The Kith blog

Relationship intelligence, client health, and AI-native CRM.

Practical writing for consultancies, systems integrators and technology partners who grow by knowing their clients better than anyone else.

Buyer's guide

CRM buyer's guide for consultancies (2026)

A practical guide to choosing a CRM for a consultancy — how transactional CRMs and relationship intelligence platforms compare, and what to insist on in your evaluation.

9 min read
Playbook

Partner intelligence: tracking co-sell relationships that matter

Technology partners are the second most important relationship graph in a services firm — and the least well managed. Here's what partner intelligence looks like when it works.

6 min read
Foundations

CRM for consultancies: why the generic ones don't fit

Salesforce and HubSpot were built for transactional sales. Consultancies buy them and hate them for the same six reasons. Here's what a CRM for a consultancy actually needs to do.

7 min read
AI

How AI is finally fixing CRM data hygiene

CRM data has been dirty for thirty years for one reason — humans had to type it. AI changes the economics. Here's how, and where it still needs supervision.

6 min read
Foundations

AI CRM: what it actually does in 2026

Every CRM now claims to be an AI CRM. Here's a plain-English look at what those tools genuinely automate today, what they don't, and how to tell the two apart.

7 min read
Playbook

The customer health dashboard: what to put on it

A field-tested layout for a customer health dashboard — the four zones, the metrics, and the anti-patterns that make executives ignore the page.

6 min read
Playbook

A customer health score template (with the formula)

A copy-and-adapt customer health score template — the five components, the weights, the formulas, and the sensible defaults that survive contact with real accounts.

6 min read
Foundations

Customer health score: a complete guide

What a customer health score is, why the naive versions fail, and how to design one that actually predicts churn and expansion in a services business.

8 min read
Playbook

Mapping executive relationships to close bigger deals

How to build a working map of executive relationships across your firm — and use it to shorten sales cycles, protect renewals and surface warm paths into new logos.

7 min read
Buyer's guide

Choosing relationship mapping software for business development

A buyer's checklist for relationship mapping tools — what to look for, what to ignore, and how to tell demo-ware from software that actually changes how deals close.

7 min read
Playbook

How to enrich your CRM with board and executive relationship data

Board and C-suite relationships are the ones that actually close deals — and the ones your CRM knows least about. Here's a practical way to close the gap.

6 min read
Foundations

Relationship intelligence vs traditional CRM

Traditional CRMs record activity after the fact. Relationship intelligence infers the truth from the conversations themselves. Here's what changes.

7 min read
Foundations

What is a relationship intelligence platform?

A plain-English guide to relationship intelligence platforms — what they do, how they differ from a CRM, and when a services firm actually needs one.

6 min read