Your CRM is where every conversation, deal, and customer relationship lives. This guide walks you through the essentials — from a blank workspace to a live pipeline with real deals moving through it. By the end you'll have a working CRM you can actually use today.
You don't need any technical background. If you can fill in a spreadsheet, you can run this CRM. The whole setup takes about 20 minutes, and once it's live your team can start logging conversations immediately — no migration project, no consultants, no waiting.
We'll cover four things: creating a pipeline, importing your contacts, adding your first deal, and moving deals through stages. Each step builds on the last, so work through them in order. Ready? Let's go.
Create your first pipeline
A pipeline is the backbone of your CRM — it's the set of stages a deal moves through from 'new lead' to 'won'. Start with a simple Sales pipeline: New → Contacted → Qualified → Proposal → Won. You can always add more pipelines later (onboarding, renewals, partnerships).
- Go to CRM → Pipelines → New pipeline
- Name it (e.g. 'Sales') and pick a color
- Add or rename stages to match your sales process
- Drag stages to reorder before saving
Import your contacts
Bring in the people you're already talking to. Hero Monday accepts CSV uploads, manual entry, and direct sync from Google Contacts or your inbox. Map your columns once and we'll remember the mapping for next time.
- Download the CSV template from CRM → Contacts → Import
- Fill in name, email, phone, and company
- Upload and map columns to Hero Monday fields
- Tag contacts (e.g. 'warm', 'vip') for easy filtering
Add your first deal
A deal is a specific opportunity with a contact — it has a value, a stage, and an owner. Create one from a contact's profile or straight from the pipeline board. Assign it to yourself (or a teammate) so it's clear who's responsible.
- Open a contact and click 'Create deal'
- Set the deal value and expected close date
- Pick the pipeline and starting stage
- Add a note about how the conversation started
Track and move deals
Use the pipeline board to see every deal at a glance. Drag deals between stages as they progress — Hero Monday logs each move so you get a full history. Filter by owner, tag, or value to focus on what matters today.
- Open the pipeline board (CRM → Pipelines)
- Drag a deal card to the next stage
- Click a card to add notes, tasks, or files
- Filter by owner or tag to focus your day
Pro tip: keep it simple at first
It's tempting to build five pipelines and twenty stages on day one. Don't. Start with one pipeline and four or five stages that mirror how you actually sell today. You can always add complexity later — but a simple pipeline that your team actually uses beats a perfect one nobody touches.
Common mistakes to avoid
Too many stages
If a deal has to pass through nine stages to close, your pipeline becomes a graveyard. Stick to four or five meaningful stages — each one should represent a real shift in the relationship.
Importing without tagging
A flat list of 500 contacts is hard to act on. Tag during import (industry, source, temperature) so you can filter and follow up in batches later.
Forgetting to assign an owner
Every deal needs a clear owner. Unassigned deals fall through the cracks. Make it a habit to set the owner the moment you create a deal.