What's really going on

Twenty events a month is roughly 60-100 inquiries across three reps. That's past the point where a spreadsheet or shared inbox holds up. The real problem isn't tracking — it's handoff. When a bride emails Rep A on Tuesday and calls Rep B on Friday, nobody knows the quote already went out. That's how you lose the tasting, and the tasting is how you lose the booking.

What to do instead

1. Pipedrive (~$14-15/user/mo — check current pricing) — one shared pipeline with stages: Inquiry → Menu Sent → Tasting Booked → Contract Out → Deposit Paid → Event. Every rep sees every deal.
2. HubSpot Free CRM (free) — if budget is tight, this handles 3 reps on shared email with no per-seat cost. You'll outgrow the free tier's automation, but not this year.
3. Set one rule: no inquiry sits more than 4 business hours without a first reply logged in the CRM.

Today, one person: open Pipedrive's trial, build those six stages, and paste in every open inquiry from the last 14 days. Thirty minutes.

What you're being oversold

Someone will push Salesforce or HubSpot Sales Hub with automation packages. You don't need lead scoring, sequences, or a marketing suite — you need three reps to stop stepping on each other. A catering deposit averages real money; losing one booking a month to a dropped follow-up costs more than the CRM does in a year.

When to revisit this

When you add a fourth salesperson, or when you start running two event types (corporate lunches vs. weddings) that need different workflows.

The part worth getting right

The one call is whether your pipeline is built around the inquiry or around the event date. If most inquiries come in 2-3 weeks out (corporate, small parties), a standard sales pipeline works — Pipedrive out of the box. If you're mostly weddings booked 6-18 months ahead, you need a date-anchored view so a rep sees what's tasting next weekend, not what came in yesterday. Same tool, different setup — and rebuilding it in month six means re-training three people and re-entering every deal.