I’m trying to find a good CRM for my type of business. I own a service-based B2B company where I’m a vendor for apartment communities, so a lot of my sales/outreach is done in person.

Right now I’m using Notion, basically set up like Excel/Google Sheets. It works, but it’s almost entirely manual. It’s just me and my secretary using it.

I do a lot of follow-ups through in-person visits, phone calls, and emails. I understand I’ll probably still have to manually enter some information, but I’d like a CRM that can automate or assist with things like follow-up reminders, tracking contacts, sales stages, notes, tasks, etc., rather than having everything written down and managed manually.

What CRM would you recommend for a small B2B service business with a heavy emphasis on in-person sales and follow-up?

When looking at a pipeline, the deal stage doesn't always tell you enough.

Two deals can both be in the same stage, but one might be moving normally while the other has been sitting there for too long.

So I added a simple Deal Health check based on the expected date.

The idea is to make it easier to spot:

→ Deals that are on track

→ Deals getting close to their expected date

→ Deals that are late

→ Deals that are already done

It's a small feature, but I think these little visual cues make a deal tracker much easier to scan

curious what's one thing you think a deal tracker should flag automatically?

Its free if anyone wants it

Trabalho com CRM e vejo esse erro em praticamente todo report que passa numa

reunião. Vale compartilhar porque é simples de reconhecer depois que alguém aponta.

O caso típico: base de 200 mil, 180 mil têm e-mail válido e recebem a campanha, 20 mil ficam de fora porque o cadastro está incompleto. No fim do período: recebeu a campanha: 1.620 compras em 180.000 = 0,90% não recebeu: 60 compras em 20.000 = 0,30% 

"A campanha triplicou a conversão." Ninguém questiona, porque o número é grande.

O problema é que quem não recebeu, não recebeu por um motivo, e esse motivo tem

relação direta com propensão de compra. Cadastro incompleto anda junto com menor

vínculo com a marca. Esses dois grupos já eram diferentes antes de qualquer envio.

Quando se sorteia 10% da base ANTES do disparo, o grupo de fora converte a 0,75%,

porque é feito da mesma gente. Aí o lift real aparece: 20%, não 200%. A campanha

funcionou, mas o report exagerou dez vezes, e foi sobre esse número inflado que a

empresa decidiu aumentar o investimento.

O teste de dez segundos que resolve a maioria dos casos: "existe alguma razão para

esse grupo comprar mais ou menos que o outro, independentemente da campanha?" Se

a resposta for sim, não é grupo de controle. Se você precisar pensar muito para

responder, também não é.

Os falsos controles mais comuns, todos parecem legítimos: quem não tem e-mail

válido, quem deu opt-out, quem não abriu a mensagem, quem ficou fora do segmento,

quem teve falha de entrega, e o mesmo período do ano anterior.

This is a monthly megathread where you can all clamour for CRM attention without being banned for spamming this forum. Share your CRM, or consultancy service to your hearts content, (just keep your dignity!) The idea here is to keep the rest of r_crm less spammy, so don't be surprised if your regurgitated chatGPT output and link don't ever get approved elsewhere on this sub.

-----

When replying, please use the following format:

Put [ASK] at the start of your comment if you're asking/looking for something.

... we'll assume the rest are people recommending without being asked :D

As always, please disclose your relation to what you're posting.

I built a Notion CRM for small agencies and consultants, with separate databases for companies, contacts, and deals.

I decided to make the Deal Tracker part available for free on its own.

It lets you manage individual deals, track their stage and value, connect them to a company/contact, set follow-up dates and reminders, and keep Won/Lost deals organized.

I also included an example version so you can explore the workflow without changing your own data.

If you want to see how the full CRM connects everything together, I've included a link to it as well.

I’m 24 and graduated in 2025 with a Psychology degree. I’m currently trying to transition into marketing, and I’ve become particularly interested in CRM, lifecycle marketing, email marketing, and marketing automation.
What attracts me to this area is the combination of psychology/customer behaviour, communication, technology, analytics, experimentation, and understanding what actually drives customers to take action.
I’ve been looking at entry-level and junior roles, and I’ve noticed that many of the positions I’m interested in seem to focus heavily on practical skills and experience rather than requiring a specific marketing degree.
I’m considering spending the next 6 months seriously building my skills before trying to make the transition.
My current learning plan includes:
CRM and lifecycle marketing fundamentals
Email marketing strategy
Customer segmentation
Customer journeys
Marketing automation
HubSpot and/or Klaviyo
Email copywriting
Excel/Google Sheets
Basic SQL
Marketing analytics
A/B testing and experimentation
Campaign reporting and performance analysis
My goal isn’t to become an expert in six months. I want to become competent enough to understand how the work is actually done, build a few relevant projects, and eventually be competitive for a junior CRM/lifecycle/email marketing role.
For people currently working in CRM, lifecycle, retention, or email marketing:
If you were starting over with a Psychology degree and no professional marketing experience, what would you prioritize learning during your first 6 months?
Are there any skills/tools that you think aspiring CRM/lifecycle marketers spend too much time learning, or anything that beginners commonly overlook?
And realistically, how difficult is it to get that first CRM/lifecycle marketing job without a marketing degree?
I’d really appreciate advice from people who actually work in this area.

Most field-service CRMs treat every technician like a permanent software user.

I never liked that model.

A tech may only need access to one job, one customer, for one period of time. Why should that require giving them a permanent account with ongoing access to the company's CRM?

So with Chameleon-CRM, I built it differently.

When a job is dispatched, the technician can receive a secure Magic Link and access PIN by email.

That gives them access to their technician workspace where they can see what they actually need for the job — customer/job information, dispatch details, photos, notes, status controls, and the tools needed to complete the work.

They don't need a traditional CRM username/password.

And the important part:

When the job is over, the business can revoke that access.

The workflow becomes:

Create job → Dispatch tech → Send temporary access → Tech completes work → Revoke access

The technician's ability to work in the field doesn't mean they need permanent access to the company's entire business system.

I also deliberately separated this from employee/time-clock access. If someone is actually an employee who needs payroll and time tracking, they're managed accordingly. Being dispatched to a job doesn't automatically make someone a permanent internal CRM user.

This has turned into one of my favorite parts of building Chameleon-CRM because it changed the question from:

"What role should this user have?"

to:

"What does this person need access to right now?"

That's a much more interesting way to think about fieldservice software.

I'm curious what other people running service businesses think about this approach.

Would you rather give every field tech a permanent CRM account, or give them access only when there's actually work assigned to them?