CRM for consultants: keep proposals and follow-ups moving

A CRM for consultants needs to do three things well: keep every proposal in front of you until it's decided, remind you when to follow up during a long sales cycle, and stop past clients drifting away before they're ready to buy again. Most independent consultants and small consultancies don't need much beyond that, and every extra feature is something to maintain between client work.

 

Why do consultants need a different kind of CRM?

 

Consultants sell a small number of high-value engagements, usually personally, while also delivering the work. That makes the sales cycle long and the follow-up easy to forget, which is the opposite of the high-volume selling most CRMs are designed around.

 

Most consultants know the pattern. While you're busy on a big engagement, selling stops, because the client work fills every day. The pipeline quietly empties, and when the engagement ends there's a gap of weeks or months before the next one starts. The fix is rarely more marketing. It's keeping a few follow-ups going while you deliver, which only happens if the tool reminding you takes a minute a day rather than an hour a week.

 

A typical CRM assumes the opposite situation: lots of leads, people whose only job is selling, and an admin who keeps the system tidy. In a consultancy of up to 10 people nobody has that role, so the fields go unfilled and the reminders stop being trusted. If you run a larger firm with a business development team, a full CRM may well suit you better, and that's a fair reason to choose one.

 

What should a consultant track in a CRM?

 

Track every live opportunity with its value, stage, source and next follow-up date, along with the date the proposal went out. For past clients, track when the engagement ended and when you'll next check in, because repeat work and referrals usually start there.

 

The source of each deal matters more for consultants than for most businesses. A referral from a past client tends to behave differently from someone who found you through an article or a talk, and knowing where your best work comes from tells you where to spend the little selling time you have. It's worth recording on every deal from the start, even when it feels obvious.

 

Keep the pipeline honest by counting only conversations where the client has engaged. Someone you emailed who hasn't replied isn't an opportunity yet, and including them makes your forecast look fuller than it is. That matters when you're deciding whether to take on an associate or turn down a smaller piece of work.

 

For consultancies on retained work, the period after a deal is won matters as much as the sale. On our Team plan, a won deal's company moves into Accounts with its recurring revenue, renewal date, health and next check-in, and Tasks handle recurring check-ins, so a client who stops hearing from you doesn't quietly go elsewhere. Accounts and Tasks are Team only, so an independent consultant on Solo tracks new business, follow-ups and forecasting.

 

How long is a consulting sales cycle, and why does it matter?

 

A consulting sales cycle can run from a couple of weeks for a small advisory piece to several months for a large engagement. The number that matters is your own average, because it tells you when a quiet deal is normal and when it's slipping.

 

Your sales cycle is the average number of days from a first conversation to a signed deal. Pipento works it out from your own deals and uses it to suggest when to follow up next, which is what Smart follow-ups does, and every follow-up date you set lands on your calendar so today's calls sit on one list. Pulse then lists the deals that have gone quiet, so you can pick them up before they go cold.

 

Take an independent consultant whose deals usually take 45 days from first call to signed contract. A proposal that's been quiet for 10 days is normal, because the client is probably still discussing it internally. One that's been quiet for 60 days has probably gone cold, and the right time to call was a month earlier. That's an illustration rather than a benchmark, and the point is that the warning only works if the tool knows your own cycle. Our guide to sales tracking sets out a short daily check for exactly this.

 

What does a CRM cost a consultant in the UK?

 

For an independent consultant, a CRM can cost anything from a free plan to around £80 a month for one person. On 5 November 2026, HubSpot's pricing page listed a free CRM, and Pipedrive's UK pricing page listed plans from £14 to £79 per person a month on annual billing, before VAT.

 

The price changes once you bring in associates or a business development hire, because most tools charge per person. A consultancy of four on a £39 per person plan pays £156 a month before VAT, and each new person adds £39. That's a calculation from Pipedrive's Growth plan price on the day we checked, and we've set out the comparison at other team sizes in our article on what Pipedrive costs as your team grows.

 

Pipento's prices include VAT. Solo is £35 a month for one person with a 7 day free trial. The Founder plan is £24 a month for one person, limited to the first 50 places, with a price that never goes up and no free trial. Team is £69 a month for everyone who sells, so a consultancy can add an associate without the bill changing. You can compare the plans on our pricing page.

 

What can a consultant leave out of a CRM?

 

Most consultants can leave out marketing automation, a built-in dialler, an admin console that needs a setup project and deep customisation. You win work through conversations, proposals and referrals, and a tool built for calling lists or email campaigns adds upkeep without adding clients.

 

We left those four out of Pipento on purpose. James and Axel sell for a living, and they built Pipento to run their own pipelines after spending more time learning the big CRMs than selling with them. Every feature in it is one they decided on because they use it, which is why the daily view answers three questions: who to follow up with today, whether you're on track, and what's slipping.

 

That also tells you who it doesn't suit. If you run campaigns to a large mailing list, or you want resourcing, timesheets and invoicing in the same system as your pipeline, a pipeline tool for people who sell personally won't cover enough. It suits consultants and small consultancies who want the selling side kept in order with as little time as possible. If you're setting up a pipeline for the first time, our guide to sales pipeline software for solo founders walks through a simple setup.

 

What should a consultant check before choosing a CRM?

 

Before you pay, check how long it takes to get your current contacts and deals in, what the price does when you add an associate, which features sit on which plan, and how you'd take your data with you if you left. Those answers decide whether the tool is still in use six months from now.

 

Most consultants start from a spreadsheet, an inbox and a list of past clients. Pipento imports deals and contacts from a CSV file, whether it's a spreadsheet or an export from another CRM, and learns your sales cycle from your own figures, so there are no workflows to build before it's useful. Your pipeline is private to your workspace, and you can export everything to CSV whenever you like.

 

It also helps to be honest about how much time you'll give the tool. If the answer is a few minutes at the start of each day, choose something that works in a few minutes, and judge every feature by whether it helps in that window.

 

Questions consultants ask about CRMs

 

What's a good CRM for an independent consultant?

 

For an independent consultant, a good CRM is one that takes minutes a day and reminds you who to follow up with while you're busy with client work. Look for a price for one person, a simple pipeline and follow-up reminders based on your own sales cycle rather than a long feature list.

 

Do consultants need a CRM at all?

 

If you're running more than a handful of live conversations, it's worth having one, because a long sales cycle makes follow-ups easy to forget. A spreadsheet can work at first, but nothing in a spreadsheet tells you that a proposal has gone quiet.

 

How much does Pipento cost for a consultant?

 

Solo is £35 a month for one person with a 7 day free trial. The Founder plan is £24 a month for one person, limited to 50 places, with no free trial, and Team is £69 a month for everyone who sells in a consultancy.

 

Can I bring my existing contacts and deals in?

 

Yes. Pipento imports deals and contacts from a CSV file, whether that's a spreadsheet or an export from another CRM, and you can export everything again whenever you like.

 

Choose the CRM that keeps selling going while you deliver

 

The right CRM for a consultant is the one that keeps a few follow-ups moving while you're busy delivering, so the next engagement is ready when the current one ends. A tool that knows your sales cycle, flags proposals that have gone quiet and takes minutes a day does that job better than one with every feature a large sales team might want.

 

If your proposals live in your inbox and your follow-ups live in your head, Pipento does the few things that fix that and leaves the rest out. Start a 7 day free trial of Solo, and move to Team when you bring others in to sell.