No.
You don't need a CRM.
Why
Fewer than 10 inquiries a month is roughly two a week. A CRM at this volume is theatre — you'd spend more time logging than selling. The real risk is that a web form lead, an Instagram DM, and a WhatsApp message from a referral all arrive in different places and one of your 2–3 teammates assumes another already replied. Test-prep inquiries are also time-sensitive — students booking IELTS dates decide within days.
What you actually need
- WhatsApp Business app (free) — port your business number, create labels "New", "Counselled", "Demo Booked", "Enrolled", "Cold". Forward every web form and Instagram DM lead into WhatsApp manually so one channel becomes the source of truth.
- Google Sheets (free) — one tab "Inquiries 2026" with columns Date / Name / Channel / Target Test (IELTS/PTE/TOEFL) / Target Score / Test Date / Owner / Next Follow-up / Status. One row per inquiry, owner column decides who replies.
- A habit — the 10am huddle — all 2–3 of you, five minutes on WhatsApp or in person, walk through every row where "Next Follow-up" is today or overdue. Decide who's calling whom.
Do this today
Open a new Google Sheet, name it "Inquiries 2026", create the nine columns above, and share it with edit access to your two teammates via the Share button → their email → Editor. Then paste in every inquiry from the last 30 days across all five channels, assigning each row an Owner. By tomorrow morning every lead has one named human responsible for the next reply.
What to ignore
Skip HubSpot Sales Hub, Zoho CRM Plus, LeadSquared (every Indian edtech gets pitched LeadSquared) and anything a sales rep calls an "edtech CRM with student journey automation". At under 10 inquiries/month those tools are ₹1,500–₹4,000/user/mo solving a problem you don't have. Also ignore AiSensy/Wati WhatsApp API setups — you don't have the volume to justify a templated broadcast tool.
What doing nothing costs you
A conservative 20% slippage on under 10 inquiries/month = ~2 lost students. At even a ₹25,000 IELTS/PTE coaching fee, that's roughly ₹6,00,000/year of enrolments walking to the coaching centre down the road because nobody replied on time.
Where this leaves you
You've got one sheet, one WhatsApp inbox, and a 10am huddle. The plan adds reply templates for IELTS vs PTE vs TOEFL inquiries, a clear owner-assignment rule for each of your five channels, and names the moment in week two when one of your teammates quietly stops updating the sheet — because that's when this always breaks.
When to revisit this
When you cross 40 inquiries/month or hire a dedicated counsellor — then Zoho Bigin at ₹550/user/mo earns its keep.