If you're in revenue operations and tired of chasing down numbers, updating spreadsheets, or pinging sales reps for pipeline updates, you're not alone. Everyone wants cleaner, real-time reporting—few have it. This guide is for RevOps folks who want to cut the noise and actually use Troops to build reporting workflows that save time and surface what matters.
We'll skip the marketing fluff and get into what works, what doesn’t, and how to avoid building something nobody uses.
Why Troops? (And When It’s Not Enough)
Troops is a tool that connects Salesforce (or HubSpot) to Slack or Teams, automating updates and alerts. It’s great for surfacing CRM data where your team actually lives—in chat. If your reps live in Slack but reports live in Salesforce dashboards nobody checks, Troops bridges that gap.
But let’s be real: Troops isn’t a full BI solution. It won’t replace Tableau or Looker for deep analysis, and it won’t fix messy CRM data. It's best for operational, “what’s happening right now?” reporting and nudging users to take action.
If your data is a mess, fix that first. Troops can automate chaos, but it won’t clean it up.
Step 1: Get Crystal Clear on Your Reporting Needs
Before you dive into building, stop and ask: What’s the real problem you’re trying to solve? Advanced reporting for the sake of it wastes everyone’s time.
Think about: - Where are you losing visibility? (e.g., stuck deals, missing next steps, unlogged calls) - Who needs to see what, and how often? (Daily, weekly, only on big changes?) - What actually drives action? (Not every metric matters in real time.)
Pro tip: Talk to the end users—sales managers, reps, CS, finance—and ask what data they wish they had, not just what you think they want.
Write these out. Keep the list short. If you’re building 10+ alerts, you’re probably overdoing it.
Step 2: Map Out Your Data Sources and Triggers
Troops connects primarily to Salesforce and HubSpot. You’ll need admin rights to set up most workflows.
Decide: - Which objects matter? (Opportunities, Accounts, Activities) - What fields/changes are important? (Stage changes, close date pushed, deal value increased) - What’s the trigger? (Field update, new record, lack of activity)
Skip anything “nice to have.” Focus on high-impact triggers that actually mean something’s changed.
Common triggers that work well: - Opportunity stage moves to “Commit” or “Closed Lost” - Owner changes on big accounts - No activity on deals over 14 days - Next step field is blank in late-stage deals
Step 3: Design Your Troops Reports and Alerts
Troops calls these “Workflows”—each one monitors for a condition and sends messages to Slack, Teams, or email.
A. Build Actionable Alerts
Good alerts are specific, actionable, and not too frequent. Bad alerts are vague, noisy, or ignored after a week.
Examples of valuable alerts: - “Deal over $50K hasn’t been updated in 10 days. Ping the owner and their manager.” - “New opportunity created in EMEA over $100K—flag finance for approval.” - “Next step is blank on a deal in stage Negotiation—remind rep to update.”
What to avoid: - Spamming every little change (“Contact added,” “Stage changed from 2 to 3,” etc.) - Sending alerts to everyone instead of the right person or channel - Flooding Slack with updates during end-of-quarter chaos
B. Use Scheduled Reports for Trends
Set up scheduled summaries—think “pipeline snapshots every Monday” or “list of deals closing this week.” These help leadership and the team see trends without digging in Salesforce.
Pro tip: Don’t just copy your Salesforce dashboards. Focus on what changes week-to-week, not static stats.
Step 4: Build and Test Your First Workflow
Let’s get practical. Here’s the usual flow for building something useful in Troops:
- Log into Troops and connect your CRM. Make sure you have the right permissions.
- Create a new Workflow. Choose your trigger: field change, new record, missing activity, etc.
- Set up your filter. For example, “Opportunities where Stage = ‘Negotiation’ AND Next Steps is blank.”
- Choose your action. Send a direct message to the owner, post in a team channel, or both.
- Customize the message. Use dynamic fields—“Hey [Owner Name], your deal with [Account Name] needs a next step.”
- Test with a small group. Don’t blast company-wide until you know it works.
- Adjust timing and frequency. Daily, weekly, or only once per trigger—pick what won’t annoy people.
Common pitfalls: - Forgetting to test with real users (not just yourself) - Over-customizing messages until they’re unreadable - Ignoring feedback after rollout
Step 5: Layer On Approvals and Multi-Step Workflows
For more advanced needs, Troops supports multi-step workflows and simple approvals. This is handy for things like big deal reviews, discount approvals, or handoffs.
How to set it up: - Trigger: “Opportunity > $100K moves to stage ‘Proposal’” - Action 1: DM sales manager for approval, with buttons (Approve/Reject) - Action 2: If approved, notify finance/channel. If rejected, ping the rep with feedback.
Reality check: Don’t try to automate every manual process. People will still want context, and complex approval chains can slow things down if overdone.
Step 6: Monitor, Tweak, and Ruthlessly Prune
The first version of your workflow won’t be perfect. Watch what gets used, what gets ignored, and what annoys people.
- Check message stats: Are people clicking links? Are alerts being acknowledged?
- Ask for real feedback: “Does this help or just add noise?”
- Kill or consolidate workflows that flop. Less is more. If nobody misses it when you turn it off, it wasn’t needed.
Pro tip: Revisit your workflows every quarter. Sales cycles and team habits change.
Step 7: What to Ignore (For Now)
You’ll see a lot of features and integrations in Troops. Honestly, not all of them are worth your time out of the gate.
- Don’t try to automate every Slack message. Some things are better handled in 1:1s.
- Skip deep analytics or forecasting—Troops isn’t built for that.
- Don’t get sucked into endless formatting tweaks. Clear beats clever.
Focus on solving real pain points. If nobody would notice if a workflow disappeared, it probably shouldn’t exist.
Keep It Simple, Iterate Fast
The best reporting workflows in Troops aren’t the fanciest—they’re the ones people actually use. Start with the biggest pain points, build simple alerts and reports, and pay close attention to what’s actually helpful versus what gets ignored. Don’t be afraid to kill off stuff that doesn’t work.
Remember: most teams don’t need more reporting—they need the right data in the right place, at the right time. Keep things simple, iterate often, and you’ll save hours (and sanity) for everyone involved.