The sales stack: CRM, tools and data discipline

What you’ll learn

• What a CRM actually is — accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities and activities in plain English, how they relate, what a record contains, and why one system must serve as the company's memory and its forecast.
• Salesforce and HubSpot in practice — a translation table between them and the five phrases an interviewer expects you to own.
• A worked day of CRM work — logging a call, advancing a stage against exit criteria, setting a dated next step, adding to the buying group, and the hygiene reports your manager will run on you.
• The wider stack — sales engagement, prospecting data, conversation intelligence, scheduling, e-signature and CPQ: what each does, why companies buy it, what a rep touches daily.
• AI in the sales stack in 2026 — where it earns its keep, the four ways it humiliates people, and the etiquette of AI-drafted outreach.
• Data discipline — hygiene as self-interest, "single source of truth", and UK GDPR/PECR ground rules for B2B prospecting.
• How to talk about tools with no access — free tiers, Trailhead and developer orgs, which certifications earn their hours, and the honest framing that beats a bluff.