How to Use a CRM: A Simple Guide for Small Teams

A CRM doesn’t need to be complicated to be useful.

At its core, a CRM exists to help you remember people, track conversations, and follow up at the right time. When used well, it quietly supports your work in the background. When overbuilt, it tends to become… a very impressive place no one wants to log into.

So let’s bring it back.

What a CRM is actually for

A CRM helps you answer a few simple questions:

• Who am I talking to?
• What have we talked about already?
• What’s supposed to happen next?

That’s it.

If your CRM can answer those three things clearly, it’s doing its job.

The basic pieces of a CRM

Most CRMs — regardless of platform — are built around the same core elements:

• People and companies
  Who you’re working with, selling to, or supporting.
• Conversations and activity
  Calls, emails, meetings, notes — anything that helps you remember context.
• Opportunities or deals
  What’s in progress, what’s coming up, and what’s been completed.
• Next steps
  Follow-ups, reminders, or tasks that keep things moving.

You don’t need dozens of fields or complex automation to get value from these. Clear, consistent information beats clever setup every time.

How to actually use a CRM day to day

A simple rhythm works best:

1. Capture new people and conversations early
   Add contacts when they first appear, not “later when things slow down.”
2. Leave short notes after interactions
   A few bullet points are enough. Future-you will appreciate the reminder.
3. Always record a next step
   Even if it’s just “check in next week.”
4. Review your CRM regularly
   A quick daily or weekly check-in keeps things current and useful.

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s consistency.

Where many teams start to overthink things

This is usually where things drift:

• building automation before habits exist
• adding fields “just in case”
• optimizing reports no one checks yet

A CRM works best when it reflects how you already work — not how you think you might work someday.

There’s plenty of time for advanced features later.

Using Notion as a CRM starting point

For solopreneurs, freelancers, and small teams, Notion can be a natural place to start.

If your notes, projects, and documentation already live there, keeping CRM information in the same workspace helps everything stay connected. And for teams using Notion AI, having customer and project information together means AI can work with real business context — not isolated records.

It also makes customization straightforward, since the system can adapt as your needs change.

A simple example: CRMW

To make this easier, I built CRMW — a simple CRM template that lives in Notion.

CRMW is designed to support the basics:

• people and companies
• deals and follow-ups
• a clear daily view of what needs attention

It’s intentionally simple, easy to customize, and designed to support good CRM habits from the start.

CRMW is currently available:

• free of charge on the Notion Marketplace, or
• with a pay-what-you-want option on Gumroad

If you’d like to see a practical example of everything described above, you can explore CRMW here:

👉CRMW Website

Start simple. Stay consistent.

A CRM doesn’t need to be impressive to be effective.

Start with the basics. Keep it usable. Let it grow with you.

That approach tends to age well.