- While the idea of migrating to a new CRM might seem challenging, what often makes the biggest difference in practice is whether the platform and process is purpose-built around your team’s needs.
- MadeMarket—a CRM purpose-built for investment bankers—makes switching easy. With a ready-built platform and an onboarding process led by industry experts, you can migrate your data, keep your workflows, and get your team up and running quickly without major disruptions.
- The payoff is real and immediate. Firms that switch to MadeMarket save thousands of hours a year, improve visibility across deals and relationships, and close more deals, faster.
You know your current system isn’t working, but the risks of switching platforms seem high: lost data, downtime, training headaches, and team resistance. But what if migrating wasn’t just manageable—what if it was a strategic win?
It’s true—CRM migrations are sometimes associated with delays, complex configurations, and frustrating user experiences. But those challenges usually stem from switching to platforms that weren’t designed for bankers by companies that don’t understand their workflows. With MadeMarket, migration doesn’t mean reinventing your workflows—it means aligning your tools with them.
At MadeMarket, we’ve helped hundreds of investment banks transition from Excel, Salesforce and other leading CRMs with minimal disruption and measurable results. This guide lays out why switching to MadeMarket is easier than you think—and why it’s absolutely worth it.
1. The Reality of What You’re Leaving Behind
When you evaluate a potential migration, it’s not just about the effort to switch—it’s about what it costs you not to. Every day spent using systems that don’t properly support your workflows is a day of slower execution, less visibility, and missed opportunities—especially as more firms adopt platforms purpose-built for banking.
Manual processes chip away at your team's productivity. Disconnected data weakens your decision-making. And poor user adoption means your investment in technology is delivering little to no return.
The Case for Migrating from Popular Platforms
Using Excel as a CRM is still common in many firms, but it comes with serious drawbacks: siloed data, inconsistent formatting, manual errors, and no security or collaboration features. It slows teams down and leaves insights buried.
Also read: Why It’s Time to Ditch Excel for an Investment Banking CRM
Generic CRMs like Salesforce require expensive customization to even begin to resemble a deal platform. They’re built for sales pipelines, not complex transaction processes. Adoption suffers because the tools simply don’t match how bankers work.
DealCloud offers industry-specific compliance and documentation tools but it’s not ready-built for investment banking or transaction workflows even though it offers a few add-on customizations designed for bankers at an additional cost.
Affinity is designed to work as a more general-purpose platform across different capital markets verticals. Its automation and relationship analytics appeal to some, but for bankers, the platform is often more expensive and difficult to integrate with investment banking workflows, including transaction management.
HubSpot is a general-purpose CRM known for marketing tools and lead generation. While an upgrade from Excel, it's rarely tailored to the relationship and deal management needs of financial services professionals.
Also read: What's the difference between a CRM and CRDM for Investment Bankers?
2. Why MadeMarket Makes Migration Easy (and worth it)
MadeMarket isn’t a generic CRM. It’s a purpose-built deal and relationship management platform designed specifically for investment banking. That means your workflows, data structures, and reporting needs are already built into the platform—ready on day one.
No heavy customization needed
You won’t spend months building features that should already exist. Tools like buyer list builders, deal activity templates, and reporting dashboards are ready to go.
Easy onboarding steps
- Create your account
- Install our Outlook add-in or Gmail extension
- Sync your contacts
From there, you can import historical data, create deals, build lists, and send distributions—all without starting from scratch.
Native Excel support
Many firms manage critical data in spreadsheets before switching to a CRM. MadeMarket makes it easy to bring that data with you. With built-in Excel import tools, you can upload contacts, firms, deals, and target lists directly into the platform—no custom scripts, expensive consultants, or long delays required.
In any case, MadeMarket is designed to meet you where you are—whether that’s rows and columns or a legacy CRM export—so you can move forward without losing momentum.
Also read: Why Switch to MadeMarket’s Investment Banking CRM?
3. Guided Migration & Support
Migrating isn’t a solo project—our experienced onboarding team of industry experts works with you every step of the way:
- Pre-migration planning: Clean your data, map fields, and build your rollout plan.
- Data import assistance: Our team helps you transform your spreadsheets or export files into usable, structured MadeMarket data.
- Phased rollout support: Gradually onboard your team while keeping the old system active to avoid disruptions.
- Interactive training resources: Step-by-step guides, monthly office hours, and a comprehensive Help Desk make learning continuous and accessible.
Have Salesforce? You can even integrate it with MadeMarket to sync contacts and firms automatically while viewing key deal data directly inside Salesforce—reducing the need to toggle between platforms.
Also read: Why Investment Bankers Are Integrating MadeMarket with their Salesforce CRM
And support doesn’t stop after onboarding:
- MadeMarket Help Desk: A rich knowledge base with how-to guides and searchable feature documentation.
- Office Hours: Monthly live sessions where users can ask questions, get support, and discover new ways to use the platform.
- Ongoing product education: We publish regular updates, walkthroughs, and articles on how MadeMarket is evolving—and how to get more out of it.
Whether you’re a new analyst or a senior MD, our support is designed to scale with your team’s needs and experience level.
Also read: Purpose-Built Customer Support for Investment Bankers
4. The ROI of Switching
Once you're up and running, the returns compound fast:
- 200+ hours saved per user per year
- 12x faster deal tracking
- 15x faster buyers list building
- 20x faster process emails
- 1 extra deal per year for every 5 MDs
And the average firm that switches to MadeMarket sees an ROI of up to 3000%. That’s not a typo—it’s the real cost of lost time, missed insights, and poor adoption on outdated platforms.
Also read: How to Maximize the ROI from Your Investment Bank’s New CRM
5. Don’t Let Migration Myths Hold You Back
Migration doesn’t have to be a risk. With the right platform and a proven partner, it becomes an upgrade.
At MadeMarket, we built this platform because we were investment bankers ourselves—we know the workflows, the pain points, and what it takes to win deals. And we know that switching CRMs should never cost you your momentum.
We’ll help you migrate faster, onboard smarter, and close more deals—sooner.
Ready to see just how easy switching can be? Let’s talk. To learn more and explore what MadeMarket can do for you, connect with a member of our team to get started with a demo!
Also read: Debunking the Myths About Getting a New CRM for Your Investment Bank
