What's really going on

Schools take weeks to decide. They ask on WhatsApp Monday, email Thursday, book a demo the next week — and right now nobody on your team of three sees the full thread in one place. With $300k in revenue and a growing team, the leak isn't lead volume; it's handoff. Two reps will chase the same school, or worse, both assume the other did.

What to do instead

1. HubSpot Free CRM (free) — one shared pipeline with stages: New → Demo booked → Demo done → Proposal → Won. Unlimited users on free, so all three reps work from the same board.
2. HubSpot's WhatsApp + email integration (in the free tier) — connect your WhatsApp Business number and shared inbox so every message lands on the school's record. No more scrolling phones.
3. A Monday 15-min pipeline check — the three of you look at every deal past "Demo booked" with no activity in 7 days. That habit is worth more than any feature.

First action, today: sign up for HubSpot Free, create the five stages above, and import the last 20 schools from your inbox. One hour, one person.

What you're being oversold

Someone will push you to HubSpot Sales Hub paid for "sequences" and "forecasting", or a partner will float Salesforce because you sell to institutions. Both are wrong at $300k and three reps — you'll pay per seat for features you won't use for two years. Doing nothing costs you the schools that go quiet between demo and decision — the ones where a nudge on day 10 would have closed them. At your ticket size, missing two a year hurts.

When to revisit this

When a rep says "I didn't know you were already talking to that school" — that's the day the free tier has paid for itself, and the day you start needing more.

The part worth getting right

The choice hinges on how schools actually buy from you. If most close inside 30 days after the demo, a shared pipeline and the Monday check are enough for a long time. If your cycle is 3-6 months with a budget season and multiple contacts per school (head, bursar, IT), you need the CRM shaped around that from day one — custom fields for decision-maker, budget cycle, term start — or you'll migrate messy data next year. Which cycle is yours?