The CRM consultants actually keep open.

Generic CRMs were built for product companies. Consulting work doesn't fit. The unit isn't a deal closing — it's a relationship producing a stream of engagements over years. A client might sign in January, run a 3-month project, pause in June, then re-engage in October for a retainer.

Funnel stages don't match the consultant motion

Most consulting work starts with a referral or re-engagement from a past client. There's no "MQL → SQL → close" sequence. There's "intro → discovery → proposal → signed." A generic CRM asks: where in your funnel is this deal? You answer: it's not a funnel — my best client just called me back after a year.

No way to track engagement type + rate together

A single client might have a $20K project running, a $5K/mo retainer, and $2K/hr coaching calls all in parallel. Generic CRMs flatten these into "deals" with a single close date and amount.

Repeat work and referrals are invisible

The most valuable signal in consulting is "this past client is ready to re-engage." Yet generic CRMs treat past clients as closed deals — out of sight, out of mind. Your repeat revenue (often 60-80% of consulting income) becomes invisible to your system.

We've configured Attio for 5 consulting practices, from solo (1 person, 8 active clients) to small (12 people, 40 active clients). The data model that holds up is below.

Consulting pipelines look more like an account-management view than a sales funnel. Three motions running in parallel.

Active engagements

Live work — projects, retainers, coaching engagements. Carries rate (project / retainer / hourly), end date, billable hours logged this month, scope status (within / over / paused).

Active conversations

Pre-engagement: intros, discovery calls, proposals out. Carries source (referral / inbound / re-engagement), expected ARV, pitch lead.

Re-engagement queue

Past clients warm enough to re-engage. Carries last engagement end-date, last touch date, who the warm contact is, what the next conversation should be. For solo consultants, this is the highest-leverage view — 60-80% of revenue comes from past clients who remember you.

For consultants, the relationship outlasts the engagement. The CRM should be a relationship-tracker first, deal-tracker second.

In Attio, the People object carries the weight: role, current company, past companies (where you actually met them), last touch, relationship strength (rated 1-5 manually or computed from activity). The Companies object is secondary — most consulting introductions happen at the People level. Engagements (custom object) captures past + active work: type, rate, dates, deliverables, outcome.

One person might span four companies across a decade — Attio sees the continuity. A generic CRM sees four disconnected deals.

What matters: a weekly saved view showing "people I haven't talked to in 90+ days who have strong history." Attio runs this and sends you the list. That's the difference between a relationship CRM and a deal tracker.

Most consulting revenue comes from referrals and repeat work. Both should be systematized — not "I'll remember" or "I'll send a check-in email."

Referral tracking

Every introduction recorded: referrer, who they referred, status (intro made / call booked / engagement won / lost). Saved view: "warm referrers — people who introduced you to 2+ paid clients." Quarterly reminder to send each a meaningful update. Not a sales pitch, an actual update.

Re-engagement triggers

Past clients tagged with "ready to re-engage by" (typically 6-12 months after last engagement ends). Workflow fires Slack ping when the date arrives. You decide whether to reach out — but you remember to.

Solo consultants who systemize this typically see 30-40% of new revenue from re-engagements + warm referrals within the first year. The math compounds. Both run as Attio Workflows. We configure them in your runbook.

Most consultants have a Notion doc with their rate card and a separate spreadsheet tracking billable hours per client. Both end up out of sync within a quarter.

Attio approach: Engagements (custom object) carries rate (project total / hourly / retainer), start date, end date, status. The rate card lives on the object schema. Time entries log against engagements via integration with Toggl, Harvest, or a webhook from your invoicing tool. Scope status computed: within / over / paused. Workflow alerts when scope crosses 110%.

At any point you can answer "how much have I billed this client" or "which engagements are running over scope" with a single Attio view. We don't replace your invoicing tool — we sync from it.