Yes.
You need to fix your outreach-to-conversation process before any tool will help.
Why
You're doing outbound-only LinkedIn Sales Navigator outreach to CXOs in manufacturing and managed services, with zero inbound and no pipeline to speak of. That means the problem isn't storing or following up with leads — it's that no lead has raised their hand yet. Buying a CRM right now is like buying a filing cabinet before you have any paper.
What you actually need
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator ($99/mo) — you already have it; use it to build a tight list of 50–100 CXOs per month and send one personalised connection note plus one follow-up message per prospect, nothing more.
- Google Sheets (free) — a single sheet with columns: Name, Company, Date Connected, Message Sent, Reply (Y/N), Next Action. This IS your CRM until you have 30+ active conversations.
- A habit — the Friday 20-minute review — every Friday, open your sheet, mark everyone who didn't reply after two touches as "cold," and move anyone who replied to a "warm" tab with a booked next step noted.
Do this today
Open LinkedIn Sales Navigator right now, run a filter for CXOs in manufacturing companies with 200–1000 employees, export the first 25 names into a new Google Sheet with columns: Name, Company, Date, Message, Reply. You'll have your first real pipeline list in under 30 minutes and a process that doesn't cost you another dollar.
What to ignore
HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesforce, and Pipedrive are all trying to solve a volume and coordination problem — you have neither yet. Paying $50–$100/month for a pipeline tool when you have no inbound and no active conversations is spending money to organise silence. Freshsales reps will tell you their AI scoring will accelerate deals; there are no deals to score.
What doing nothing costs you
You're doing active outreach via Sales Navigator with no tracking, which means you have no idea which CXOs you've already messaged or who went cold without a second touch. Every untracked touchpoint is a relationship that resets to zero — compounding invisibility in a market where CXO trust takes 6–12 months to build.
When to revisit this
When you have 20 or more active two-way conversations happening simultaneously and you can no longer remember the last thing you said to each person.