Yes.
You need a simple CRM — but not for the sales pipeline. You need it for the network and the proposals, which is a different job than what most CRM reps pitch.
What's really going on
Under 10 inquiries a month across five channels, with 2-3 people. That's not a volume problem. That's a memory problem. You're losing track of who you've talked to, what you sent them, and why deals died. A pipeline tool won't fix that on its own — you need one place where a proposal, a lost reason, and a contact all sit together, and where your partner can see it too.
What to do instead
- HubSpot Free CRM (free, unlimited users) — use it as a shared contact book and deal board. Attach proposals to each deal. Mark lost deals with a reason field. That covers "who I know", "what I sent", and "why it died" in one place.
- Google Sheets (free) — one tab: "Proposals sent". Columns: date, client, amount, status, lost reason. This is your monthly review sheet, not your daily tool.
- Habit: every Friday, 15 minutes, one of you updates lost-deal reasons in HubSpot. Without this, any tool rots in a month.
Today, do this: open HubSpot, create a free account, import your phone and LinkedIn contacts as one CSV. That gives you "who I have in my network" by Monday.
What you're being oversold
Someone will pitch you Salesforce, Pipedrive, or Zoho One with WhatsApp integration, quoting per-user prices in MYR. At under 10 inquiries a month, that's paying rent on a warehouse to store a shoebox. You don't need WhatsApp API tools like Wati or Respond.io either — WhatsApp Business app is enough at your volume. Doing nothing costs you the referral you can't remember making, and the proposal you re-quoted at the wrong price because the old one is buried in email.
When to revisit this
When inquiries pass 30 a month, or when one of you says "I didn't know you were already talking to them."
The part worth getting right
The real fork is what "track projects" means for you. If it's sales projects — proposals, deposits, delivery dates for clients — HubSpot Free plus its deal stages handles it, and you're done. If it's delivery projects — tasks, timelines, who's doing what after the deal closes — HubSpot is the wrong tool and you need something like Notion or ClickUp alongside it. Pick wrong and in six months you'll have two half-used systems and still be searching your WhatsApp for that one file. Which of the two is eating your week right now?