The no-nonsense CRM guide for small businesses
How a small team should choose and set up a CRM in a weekend: what to track, what to ignore, and how to avoid the bloat that makes big-company CRMs a chore.
Most CRM advice is written for companies with a sales operations team. If that's not you, here's the version that fits in a weekend.
Track three things, not thirty
Who they are, where they are in your process, and when you last spoke. That's a working CRM. You can add fields later; you can't recover the months you spent filling in fields nobody reads.
Import from where you already are
Your CRM starts as a spreadsheet and an inbox. A clean CSV import and connected email gets you 80% of the value on day one.
Automate the follow-up you keep forgetting
The single highest-return automation for a small team is a nudge when a lead goes quiet. One flow, one exit condition, and you stop losing deals to your own busyness. (See workflows worth stealing.)
Grow into marketing when you're ready
When the CRM already holds your contacts, adding email campaigns is a step, not a migration — no second tool, no sync. That's the quiet advantage of starting on a platform that does both.