STELLANCE
Independent CRM & AI consultancy

Make the CRM decision before you make the CRM commitment.

Independent advice for leadership teams choosing a CRM, being sold AI agents, or facing a renewal. You pay us and vendors don’t, so the answer is free to be “not yet”.

Book a callSee the three routes
What has changed

The AI decision and the CRM decision have come apart. Most buying processes haven’t caught up.

01

AI no longer lives only inside the CRM.

Microsoft’s Sales agent works over Salesforce as well as Dynamics 365. HubSpot connects its CRM to ChatGPT and Claude. You may be able to add AI without changing platform, or be about to pay for it twice.

02

The licence quote is no longer the whole cost.

Salesforce, HubSpot and Microsoft now charge for much of their AI by use: per action, per resolved conversation, per credit. The real cost depends on volumes that nobody has modelled yet.

03

The software is rarely what fails.

Gartner expects over 40% of agentic AI projects to be cancelled by the end of 2027, because of cost, unclear value or weak risk controls. The causes are organisational, and so is the fix.

72%of sales organisations reinvest little of the time AI saves their sellers.Gartner survey of 210 sales leaders, 2026
63%of organisations lack, or are unsure they have, the right data management practices for AI.Gartner survey of data management leaders, 2024
<40%of sellers will say AI agents improved their productivity by 2028, Gartner predicts.Gartner prediction, July 2026
CRM & AI Decision Discovery

One discipline, three starting points.

Every route ends in the same place: a decision your leadership team can explain, fund and hold, with the evidence behind it in plain view.

Route 1 · Choose

“We need to choose or replace our CRM.”

WE ANSWER

Which platform fits how you actually sell, serve and operate, and what AI it can realistically carry in its first year.

YOU RECEIVE
  • Requirements drawn from real workflows, not wish lists
  • A scored shortlist from across the market
  • AI capability tested against your own data and use cases
  • Three-to-five-year cost of ownership, AI usage included
  • A working, platform-neutral prototype of your priority workflows
  • A board-ready recommendation and a route to proof of concept
TypicallyFour weeks
Route 2 · Add AI

“We have a CRM, and we’re being sold AI.”

WE ANSWER

Whether Agentforce, Dynamics 365 and Copilot agents, HubSpot Breeze or Zoho’s Zia are worth buying now, later or not at all, and whether a tool you already license could do the job.

YOU RECEIVE
  • A readiness read on the records the AI would rely on
  • Use cases ranked by value, risk and how easily they can be measured
  • Usage-cost scenarios at your volumes
  • Guardrails and decision rights for customer-facing AI
  • A clear recommendation: buy, wait, or use what you already have
TypicallyTwo weeks
Route 3 · Recover value

“Our CRM isn’t delivering, or renewal is close.”

WE ANSWER

Whether to optimise, consolidate, renegotiate or replace, before the renewal date makes the decision for you.

YOU RECEIVE
  • Adoption and usage evidence, by team and role
  • Your licence, contract and renewal position
  • Data quality and ownership findings
  • Options costed side by side, with their risks
  • A renewal negotiation brief and a 90-day plan
TypicallyTwo to three weeks

Not sure which route fits? That’s what the first conversation is for. Book a call

What we evaluate

We compare the market, not a partner list.

We don’t resell or implement any CRM platform, which is what lets us compare them fairly. Evaluation is not implementation: when you’re ready to build, a specialist in the platform you chose does that work.

Salesforce
Microsoft Dynamics 365
HubSpot
Zoho CRM
Creatio
Pipedrive
monday CRM
Your current CRM, as the baseline
AI over the CRM you already have
General-purpose assistants such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude, where they can connect to your existing records. Often the option nobody puts on the table.

Six questions we put to every platform’s AI

  1. 1What can it answer truthfully from your data today?
  2. 2What will it cost at your volumes, not the demo’s?
  3. 3What may it do without a person approving it, and who decides?
  4. 4How does it fit the tools your people already use every day?
  5. 5Where is your data processed, and what is it used for?
  6. 6Who owns it, and improves it, after go-live?
How it works

Two to four weeks, in a fixed order.

The discovery covers the first two movements of the Stellance Method. The last two follow only if the decision supports them, and are agreed separately.

CRM & AI DECISION DISCOVERY
SEERead the realityWeek 1Conversations with leaders and the people who use the CRM every day. Workflow walk-throughs, a data sample, usage reports and the current contract.
SHAPESet direction and decideWeeks 2 to 4Options scored against the evidence, AI use cases ranked, costs modelled. Route 1 adds a prototype your people can click through. It ends with an executive readout and the decision pack.
IF YOU PROCEED, AGREED SEPARATELY
SHIFTProve it, then build itAfter the decisionA proof of concept, then delivery by a specialist partner or through a tender, with Stellance on your side of the table if you want us there.
SUSTAINMake the value show upOngoingAdoption, capability and value tracking, so the benefits in the business case appear in the numbers rather than only on the slide.
What you leave with

A decision, the evidence behind it, and what would change it.

