Search Tools - CRM usage
March 12, 2025
by a searcher from Boston University - Questrom School of Business in Brooklyn, NY, USA
I'm running a search, looking at a few different industries within the home services space. As I'm searching, I'm keeping a large spreadsheet to track progress, who I've reached out to, how I've reached out, response, etc. I'm wondering if any of the CRMs out there are worth the time to set up for this process. I don't want anyone to think it's an automated outreach tool, I'd probably use it more to keep myself on track, the spreadsheet is getting pretty big with A LOT of notes. What's the general feedback from the group on here?
from Universidad del Norte in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
To simplify this, I created a ClickUp Template that has streamliend our whole search process. We are both looking toogether, plus we are in our second cohort of interns. So organizaing communication has been key.
The template includes:
-Lead Funnel: Tracks potential leads from initial interest to purchase agreement submission.
-Scorecard: Automatically rates companies based on customizable parameters to prioritize leads.
-Metrics Tracking: Weekly and monthly metrics for leads in each stage.
-Proprietary Database: Tracks companies interested in selling and seamlessly transfers them to the Leads Funnel once qualified.
-CRM: Manages contacts for brokers, investors, lenders, and other stakeholders, linking individuals to their corresponding leads.
-To-Dos: Centralized task management for transparency across individual and team responsibilities.
-Expense Tracking: Monitors net cash, budget plans, income, and expenses.
-Internship Management: Includes intake forms, views for analyzing/selecting interns, and an onboarding checklist.
-Search Notebook: A repository for saving relevant information, such as search criteria, deal sourcing templates, and more.
-Team Chat: Centralized communication hub for team discussions.
I've shared the template with other searchers and they have had wonderful comments about it. Happy to discuss it further if you are interested.
from University of Notre Dame in San Francisco, CA, USA
^redacted I’ve found Notion to be the easiest to build out and customize, or complicate if you really want something in-depth. I have a database for my Contacts, another for Companies, and another for Research Sources. With Relation Fields, you can link databases across one another, which means I can add notes to one view and they’ll show up across others.
You can also add files, embed URLs, create different views or tables based on tags / statuses / categories / etc.
Seems they upgrade a part of Notion every month or so as well.
I started using it for personal research and it’s evolved to encapsulate my work tracking as well.
There’s a small learning curve but it’s not complex, and plenty of templates exist for free and/or paid download within their marketplace.
At prior firms I’ve used proprietary tools coded in-house, Pipedrive, DealCloud, Salesforce, HubSpot, and others. Notion now runs most of my life. Only downside is that you need an internet connection to access as you can’t download your databases offline.
Lastly, I love that you can create and publish public sites.