Before you buy your next tool or add your first lead, you need an answer to one simple question: what data do you actually capture, and how does a contact move from the first hello to a signed contract? That is exactly what a good CRM template answers. It is the blueprint of your sales process: which fields you maintain, which stages a deal moves through, and how your pipeline is built. In this guide you get a ready-to-use template – with fields, stages and structure you can adopt right away.
Why a well-designed template matters more than the software
Many people start with an empty spreadsheet and add columns whenever they miss one. Three months later you have 40 fields, half of them empty, and nobody remembers what "Status 2" means. A template forces you to think ahead:
- Consistency: Everyone on the team captures the same data in the same way.
- Analyzability: Only clean, uniform fields can be filtered and reported on later.
- Less upkeep: A few clear fields get maintained – an overloaded system gets ignored.
The rule is simple: as many fields as necessary, as few as possible. It is better to start lean and expand deliberately than to launch a monster nobody fills in.
Contact and company fields
Start with the master data. These fields form the foundation for every contact:
- Name (first and last name)
- Email address
- Phone number
- Company and Position
- Source (where the lead came from: website, referral, Facebook Lead Ads, cold outreach)
- Owner (which team member handles the contact)
- Tags (e.g. industry, product interest, priority)
- Opt-in status for WhatsApp, SMS and email
- Created on and Last contacted on
The Source field is pure gold: it is the only way to later see which channels actually drive revenue. The Last contacted on field shows you at a glance which contacts are going cold.
Deal fields
A contact is not yet a deal. As soon as there is real interest, you create a deal – with its own fields:
- Deal name (be specific, e.g. "Miller Ltd – annual license")
- Value (expected order value)
- Stage (the current pipeline step)
- Probability (a rough percentage)
- Expected close date
- Next step (a concrete next action with a date)
The most important field is Next step. It stops deals from simply stalling. Every open deal should always have a defined next action with a date – otherwise it does not belong in your active pipeline.
The stages of your pipeline
Stages describe the path from lead to customer. Keep them simple and tied to your real process. A proven standard pipeline for B2B sales looks like this:
- New lead – Contact exists, but is not yet qualified.
- Qualified – Need, budget and decision-maker checked, the contact fits.
- First meeting – Appointment booked or held.
- Proposal sent – The offer is with the customer.
- Negotiation – Details, price or terms are being discussed.
- Won – Contract signed.
- Lost – No deal (always record a loss reason).
Important: a stage stands for an action or state you can clearly recognize – not a feeling like "going well". Define a clear entry and exit condition for each stage. When moving a deal to "Lost", always capture the reason, otherwise you learn nothing from lost deals.
How to adapt the template
The template is a starting point, not a law. Tailor it to your sales:
- Short sales cycles (e.g. simple products): Drop "Negotiation" and work with four or five stages.
- Complex B2B sales: Add fields like Decision-maker, Competitor, or a separate stage for technical review.
- Measure first, expand later: Only add a new field once you have missed it twice – never just in case.
Putting your template to work in AM CRM
In AM CRM this structure is included in every plan. You add your contacts with a 360° history and map the stages above directly into a visual drag-and-drop pipeline – you move each deal from step to step with your mouse.
You maintain custom fields, tags and sources centrally, and with automations in the visual flow builder a stage change triggers the next action right away: a reminder for the next step, a WhatsApp, SMS or email, or a task for you. The built-in telephony with one-click calling, auto-dialer, recording and call log lands automatically in the contact's history, and reporting shows you which source and which stage is slowing your conversion. That way your template never becomes a dead document – it becomes a living process.
Ready to put your sales on a clean foundation? Try AM CRM free for 14 days – no risk, cancel anytime.