about a CRM, my advice would be to go simple. Do you have a checklist for what to look for?
Kristen: When we’re evaluating a CRM, the first thing I think about is integrations. What else are you using that’s critical to integrate with? Sometimes the answer is nothing, which makes it simple. Other times you’re using a specific piece of software or you’re on Microsoft Suite or Google Workspace, and you want to make sure whatever you pick integrates natively with that.
The second thing is reporting. A lot of times the reason you put data in is so you can get information out, and not all reporting is created equal. Some systems make it complicated to even build a basic report. Others give you beautiful, easy dashboards, but you can’t drill down for the depth of data you need to actually make decisions. We look closely at what reporting capabilities matter most to you.
The third is flexibility. If you’re in growth mode now, you’ll hopefully be in scale mode eventually. We don’t want you switching CRMs a year from now because you went too simple. We look for systems that can be stripped down to the basics for what you need today, but with a few flips of a switch, additional features can turn on as you grow. It should be able to grow with you.
Brannon: That all makes sense. Last couple of questions. Do you have a funny story, maybe a professional challenge that turned into a success, or just a memorable moment?
Kristen: I don’t know how funny it is looking back, but one of the biggest lessons I learned is that not all vendors are created equal. As we’ve grown, our business has relied on leveraging vendors and partners to help us accomplish what we need to do, including delivering client work. I’ve seen my accounting clients do the same thing with outsourced third parties, and the frustration that comes from choosing the wrong vendor or partner is real.
A couple of things I’ve learned from this: trust your gut. If something feels off, don’t try to force it to work. Chances are you should cut ties earlier rather than later, because the longer you stay in it, the more you tell yourself you’re too invested to leave. Eventually you’ll have to cut the tie anyway. One genuinely good thing that came out of this for us is that we recognized we hold very high standards for how we deliver client work, and we simply could not maintain that with third-party vendors because we couldn’t hold them as accountable as we wanted. So we made the decision to build and grow our own internal team. That allowed us to expand our practice in a way that has been phenomenal. We can guarantee our customer satisfaction because we control delivery internally now. It was a genuinely challenging lesson, with some tough situations along the way, but the outcome has been great.
Brannon: That is such a painful thing, and you think about client relationships being the hard part, but vendor relationships can be just as challenging, especially when you don’t have the technical expertise to evaluate them properly. If you’re a relationship person trying to pick technology vendors, that can be especially hard.
Kristen: Absolutely. And I’m a tech person, and there are still tech challenges where I think, I need somebody else for this. This is where surrounding yourself with the right people and having trusted resources matters, listening to good podcasts like this one to learn about and meet other people, expanding your network so you have someone you can ask when you’re not sure if you’re being sold something that isn’t real, or if it’s actually the right decision for your business.
Brannon: Last question. What are you reading these days, or do you have a book recommendation for our audience?
Kristen: One I love, and it’s a bit of an unusual pick, is “Never Split the Difference.” It’s a sales book written by a former hostage negotiator. It offers such a unique perspective. Going back to what you mentioned in the intro, that the future of CRM is humanity, not technology, this book really speaks to that same idea. It’s about understanding people, remembering how others think, what their expectations are, and not projecting your own thoughts and feelings onto someone else’s situation. Relationship-based sales is so critical in accounting firms and professional services broadly, and the book does a great job of honing in on that from a genuinely unique angle.
Brannon: Who’s the author?
Kristen: Chris Voss.
Brannon: Great book. Kristen, thank you so much. How can people find you online?
Kristen: I try to stay active on LinkedIn, so that’s always a great way to reach out. I love connecting with people there. You can also check out CRMgrowth.com. If anyone has questions about CRM, just reach out and we’re happy to answer.
Brannon: Awesome. Thank you, Kristen.
Kristen: Thanks, Brannon.
