How to Build Your Own CRM With Nocode Tools

A good CRM system will let you keep track of all your sales and help you automate some of your processes, without being messy or complicated. Sometimes when you're just starting out, you can get by with building your own CRM without any coding by gluing together popular nocode tools like Airtable, Notion Google Sheets Typeform, SavvyCal and Calendly. In this guide I'll walk you through some of the ways in which you can create your own simple CRM system to keep track of sales.

Airtable

Airtable is a powerful tool that let's you create databases of information which can be used in different kinds of views. This makes it especially suitable for creating a CRM since it allows you to create rich tabular data than can be viewed in a kanban.

After creating a new base, setup your columns with the information you want to store. I recommend having Company or name of the contact as the first column as this will also be the default name showed in your kanban.

To create a kanban view you need at least one of your columns to be the grouping field. This can be done by using a "Single select" field and is the attribute that will divide your board into columns and should be your different pipeline stages such as Inbox, In-progress and Deal.

When you've setup your columns you can create a kanban view by clicking Create > Kanban in the sidebar.

Airtable also offer a premade CRM template which you can use and customize yourself.

Google Sheets

Similar to Airtable, Google Sheets is a great option as your first CRM. It's easy to use and you can set it up in the same way as Airtable (except the kanban view). You can also use Data validation to create pipeline stages which also adds a dropdown to your fields. This way you can also enforce some structure to your spreadsheet.

You can setup Data validation by selecting a column, right click and select Data validation.

Notion

Another popular tool which can be used for a lot of different things is Notion. It basically allows you to create documents, databases and different views. This makes it a great candidate for a simple DIY CRM system.

Notion offers a very basic template for creating a CRM system which I recommend. Just click Templates and select Sales > Sales CRM.

Once setup, you'll get a basic kanban pipeline where you can add your customer data.

Adding new contacts is as simple as filling out the form with the details you want.

Forms with Typeform

Lead capture forms are a great way to add leads to your CRM pipeline. This is usually done by some kind of signup form on your website, perhaps paired with an offer of a white paper or free ebook. Typeform is an easy to use tool which let's you create beautiful forms quickly.

Calendar scheduling with SavvyCal or Calendly

If you're doing any kind of meeting scheduling I highly recommend trying either SavvyCal or Calendly to make your life easier. Both of these tools allow you to send a link to your contact which will allow them to book a time slot for a meeting. They will also automatically sync with your calendar to make sure there's no scheduling conflicts.

Connect with Zapier

Zapier is a very popular way to create integrations between different applications. Once you've setup your CRM with any of the tools above you can connect form tools like Typeform with your CRM by using Zapier. This will allow you to add fresh form submissions directly to your CRM pipeline.

You can also setup newly scheduled meetings to be automatically added to your CRM as contacts.

Need more structure or automations?

After getting tired of needlessly complex CRMs we built Wobaka to be as simple as a spreadsheet but with powerful automations and structure to keep your sales more organized. If you're looking to automate email outreach and need more structure. Give it a try at Wobaka.com.