How to choose a CRM for founder-led sales
by Banjo Adesuyi
Short answer: choose the CRM you'll still be using in three months. When a founder is doing the selling, the CRM competes with hiring, product and fundraising for attention, and it loses. So pick on how little manual work it needs, not on how many features it has.
We make Viro, so weigh our view accordingly. The questions below work for any CRM.
Six questions to ask before you buy
- Does it fill itself in? Check whether contacts, deals and notes come from your calls, inbox and calendar, or whether you type them.
- What happens when a call ends? Some tools remind you to follow up, some draft it, and some have it ready to send with the attachment. That difference decides how much time you get back.
- Does it cover how you actually sell? If you sell by phone, check that dialer calls are captured, not just calendar meetings.
- Will it remember "come back in Q3"? Long-tail timing is where founders lose deals. Ask how the tool brings a lead back on the right date.
- Can you run it without an admin? If it needs a week of setup or a custom data model before it's useful, be honest about whether you'll do that work.
- Can you leave? Check that you can export your contacts, deals and notes.
Match the CRM to how you sell
| If this sounds like you | Look for |
|---|---|
| Fewer than 20 live deals, and you're on top of them | A spreadsheet is fine for now. Here's when to move |
| You want a clear pipeline and will update it yourself | A simple, pipeline-first CRM |
| You do a lot of cold calling and email | A CRM with calling and sequences built in |
| You enjoy designing your own systems | A flexible CRM with a custom data model |
| You sell on calls and the follow-up is what slips | A CRM that does the work after the call |
What to test in a trial
Don't test with sample data. Run one real week through it:
- Have three real sales calls and see what's done afterwards without you touching it.
- Count the minutes you spend updating records.
- Check whether the follow-up drafts sound like you.
- Ask yourself on Friday whether you trust the pipeline.
Where Viro fits
Viro is built for the last row of that table. It's a self-executing CRM: Iris joins your calls, and when they end the follow-up is written in your voice with the proposal attached, and the deal is updated. Nothing goes out until you approve it. One seat is $97 a month. See pricing.
It isn't the right pick if your main need today is high-volume cold outbound, or if you want to design your CRM field by field. For how the options compare, read our founders' guide, which discloses that we make Viro.
