Yes.
You need a simple CRM — but the real win is a follow-up habit, not a tool.
What's really going on
You're sending catalogs into the world and hoping people write back. The trophy business is seasonal and slow-cycle — a school that says "not this year" is a real lead twelve months from now. What you need is a list of every business you've touched, what you sent them, what you made for them, and a nudge to circle back. That's it. QuickBooks already holds the customers who paid. You need a place for the ones who haven't — yet.
What to do instead
- HubSpot Free CRM (free) — one contact record per business, with notes, the catalog you sent, and a reminder date. Free forever for one user, room to grow.
- Gmail or Outlook templates (free) — write your catalog email and your "checking in a year later" email once, reuse forever.
- The habit — every Friday, 20 minutes, open the CRM and set "remind me" dates on anyone who went quiet.
First action today: in HubSpot, create a contact for the last 10 businesses you emailed a catalog to. On each one, attach a note with what you sent and set a task for 12 months out titled "follow up — trophy season." Thirty minutes, done.
What you're being oversold
Anyone pushing Pipedrive or paid Sales Hub at you is selling a pipeline you don't have — you take the orders yourself, one at a time. You don't need stages, forecasts, or seat licenses. The cost of doing nothing isn't dramatic; it's quiet. A school that would've reordered in 2027 forgets your name because no one reminded them you exist. Three of those a year is real money for a shop your size.
When to revisit this
When you hire someone to handle inquiries or quotes, or when you're tracking more than 200 open leads — whichever comes first.
The part worth getting right
The judgment call is what counts as a "lead worth saving." If most of your catalogs go to repeat-buyer trade shops and associations, a light CRM beside QuickBooks is plenty — you're really managing relationships, not prospects. But if you're sending to a long tail of one-off corporate gift buyers and engraving resellers, you need fields to remember WHY each one was a fit — logo file on hand, budget range, the manager's name — or your year-later email lands cold and generic. Same tool, very different setup. Get this wrong and in eighteen months you'll have 400 contacts and no idea who any of them are.