Notion CRM Template — Build Yours in 20 Minutes

Don't pay for Pipedrive on day 1. Build this Notion CRM, use it for the first 6 months, and only upgrade when something is genuinely broken.

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Setup#

1. Go to notion.so, sign up free
2. Create a new page called "Web Design Outreach CRM"
3. Inside it, create the four databases below
4. Set up the views as described
5. Done

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Database 1 — Prospects#

The main one. Every business you might call goes here.

Properties#

Property name	Type	Required	Notes
Business Name	Title	Yes	The display name
Owner First	Text	Yes	"Sarah", or "—" if unknown
Owner Last	Text	No	Helps for personalization
Phone	Phone	Yes	Primary number to call
Email	Email	No	If you have it
Website	URL	No	Their existing site if any
GBP Link	URL	No	Their Google Business Profile
Vertical	Select	Yes	Restaurant / HVAC / Dental / etc.
City	Text	Yes
State	Select	Yes	Two-letter code
Why Qualified	Text	Yes	"364 reviews, no website"
Stage	Select	Yes	(see options below)
Tier Interest	Select	No	Starter / Growth / Pro / TBD
Source	Select	Yes	Maps / Referral / Walk-by / etc.
Next Action	Text	Yes	"Call back Thurs 11am"
Next Action Date	Date	Yes
Last Touch	Text	No	"VM + SMS sent demo"
Last Touch Date	Date	No
Notes	Long text	No	Anything personal
Date Added	Created time	Auto

Stage options (Select)#

1. Cold — added to list, no contact yet
2. Contacted — at least one call/email out, no response
3. Engaged — they've replied or asked something
4. Demo Sent — link is in their hands
5. Discovery Booked — call on calendar
6. Proposed — pricing discussed, considering
7. Won — paying client (move to "Clients" database)
8. Lost — explicit no, archive
9. DNC — Do not contact (archive, never re-touch)

Vertical options (Select)#

• Restaurant
• HVAC / Plumbing / Electrical
• Auto Repair
• Dental / Medical / Vet
• Legal
• Salon / Barbershop
• Med Spa
• Fitness Studio
• Real Estate
• Other (note in the notes)

Source options (Select)#

• Google Maps
• Referral (link to who referred)
• Walk-by
• Facebook Group
• Inbound (someone Googled you)
• LinkedIn
• Other

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Views for the Prospects database#

Set up these views so the CRM works for you:

View 1: "Today" (default)#

• Filter: Next Action Date is on or before today AND Stage is not Won/Lost/DNC
• Sort: Next Action Date ascending
• Show: Business Name, Owner First, Phone, Stage, Next Action

This is the only view you need most days.

View 2: "All active"#

• Filter: Stage is not Lost or DNC
• Sort: Last Touch Date descending

View 3: "Cold list" (for batch outreach)#

• Filter: Stage = Cold
• Sort: Date Added descending
• Show: Business Name, Phone, Why Qualified

When you've got an hour to dial, work this list top-to-bottom.

View 4: "Booked calls"#

• Filter: Stage = Discovery Booked
• Sort: Next Action Date ascending
• Show: Business Name, Owner First, Next Action Date, Vertical, Notes

Pre-call prep view.

View 5: "Pipeline"#

• Filter: Stage in [Engaged, Demo Sent, Discovery Booked, Proposed]
• Group by: Stage
• Show: Business Name, Tier Interest, Last Touch Date

Weekly review view — what's actually moving.

View 6: "Lost" (lessons learned)#

• Filter: Stage = Lost
• Sort: Last Touch Date descending
• Show: Business Name, Notes

Once a month, review this list. Patterns will emerge.

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Database 2 — Clients#

Active paying clients live here, not in Prospects. Different lifecycle, different needs.

Properties#

Property name	Type	Notes
Business Name	Title
Owner First	Text
Phone	Phone
Email	Email
Domain	URL	Their live site
Vertical	Select	(same options as Prospects)
Tier	Select	Starter / Growth / Pro
MRR	Number	$97 / $197 / $397
Status	Select	Onboarding / Active / At Risk / Cancelled
Stripe Customer ID	Text	Link to Stripe
Signed Date	Date
Live Date	Date
Tenure (months)	Formula	dateBetween(now(), prop("Signed Date"), "months")
Last Report Sent	Date
Last Touch	Text
Last Touch Date	Date
Renewal Risk	Select	Low / Medium / High
Notes	Long text	Personal stuff, family, history
Referrals Made	Number	Count of who they've referred

Views#

View 1: "All clients"#

• Sort: Tenure descending
• Show: Business Name, Tier, MRR, Status, Last Report Sent

View 2: "Need monthly report"#

• Filter: Last Report Sent < first day of current month
• Show: Business Name, Tier, Email

Once a month, work this view. Send the report from doc 12.

View 3: "At risk"#

• Filter: Renewal Risk = High OR Last Touch Date > 30 days ago
• Show: Business Name, Last Touch Date, Notes

These need a personal call this week.

View 4: "Total MRR"#

At the top of the Clients database, add a calculation: Sum of MRR. This is your business in one number.

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Database 3 — Tasks (optional)#

For things that aren't tied to a specific prospect or client:

Property	Type	Notes
Task	Title
Status	Select	To do / In progress / Done
Priority	Select	Now / This week / This month / Someday
Due	Date
Related	Relation	Link to a Prospect or Client if applicable

Use sparingly. The CRM is the main system. Tasks are for "set up new tax account" or "research GBP API integration."

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Database 4 — Weekly Tally#

Track your numbers consistently. The numbers don't lie.

Properties#

Property	Type
Week Starting	Date (the Monday)
Dials	Number
Connects	Number
Demos Sent	Number
Calls Booked	Number
Calls Held	Number
Closed	Number
New MRR Added	Number
Notes	Long text

View#

• Sort: Week Starting descending
• Show all properties

Friday afternoon, log the week. Takes 2 minutes. Compounds into compounding insight over months.

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Templates (Notion magic)#

Notion lets you create page templates inside a database. Set these up:

Template 1: New Prospect (in Prospects DB)#

• Pre-fills: Stage = Cold, Source = (default), Date Added = today
• Body: "Notes" callout block with prompts:
  • First impression of their online presence:
  • Specific reason to call:
  • Best time to try them:

Template 2: Discovery Call (in Prospects DB, for stage = Discovery Booked)#

• Body: structured note-taking template:
  • Date / Time of call
  • Decision maker present? Y/N
  • Their #1 pain:
  • Why now?
  • Tier discussed:
  • Next step agreed:
  • Sent followup: Y/N

Template 3: New Client (in Clients DB)#

• Pre-fills: Status = Onboarding, Signed Date = today
• Body: 7-day onboarding checklist (paste from doc 6)

Template 4: Monthly Report Sent (in Clients DB)#

• Body: paste of the relevant report template from doc 12, ready to fill in

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Tips and gotchas#

Use Notion on your phone#

Notion has a great mobile app. Log calls right after them while they're fresh. Update Stage as soon as you know it changed.

Keep notes ruthlessly#

Future-you will thank present-you. The little detail ("his daughter is at U of Michigan") becomes the warm reopener six months later.

Don't over-engineer#

You'll be tempted to add 14 more properties. Don't. The CRM is for moving prospects through stages, not for building a feature-complete database. If a property hasn't been used in 30 days, delete it.

Daily ritual: 5 minutes morning, 5 minutes evening#

• Morning: Open "Today" view. Plan your dialing block.
• Evening: Update Last Touch on every prospect you contacted. Re-set Next Action Date.

This is the ritual that separates people who use a CRM from people who own one and never touch it.

Weekly ritual: 30 minutes Friday#

• Update the Weekly Tally
• Review "Pipeline" view: anyone stuck?
• Review "Lost" view: any patterns?
• Plan next week's prospect-add target

Monthly ritual: 1 hour first weekend of the month#

• Prune CRM: archive lost > 90 days
• Run the "Need monthly report" view, send all reports
• Review MRR vs. last month
• Add new prospects to bring cold list back to 50+

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When to graduate to a real CRM#

You'll know it's time when:

• You have >100 active prospects
• You're spending >30 min/day in the CRM (vs ~10 min target)
• You need email tracking (open rates, link clicks) auto-synced
• You want automated sequences

At that point, look at:

• Pipedrive — best-in-class for outbound sales
• Folk — prettier, better for relationship-driven sales
• Close — built for high-volume calling, includes a phone

Migrate the data once, use the CRM for everything going forward.

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A working Notion CRM URL (template share)#

Once you've built it, save it as a template (Notion supports this) so you can:

• Duplicate it for someone you're training
• Reset and start fresh if you want to
• Share the framework with a partner / employee later

You can also publish it as a public template (notion.so/templates) for SEO + lead gen — "Free Web Design Agency CRM Template" gets searches and brings you inbound interest. Worth doing once you have a year of refinement on it.

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Why Notion (vs. Airtable, Coda, etc.)#

• Faster to set up than alternatives
• Free tier is generous (unlimited databases, unlimited rows)
• Mobile app is solid
• You can host docs and CRM in one place — your business kit, contracts, and prospect list all in the same workspace
• Easy to share with future team members

Airtable is more powerful but feels like spreadsheets. Coda is more flexible but harder to learn. Notion hits the sweet spot for solo agencies.

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Quick-start summary#

1. Open Notion (free)
2. Create a new page called "Web Design Outreach CRM"
3. Add an empty database, name it "Prospects"
4. Add the properties from the table above
5. Add the views
6. Repeat for Clients and Weekly Tally
7. Add 5 sample prospects to test
8. Use it tomorrow

That's it. 20 minutes to a working CRM that scales to ~$10K MRR before you outgrow it.