Transform Airtable into a powerful customer relationship management system tailored to your sales process.
Airtable offers the perfect balance of flexibility and structure for building a CRM that matches your exact sales process. This guide covers everything from initial setup to advanced sales automation.
Traditional CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot impose rigid workflows that force teams to adapt their processes. Airtable lets you design a CRM around how your team actually sells, not how software companies think you should sell.
The cost advantage is significant. Airtable's Pro plan at $20 per user per month includes unlimited bases and records, while enterprise CRMs can cost $150+ per user monthly. For small to mid-sized teams, this represents substantial savings.
Customization is immediate and code-free. Need a new field or view? Add it in seconds without waiting for IT or paying consultants. Your CRM evolves as fast as your business.
Contacts Table - Individual people at companies. Include fields for name, title, email, phone, LinkedIn URL, and relationship strength. Link contacts to companies and deals.
Companies Table - Organizations you're selling to. Track company name, industry, size, website, and relationship status. Link to contacts and deals.
Deals Table - Sales opportunities in your pipeline. Include deal name, value, stage, probability, expected close date, and owner. This table drives your sales forecasting.
Activities Table - All interactions with contacts and companies (calls, emails, meetings, demos). Log date, type, notes, and outcomes. Link to contacts, companies, and deals.
Products Table - Your offerings with pricing, descriptions, and categories. Link to deals to track which products are in each opportunity.
Create these fields for comprehensive contact management:
Single Line Text for first name, last name, title, and company name (if not linking to Companies table). Email field type validates email addresses and enables mailto links.
Phone Number field type formats numbers consistently and enables click-to-call on mobile. URL field for LinkedIn profile creates clickable links.
Single Select for contact status (Lead, Prospect, Customer, Partner, Inactive) tracks relationship progression. Rating field (1-5 stars) helps prioritize outreach.
Link to Companies connects contacts to their organizations. Link to Deals shows which opportunities involve this contact.
Link to Activities displays interaction history. Use a rollup to show last contact date: MAX(values) on the Activity Date field.
Long Text for notes captures important context, preferences, and conversation history.
Your Deals table is the engine of your sales pipeline:
Single Line Text for deal name should follow a consistent format like "Company Name - Product - Value". This makes deals instantly recognizable in lists.
Currency for deal value drives revenue forecasting. Percent for probability (0-100%) refines forecast accuracy.
Single Select for stage matches your sales process (Prospecting, Qualification, Proposal, Negotiation, Closed Won, Closed Lost). Each stage should have clear entry and exit criteria.
Date for expected close date enables pipeline management and forecasting. Add a formula to show days until close: DATETIME_DIFF({Expected Close}, TODAY(), 'days').
Link to Contacts identifies decision makers and influencers. Link to Companies connects to the buying organization.
Link to Products shows what you're selling. Use a rollup to calculate total product value if selling multiple items.
Link to Activities tracks all deal-related interactions. A rollup showing activity count helps identify stalled deals.
Single Select for deal owner assigns responsibility. Single Select for lead source (Website, Referral, Cold Outreach, Event) tracks marketing effectiveness.
Long Text for notes documents deal strategy, objections, and next steps.
Kanban by Stage - Drag deals between stages to update status visually. Group by stage and sort by expected close date to prioritize follow-up.
Calendar by Close Date - Visualize when deals are expected to close. Color code by deal value or probability to identify high-priority opportunities.
Forecast View - Filter to deals with probability above 50% and group by month. Add a summary field showing total weighted value (deal value × probability).
Deals by Owner - Group by deal owner to see individual pipelines. Helps managers identify coaching opportunities and workload balance.
Stalled Deals - Filter for deals with no activities in the last 14 days and stage not Closed Won or Closed Lost. Review weekly to re-engage or disqualify.
Closed Won Analysis - Filter to Closed Won deals and group by lead source or product. Analyze what's working to inform strategy.
New Lead Assignment - When a new contact is added with status "Lead", automatically assign to a sales rep based on territory or round-robin logic.
Follow-up Reminders - When a deal moves to a new stage, create a task or send a reminder to the owner with stage-specific next steps.
Stale Deal Alerts - Daily automation that identifies deals with no recent activity and notifies owners to take action.
Close Date Approaching - Three days before expected close date, send reminder to deal owner to confirm status and update forecast.
Won Deal Celebration - When deal stage changes to Closed Won, send Slack message to sales channel and notify customer success team for onboarding.
Lost Deal Analysis - When deal stage changes to Closed Lost, send survey to deal owner asking for loss reason and competitor information.
Log every customer interaction in the Activities table:
Date and Time fields record when the interaction occurred. Single Select for activity type (Call, Email, Meeting, Demo, Proposal Sent) categorizes interactions.
Link to Contacts and Link to Companies connect activities to relevant records. Link to Deals associates activities with opportunities.
Long Text for notes captures conversation details, action items, and next steps. Single Select for outcome (Positive, Neutral, Negative, No Answer) helps gauge momentum.
Checkbox for follow-up required flags activities needing action. Create a view filtered to checked follow-ups for your daily task list.
Pipeline Value - Sum of all open deal values grouped by stage. Shows total opportunity at each phase.
Weighted Pipeline - Sum of (deal value × probability) for all open deals. Provides more accurate revenue forecast.
Win Rate - Count of Closed Won deals divided by total closed deals (Won + Lost). Track monthly to identify trends.
Average Deal Size - Average value of Closed Won deals. Monitor to ensure you're moving upmarket or maintaining pricing.
Sales Cycle Length - Average days from deal creation to Closed Won. Calculate with DATETIME_DIFF between created date and close date.
Activity Volume - Count of activities per rep per week. Correlate with win rates to identify best practices.
Lead Source ROI - Group Closed Won deals by lead source and sum values. Compare to marketing spend to calculate return.
Email Integration - Connect Gmail or Outlook via Zapier to automatically log emails as activities when you BCC a special address.
Calendar Sync - Sync Airtable meetings to Google Calendar or Outlook. When you schedule a meeting in Airtable, it appears on your calendar.
Web Forms - Use Airtable forms or Typeform integration to capture leads from your website directly into the Contacts table.
Slack Notifications - Send deal updates, won/lost notifications, and activity reminders to relevant Slack channels.
DocuSign - Automatically generate and send contracts when deals reach Proposal stage, then update deal status when signed.
Update your CRM daily, not weekly. Stale data leads to missed opportunities and inaccurate forecasts. Make CRM updates part of your morning routine.
Use consistent naming conventions for deals and companies. This makes searching and reporting more reliable.
Review your pipeline weekly with your team. Discuss stalled deals, upcoming closes, and resource needs. This keeps everyone aligned.
Clean your data monthly. Merge duplicate contacts, update company information, and archive old records. Data quality directly impacts CRM effectiveness.
Customize views for different roles. Sales reps need activity-focused views, while managers need forecast and performance views. Create role-specific interfaces.
An Airtable CRM combines the flexibility of custom software with the simplicity of a spreadsheet. Start with the core structure outlined here, then iterate based on your team's feedback and evolving needs.
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