How to set up your first CRM
No need to overthink it
If you’re a founder managing your deals in a spreadsheet or a project management tool like Notion, moving over to a “proper” CRM like HubSpot or PipeDrive can seem a) daunting and b) overkill. However, the longer you wait to make the move, the more likely you’ll miss key gaps in your active deals and the harder you’ll find onboarding your first salesperson.
In this issue I walk through the basics of setting your first CRM and cover the following topics:
How to create appropriate deal stages for your business
How to capture the right information at each deal stage
How to migrate your existing deals into your CRM
How to manage your deals in your CRM
How to create appropriate deal stages for your business
Most CRMs come with a default set of deal stages however they rarely map to what you actually need to run your business. You’ll need to create your own.
It’s easy to overthink it and create too many stages, which just cause confusion and end up not being used, so it’s better to start off creating as few stages as possible. You can always add more later.
Here are some examples: