How to Build a Free CRM in Notion

Over the years I have used many CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems. For the most part I want a solid way to store contact information and organize contacts based on the nature of my relationship with them and any follow up needed for any reason. 

It certainly helps if your CRM also makes it easy to track contacts who are “prospective customers” or as I like to call them, “members” now. The issue with many CRMs is that they are only designed for tracking a sales pipeline which makes it clunky for tracking any other kind of contact. 

So let’s say bottom line you need something simple and something free!

I built my CRM in Notion as part of my bigger operating system. What I love about this is it is connected to everything else I do and keep track of in Notion. My CRM is a database that is easily linked to any other database in my system. Also since it’s Notion even without a shiny, fancy, linked database I can write in my daily journal and ‘@’ tag a contact by name and poof! The contact is linked to my note, and Notion will then create a back link from the contact to my Journal Entry. 

Notion is a neural network that allows you to connect anything to anything else so that you can jump around from one thing to another related thing very easily.

To start with, here is what a bit of my Contacts area looks like in my Notion CRM:

Each of these “cards” is really a page in Notion, and every page in Notion is a potential universe of its own with access to more worlds of information. Notion is quite literally what you make of it.

Notion also has a great mobile app, so I can easily pull up a contact and tap on their phone number to call them:

I have to blur out my own email and phone number because Google, or YouTube will actually flag my video for having contact information shared - even if I dispute it and explain that it is my own contact information and I am ok with it, they won’t care. This is a true story.

So how can YOU build your own CRM - simple and free just to get started. 

Step 1:

Open a blank page in Notion.

Step 2:

Name the page “My CRM” or something like that, add an icon and add a header image. You probably also want to make it full width for this use case.

Step 3: 

Create a new database

Now to get the Table in there we need a database. This may sound like something sophisticated but I promise you it is not. 

The simple command you need is “/Table”

Once you type this, you will see three options. The one you want is the database table view:

That is the most difficult part. Everything after this is a matter of adding “Properties” which are the columns you want to describe the important pieces of information about each contact, like email, phone number, status, and MOC. 

In the video I will show you how to set up each of these, and then how to add details inside a contact that might be useful, such as notes and a call log.

Here are some screenshots of each field’s set up:

Email

Phone

MOC

Mode of Communication

Status

In general, these are all the types of properties you can add to any database in Notion:

Some other properties to add:

• Company Name (Text)
• Last Contacted (Date)
• Follow up (Date)

I am sure you can think of more. My goal here is to get you started and thinking creatively.

You might think to add a “Notes” property, but that is something you have an entire page you can use for that purpose. When I click into myself as the sample contact you can see one idea of what this may look like.

Final Thoughts & Next Steps

Notion is so much more than just a notes app—it’s a powerful, flexible CRM that grows with your business. Unlike traditional CRMs that lock you into a rigid structure, Notion allows you to fully customize how you track and manage your relationships.

🔹 Start simple, then build as you go. 

🔹 Use views, filters, and properties to make it easy to navigate. 

🔹 Expand into a full business hub when you’re ready.

🚀 Want a done-for-you system that takes Notion to the next level? Check out my Notion Mastery Operating System—a complete setup designed to organize your entire business seamlessly.

📺 Watch the full video tutorial above to see this in action and learn how to get started today!

💬 Have questions or need help? Drop a comment on the video or message me—I’d love to hear how you’re using Notion as your CRM!