About Learning Planet Institute
Learning Planet Institute is a Paris-based nonprofit research and education organization founded in 2006. It operates at the intersection of higher education, UNESCO partnerships, and international research networks, co-awarding diplomas with French universities, running programs at the doctoral and master's level, and coordinating a global network of institutions focused on educational transformation and sustainable development. As a Category 2 UNESCO Center and the French Pole of the United Nations University, the Institute can deliver certified training under the UN's sustainability objectives. With 60 staff and a 10 million euro annual budget, the Institute is both an academic institution and a think tank.
The Challenge
The Institute had several distinct CRM-related needs across its activities: student and researcher recruitment, partner and alumni network management, and commercial sales of open-source educational tools and consulting services. Only the fundraising function had any tooling in place, running on Salesforce for a three-person team.
The CIO, who also managed the Institute's software sales activity as part of his role, was spending 10% of his time on commercial activities that generated several hundred thousand euros per year, with no CRM and no outreach infrastructure. Everything ran through personal contacts, conference relationships, and email. The total addressable market, higher education institutions across Europe and internationally that might adopt the Institute's digital tools, was large but untouched beyond personal networks.
The goal was to run a pilot: configure Attio for the software sales pipeline, demonstrate that it could outperform Salesforce on usability and AI capability for a fraction of the cost, and then expand to other use cases across the Institute if the pilot succeeded.
Our Approach
Novlini delivered the pilot as a two-day engagement focused on Attio configuration for the software sales motion, with lead generation strategy and Clay integration scoped for a subsequent phase.
Pipeline Configuration
The Attio workspace was set up for a high-touch, enterprise sales motion targeting CTOs, CIOs, and pedagogical directors at universities and schools across France and internationally. Stage logic was designed around the Institute's actual sales process, which runs through conference relationships, email outreach, and multi-meeting cycles rather than high-volume prospecting.
The data model was kept deliberately lean: a clean company and people structure with relevant attributes for the education sector, a single deal pipeline, and views that surface the right records without noise. The CIO needed a system he could use in 10% of his time, not one that required a dedicated operator.
Claude MCP Integration
Claude was connected to Attio via MCP to help the team interact with the CRM in natural language: drafting personalized outreach emails with context from deal records, querying the pipeline, and surfacing follow-up actions without switching between tools.
Lead Generation Roadmap
Clay and Lemlist were evaluated and scoped for a Phase 2 outbound stack. The Institute's positioning, as a nonprofit with UNESCO and UN University affiliations and active researchers, creates a differentiated credibility advantage that standard mass outreach would undermine. The recommended approach was targeted, low-volume campaigns with high personalization, starting with LinkedIn and email in sequence across a defined list of European higher education institutions.
Technology Stack
Attio - CRM, software sales pipeline (source of truth)
Claude MCP - natural language CRM querying, outreach drafting
The Results
Learning Planet Institute went from no CRM for software sales to a clean, AI-connected Attio workspace ready to support the pilot.
Pipeline live and usable - the CIO can manage the full software sales cycle in Attio without dedicated CRM support
Claude MCP connected - outreach emails drafted with deal context in French or English, pipeline queries answered in natural language
Proof of concept established - the pilot demonstrated Attio's usability and AI capability advantage versus Salesforce for the Institute's use cases
Outbound roadmap designed - Phase 2 scope defined for a Clay and Lemlist outreach stack aligned with the Institute's credibility-first positioning
Expansion path clear - other Institute use cases, including researcher recruitment and partner management, identified for future Attio rollout
"Novlini was recommended by Attio. They have a deep product expertise, are quite flexible and agile and really try to adapt to our processes. Recommended."
Eric C. - Learning Planet Institute ★★★★★
Why It Matters
For a nonprofit institution with genuine credibility in the education and research space, the risk of a poorly calibrated outbound approach is not just low conversion. It is reputational. The right CRM for Learning Planet Institute is one that helps a small team manage high-value relationships carefully, with AI that reduces manual effort without increasing volume. That is what the pilot delivered, and what the Phase 2 outbound strategy was designed to preserve.