Migration guide
Your pilot proved Toolblocks fits how your team wins work. Here is how to move contacts, pursuits, and follow-through into one workspace without losing momentum.
Getting started
Considerations before you start
You will need to make several decisions that shape your rollout:
- Will you import existing contacts and pursuit history, or start fresh with active targets only?
- Should each market practice configure its own workspace, or will BD/marketing standardize tags, stages, and templates?
- What is your timeline and communication plan, especially relative to renewal dates on tools Toolblocks may replace?
This guide walks through each decision with trade-offs we have seen from relationship-driven AEC teams consolidating pursuit work.
Contact migration
Decide whether to migrate your contacts
Many teams use migration as a chance to leave stale CRM records behind and focus on active relationships, target accounts, and in-flight pursuits. Others import CSV exports or LinkedIn connections so nothing in motion gets lost.
Import your contacts
Use CSV or Excel import, LinkedIn Connections export, or manual enrichment for priority accounts. Map categories such as client, prospect, and referral so filters stay useful on day one.
Start fresh
Migration can be an opportunity to rebuild around how you actually pursue work today: target lists, active conversations, and event follow-up, without dragging forward years of unused fields.
Either way, keep LinkedIn and email capture lightweight after go-live so adding contacts stays part of your daily workflow.
Configuration
Choose your configuration approach
Standardized pursuit workflows
BD or marketing ops standardizes contact categories, deal stages, task templates, and research workflows so reporting and handoffs stay consistent across practices.
Why teams choose this: Leadership visibility improves when teams share the same pursuit language, especially for pipeline reviews and marketing-to-BD handoffs.
Practice-level autonomy
Each market or geography configures its own workspaces, templates, and signal watchlists while sharing firm-wide contacts and accounts where it helps.
Why teams choose this: Teams that own their setup often adopt faster, though cross-practice reporting takes more intentional design.
Create a migration plan
Create a migration plan
Building an internal transition guide keeps everyone aligned on approach, timing, and support.
Approach
Spell out import vs. fresh start, standardized vs. autonomous setup, and why you are switching. Include pilot findings and one or two quotes from people who used Toolblocks during the trial.
Timeline
Work with leadership on a go-live date. If practices configure independently, allow up to four to six weeks for setup, training, and first pursuit workflows.
Training
Run a Toolblocks walkthrough for BD, marketing, and seller-doer principals. Share docs on contacts, signals, research with sources, and follow-up tasks. Record the session for teams in other offices.
Communication
Create a Slack or Teams channel for rollout questions. Centralize setup guides, import templates, and your internal FAQ there.
Announce the change
Announce the change to your team
Change creates apprehension. Tell people when Toolblocks is coming, what stays the same, and how migration will work. Keep the announcement short and actionable.
Use this template as a baseline
Team, We are moving pursuit tracking and relationship follow-up to Toolblocks this quarter. The goal is to keep contacts, signals, meeting prep, and next steps in one workspace, with sources we can verify before outreach goes out. Toolblocks fits how we already work on LinkedIn, email, and events; it reduces the admin of rebuilding context across tools. We expect a short transition period as we import priority contacts and stand up practice workspaces. If your group is mid-pursuit and needs to delay, contact [owner] so we can plan around it. In the coming weeks we will: - Share our internal migration guide - Host training on [dates] - Open a #[channel] for questions Thank you for helping us make follow-through more consistent without adding CRM busywork.
Roll out
Prepare your Toolblocks workspace
Step 1
Provision users
Invite BD, marketing, and principals who will own pursuits. Match email addresses to imported contact ownership where possible.
Step 2
Import or seed data
Run contact import for active relationships and target accounts. Link organizations and people before pursuits go live.
Step 3
Configure workspaces
Set deal stages, project phases, task templates, and signal watchlists to match how each practice actually pursues work.
Step 4
Enable daily workflows
Connect Gmail, import priority contacts, and run at least one research or meeting-prep workflow so teams see first value quickly.
Step 5
Sunset the old setup
Put legacy spreadsheets or unused CRM modules in read-only mode once Toolblocks is the system of record for active pursuits. Confirm renewal decisions on replaced tools.
Not ready?
Let us help you
Strengthen your internal case with the pitch guide or run a pilot before firm-wide rollout.
Resources
Ready to roll out?
Expand from one champion to shared BD workflows across your firm.