  • A clear recommendation, including the option to change nothing
  • Evidence you can trace to interviews, data and demonstrations
  • Three-to-five-year cost of ownership, including AI usage
  • AI use cases ranked, each with an owner and a measure
  • Data readiness findings, and the fixes that matter first
  • Risks, guardrails and decision rights
  • A scoped proof of concept, ready for a partner or a tender
What this isn’t

It isn’t implementation, licence resale or a proof of concept. Those follow only if the decision supports them, under a separate agreement you choose to make.

Not

A shortlist that happens to match the adviser’s partners.

Instead

A recommendation you can trace to evidence, including the option to buy nothing.

Independence

How we’re paid, stated plainly.

You pay us. No one else does.

For any organisation we advise, we take no fee, commission or referral payment from a CRM vendor or implementation partner.

We don’t sell software.

We don’t resell licences or implement any platform ourselves. The discovery fee is the same whichever platform you choose, or if you choose none.

Yes, our founder worked at Microsoft and Capgemini.

Mike Borrelli worked at Microsoft in enterprise customer success, adoption and CRM. That’s why he knows where Microsoft’s platforms fit and where they don’t. The evidence decides the recommendation, and you see all of it.

Delivery is your choice, made separately.

If you want help to deliver, we introduce a specialist in the platform you chose, or help you run a competitive tender. Any delivery role for Stellance is a separate contract.

For implementation partners

Better decisions make better projects.

Projects that start with a settled platform choice, a scoped proof of concept and a committed executive sponsor are easier to deliver and less likely to stall. If you’re an implementation partner, introduce us early. The terms don’t change: the client pays, and the evidence decides.

Talk to us about working together
Mike Borrelli
Who you’ll work with

Mike Borrelli, Founder and Managing Director

Mike has spent more than 23 years in enterprise technology, CRM and transformation, at Microsoft, Capgemini Consulting and Henkel. At Henkel he directed a global transformation portfolio of around £10 million a year, more than 90 initiatives across 84 markets. His documented outcomes include delivering or contributing to around £2.7 million in run-cost, licence and risk-mitigation savings.

23Years in transformation
84Markets in one global portfolio
04Stages in the method

“Technology has rarely been the hard part. Getting an organisation genuinely ready for it always has been.”

Mike Borrelli
Questions

What leaders ask us first.

How is this different from the free discovery a vendor or partner offers?

Vendor and partner discovery is often useful, and it is designed to lead to that platform and that build. Ours is paid for by you, so it can compare platforms fairly and conclude that you should wait, reuse what you have, or buy nothing.

We already have Salesforce, Dynamics 365 or HubSpot. Is this for us?

Yes. Route 2 tests whether the AI add-ons you’re being offered are worth paying for. Route 3 tests whether the platform itself is earning its cost.

Do you favour Microsoft or any other specific Partner or solution provider?

No. We’re paid by you, not by any vendor or partner, and every recommendation comes with the evidence behind it. Mike’s time at Microsoft means he knows its platforms well, including their limits.

What does it cost?

A fixed fee for a fixed scope, agreed in writing before we start. We quote after a brief introductory videocall, once we know which route fits and how many people and systems are involved.

Who needs to be involved from our side?

An executive sponsor, the people who use and run the CRM day to day, and someone who can share usage reports, a data sample and the current contract. We plan the conversations around your diary.

Is AI always part of the answer?

No. Sometimes the most valuable move is cleaning the data, fixing a process or renegotiating a contract. If that’s the answer, we’ll say so.

Can you help once the decision is made?

Yes, if you want us to. We can lead delivery on your side, introduce a specialist partner, or help you run a tender. That work is scoped and agreed separately.

Start with a brief introductory videocall.

Bring the decision in front of you. You’ll leave knowing which route fits, what it would involve, and whether you need us at all.

Book a callTake the AI Readiness Assessment
Sources

Microsoft Learn, Sales agent FAQ. HubSpot, deep research connector for ChatGPT, June 2025; MarTech, HubSpot connector for Claude. Salesforce Agentforce Flex Credits, HubSpot outcome-based agent pricing (April 2026) and Microsoft Copilot credits, as published by each vendor. Gartner press releases: 26 February 2025 (AI-ready data), 25 June 2025 (agentic AI projects), 19 May 2026 (AI time savings in sales), 28 July 2026 (AI agents and sellers).