Notes for owners · CRM, automation and RevOps
A simple CRM or sheet for a small trade business: what to record on every enquiry
Eight columns are enough to find lost money in a small trade. This post gives the layout, how to fill it and when to move from a sheet to a CRM.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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A small trade business needs eight columns, not a software suite. For every enquiry, record the date, source, name and number, the need, the visit date, the quote, the next action, and the result with its reason. That is enough to see where enquiries come from and where the money is lost.
Why start with a sheet rather than a CRM?
Because the habit matters more than the tool. A CRM nobody updates is worse than a sheet everyone does. A small trade often has an owner who takes calls, a technician in the field and a person in the office who sends quotes. Three people, perhaps fifteen live enquiries.
A shared sheet on a phone or laptop handles that. It costs nothing, needs no training and can be moved into a CRM later. The point is to know, at any moment, which enquiries are open and who must do what next.
Our post on whether a small business really needs a CRM or Excel covers the choice in general. This one is about what to put in the rows.
What are the eight columns?
| Column | What goes in it | Why it earns its place |
|---|---|---|
| Date | When the enquiry arrived | Shows how long it has waited |
| Source | Google, referral, board, dealer, repeat, ad | Tells you which channel pays |
| Name and number | As given | You can call back |
| Need | The job in the buyer's words | Lets you spot patterns |
| Visit date | When you went, or "none" | Shows who never got a visit |
| Quote sent | Date and amount | Shows who is waiting on you |
| Next action and date | One line, one date | Stops enquiries going cold |
| Result and reason | Won, lost, or open; plus why | Shows where money leaks |
Keep the fields short. "Need" can be five words. "Reason" can be a pick from a list you agree on: price, timing, went elsewhere, no response, not ready, wrong fit.
Use a drop-down for source and result so the spelling stays the same. If you let people type "Google", "google" and "Goggle", you will not be able to count them.
One filled row might read: "3 March | builder office | Mr Joshi, 98xxxxxxxx | smart locks, 40 flats | visited 6 March | quote sent 8 March | ring on 11 March | open". Anyone in the office can read it and know what to do.
How do you fill it on a busy day?
Fill it when the call ends. If you are on a site, send the details to the office by message and let one person enter them. Do not promise yourself you will do it in the evening.
Three habits make the sheet usable.
Every row has a next action with a date. If the next action is blank, the row is dead or forgotten. Sort by that column each morning and work from the top.
Every quote has a date. A quote sent and not followed up is an easy leak to miss. A follow-up after the quote date, recorded in the sheet, costs only a call.
Every closed row has a reason. Even a vague one. "Went elsewhere, said ours was dearer" is better than blank.
What can the sheet tell you after a few weeks?
Once you have some weeks of rows, count three things.
First, enquiries by source. If most calls come from a board outside your shop and almost none from your paid listing, that tells you where to look first.
Second, the gap between stages. How many enquiries got a visit? How many visits got a quote? How many quotes were won? The stage where most are lost is where to work first. If it is the step from enquiry to visit, the cause may be slow response, not high price.
Third, reasons for loss. If "no response from us" appears often, the problem is process, not marketing.
Do not read too much into small numbers. Twenty rows will not give a conversion rate you can rely on, but they may show a pattern you can test.
For example, a home automation installer in Nashik
Take an invented installer in Nashik who fits smart switches and door locks in new flats. The installer believes the business is busy but short of money, and the enquiries live in a phone's call log, WhatsApp chats and two notebooks.
The first fortnight with the sheet is uncomfortable. The rows show that many enquiries from builders' sales offices never got a visit, because the calls came while the installer was on site and nobody rang back. Quotes sent to individual flat owners had no follow-up date either.
A part-time office helper now enters every missed call with a next action to ring back, and each quote row gets a follow-up date three days later. The source column is split into "builder office" and "flat owner", so it is possible to see which pays better. After a month, the builders' offices prove to pay slowly, and the sheet also shows that the helper's hours cost more than the two extra jobs recovered. The installer decides to keep the sheet and cut the helper's hours to the mornings.
Ads and prices stay as they were; the change is that fewer enquiries already in hand are lost.
When should you move to a CRM?
A sheet starts to strain at certain points. Move when:
- Two or more people update at the same time and overwrite each other.
- Follow-ups are slipping, and you need reminders sent for you.
- You want to send the same WhatsApp message to many people and track replies.
- You need to see a customer's whole history, including past jobs and payments.
Before you buy, write down the eight columns and the stages of your own process. Any tool you choose must show them without extra work. If it adds forty fields you will not fill, you have bought a form, not a CRM.
And do not move at all if the sheet works. Plenty of small trades run well on one. If it no longer works, CRM consulting and selection is the related service.
Start with the next enquiry
Set up the sheet today, share it with the people who take calls, and fill it from the next enquiry. After a few weeks, sit with it for an hour and read the reasons for loss. Niche trades are covered under specialist and other industries. If you want a hand with the layout, the stages and the habit, tell us what you need.
