ArenaCAD
Technical Education · B2B SaaS
ActiveCampaign · WordPress · Zapier · Calendly · Google Analytics
CRM Configuration · RevOps Reporting · Pipeline Architecture · Workflow Automation · Staff Training
A growing technical education business running its CRM like a mailing list.
ArenaCAD provides specialist CAD training and technical education services to engineering and construction professionals. When they engaged me, they had ActiveCampaign in place, but in name only. The platform had been provisioned but never properly configured. There were no defined pipelines. No lifecycle stages. No automation beyond a basic welcome email. Data was coming in from the website, from Calendly bookings, from other operational tools, and landing in ActiveCampaign with no structure, no field mapping, and no logic to determine what happened next.
The sales team was managing deals manually in spreadsheets and inboxes. The customer experience team was handling onboarding without any automated support. Marketing was sending campaigns to the full list because there was no segmentation to do otherwise. And leadership had no reporting visibility into where leads were coming from, where they were dropping off, or what the funnel was actually worth. ActiveCampaign was costing them money every month while delivering almost none of its potential value.
Platform ownership. Process architecture. And a CRM that actually reflected how the business works.
The gap here was structural. ActiveCampaign is a sophisticated platform, but sophistication without configuration is just cost. What ArenaCAD needed was someone who could take ownership of the platform, map it to how the business actually operated across sales, customer experience, operations, and marketing, and build the infrastructure that would make every team more effective. That meant custom fields, defined pipelines, lifecycle stage logic, workflow automation, and reporting, all built around ArenaCAD’s specific commercial process, not a generic CRM template.
There was also a change management challenge. CRM adoption is not just a configuration problem. It is a people problem. The teams who needed to use the system had been operating without it for long enough that changing their process required more than a new setup, it required training, clear documentation, and a system simple enough to use that adoption was the easier path.
A fully configured CRM environment from custom field architecture to RevOps reporting, owned across the entire business.
The engagement began with a discovery and data audit phase: reviewing existing contact data, mapping all lead sources, identifying integration requirements, and documenting the commercial process across Sales, Customer Experience, Operations, and Marketing. This was not a technical brief alone, it required stakeholder sessions with leads across each function to understand how they worked, what they needed from the CRM, and where the current process was creating friction.
Custom fields and contact properties were built in ActiveCampaign to align with the business’s actual data model: every touchpoint from lead source to training completion mapped and tagged. Domain configuration between ActiveCampaign and Cloudflare was completed. Calendly was integrated so that every consultation booking entered the CRM, triggered the correct pipeline stage, and initiated a pre-meeting sequence automatically. Zapier was used to connect third-party operational tools, enriching ActiveCampaign with data from across the business. Google Analytics integration was implemented to close the attribution loop between marketing activity and CRM outcomes.
Four distinct pipeline types were built, sales pipelines capturing deal progression from lead to close, and customer experience pipelines designed to reduce manual handoffs during onboarding and delivery. High-level automation was implemented across the full customer lifecycle: onboarding sequences, follow-up cadences, lead scoring logic, nurture flows, and re-engagement triggers. RevOps reporting dashboards were built for leadership: sales attribution, marketing performance, and pipeline health all visible in one place. Training was delivered across all four departments, Sales, Customer Experience, Operations, and Marketing, with documentation written and left behind for ongoing reference.
4
Departments trained and operating from a single CRM
4+
Distinct pipelines built across sales and customer experience
- ActiveCampaign transformed from an idle, costly platform into the operational backbone of the business, every department now working from a single, accurate system.
- Full integration layer established: Calendly, Zapier, Google Analytics, and Cloudflare all connected, with data from every touchpoint enriching contact records automatically.
- Sales and CX pipelines live for the first time, deals tracked from first enquiry to completion, onboarding managed without manual handoff.
- Lifecycle automation running across welcome, onboarding, nurture, lead scoring, and re-engagement, the team is no longer managing these processes manually.
- RevOps dashboards live for leadership, sales attribution, marketing performance, and pipeline health all visible without needing to query a spreadsheet.
- All four departments trained, with documentation in place to sustain CRM adoption and best practice as the team grows.
Every lead captured from the website or third-party source enters a structured pipeline stage, triggers the correct automation, and receives the right follow-up at the right time, without manual input. Consultation bookings via Calendly initiate pre-meeting sequences. Onboarding journeys fire at deal close. Lead scoring surfaces the highest-value prospects to the sales team automatically. RevOps dashboards update in real time.
WordPress · Zapier · Calendly · Google Analytics · Cloudflare
Independent CRM consultant, full platform ownership, integration architecture, pipeline build, RevOps reporting, cross-department training
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