Keep pipeline stages few
The more stages a tiny team has, the more likely they stop updating it. Start with new, contacted, quoted, waiting, won, and lost.
- New
- Contacted
- Quoted
- Waiting
- Won/Lost
CRM / Sales Ops
Lightweight CRM for small businesses: do not buy sales software before follow-up discipline exists
CRM only matters when the team follows up consistently. For small shops and SMEs, a simple pipeline, reminders, contact history, and lead reports are enough to start.
6 min readReminders matter more than a pretty screen
A small CRM should remind the team who to call, when to follow up, and what the customer is waiting for. Without reminders, the data is just decoration.
- Follow-up date
- Owner
- Last contact
- Next promise
Integrate gradually
When website leads become steady, forms can write to a sheet or base, send notifications, create tasks, and summarize lead sources.
- Website form
- Sheet/Base
- Task reminder
- Lead source report