Custom CRM

Built around how your business actually runs.

A custom CRM built to match your sales process instead of forcing your process into a vendor's boxes. Customisation beyond the base build is scoped and quoted separately as a statement of work.

Get your free plan Three sizes

The standard size takes: Four weeks
You own: The software and all the data, outright
Runs monthly: Only if you choose to pay monthly

No figure appears on this page. Your free plan comes back with the price of every size, and with what the whole job costs together.

What it is

A custom CRM built to match your sales process instead of forcing your process into a vendor's boxes. Customisation beyond the base build is scoped and quoted separately as a statement of work.

Subscription CRMs price per seat forever and make you fit their boxes. A custom build costs more once, then it is yours: shaped to how you actually sell, connected to the tools you already run on, with no monthly bill growing every time you hire. Or run it as a service and spread the cost, your choice on every tier.

The proof is in production: a New Zealand wholesale drinks business runs a CRM I built with a live two way Xero connection, raising and sending invoices from one screen. The pipeline mirrors how they sell, because it was built from how they sell.

This is for you if

Deals live in inboxes, notebooks and one person's memory
A subscription CRM charges per seat and still does not fit
Nobody can say what is in the pipeline right now
Handover between quoting, doing and invoicing leaks jobs

One of these is usually enough. If none of them is true, this is not the first thing I would build for you, and the plan will say so.

Why it comes where it does

Per-seat CRM rent never ends and the tool never quite fits. A build costs more once, then it is yours, shaped to the business, with no monthly bill growing as you hire.

Nothing has to be built before this one, so it can be the first thing you do. Your free plan still puts it in order against everything else you are considering.

Three sizes, by scope

The sizes differ by how much is in them, not by how well it is done. Start at the size that matches the business today; moving up later is normal.

The Essentials

The pipeline, owned.

A pipeline that mirrors how you actually sell
Contacts, companies, deals and notes in one place
Your existing data imported and cleaned
User accounts for the team

Two weeks

The usual choice

The Standard

Connected to the tools you run on. Most businesses choose this.

Everything in the size before, plus:

The integrations you run on: Xero, Stripe, Shopify and more
Roles and permissions for the team
Email and activity history against every deal
Training and written documentation

Four weeks

The Works

The operations hub.

Everything in the size before, plus:

Quoting and job tracking built into the pipeline
Automated follow-ups on quotes and stale deals
Reporting dashboards for the numbers you steer by
Priority change queue for the first year

Eight weeks

The figure for each of the three sizes is not published here, because it depends on what else you are building at the same time. Build your free plan and the figure for each size comes back with it, along with what the whole job costs together.

How it is built

01
A session on how you actually sell: the stages, the handovers, and what makes a deal real.
02
The data: contacts, companies and deal history imported and cleaned.
03
The build, shown to you working at the end of each week rather than at the end.
04
The integrations you run on: Xero, Stripe, your store, your inbox.
05
Roles and accounts for the team, with permissions set before anyone logs in.
06
Training, written documentation, and a change queue for what the first month teaches us.

Before you decide

Three things people get wrong.

They sayA subscription CRM is cheaper than building one.

For two users it usually is. Per-seat rent grows every time you hire and never ends, so the comparison that matters is over three years and the whole team, not month one.

They sayOur team will not use a CRM. They never have before.

They will not use one that makes them type things twice. Built around how you already sell, with the fields you actually use, it takes less effort than the notebook it replaces.

They sayCustom software becomes a maintenance problem.

It is documented, in your accounts, and built on ordinary tools any developer can pick up. What becomes a problem is a subscription tool you have outgrown and cannot export from.

Your options

The alternatives, side by side.

Doing it yourself and hiring it out are both real answers. Here is how the three compare on the things that actually decide it.

Slide the table sideways to read every column.

Option	What it costs	What you own	Time	Outcome
Keep it in inboxes and a spreadsheet	The deals nobody followed up, and the history in one person's head	Nothing new	Now	No answer to what is in the pipeline right now
Subscribe to a CRM	A fee per seat, every month, rising as you hire	A tenancy, and an export file if you leave	Days to sign up, months to fit your process to it	Working, at a cost that grows and a shape that never quite fits
This build	One build, or a monthly fee	The software and all the data, outright	Four weeks	A pipeline that mirrors how you actually sell, with no per-seat bill

In practice

Turbo Tonics

Turbo Tonics, a New Zealand wholesale drinks business, runs a custom CRM I built with a live two way Xero connection. Invoices are raised and sent from one screen.

Straight answers

Questions I get asked about this.

01Why custom instead of a subscription CRM?

Per-seat rent never ends and the tool never quite fits. A build is yours, shaped to the business. Changes beyond the base build are scoped and quoted as their own statement of work, so the price stays honest.

02What happens to our existing data?

It comes with you. Importing and cleaning your contacts, companies and deal history is part of every tier.

03What if we need changes later?

Changes beyond the base build are scoped and quoted as their own statement of work, so you always know what a change costs before it starts. The works tier includes a priority queue for the first year.

04Who hosts it, and what does that cost to run?

It runs in accounts in your name, and the monthly running cost is small and named before you commit. It does not go up when you add a seventh user.

Also in systems and planning

What sits next to this.

System planning

A written plan before anything gets built.

Job and project management

Every job tracked from quote to invoice.

See all of systems and planning

The next move

Custom CRM, priced in context.

The free plan asks a few questions about the business, then comes back with this service at the size that fits, anything that has to come first, and the figure for each part and for the whole job. Nothing is charged and nothing is booked at the end of it.

Get your free plan stuart@sevenlens.co

Get your free plan