You're losing jobs because enquiries are falling through the cracks — missed callbacks, forgotten quotes, invoices sent a week late. We've set this up for dozens of trades businesses across Melbourne's bayside suburbs, and the fix is always the same: get a CRM running properly. This guide walks you through exactly how to set up Zoho CRM for a plumbing, electrical, or building business, step by step, in a single afternoon.
Most tradies manage their business from text messages, a notepad on the dashboard, and whatever they can remember between jobs. It works when you're doing 5 jobs a week. It falls apart at 15.
Here's what happens without a system:
A CRM fixes all of this. Not by adding more work — by taking work off your plate. Leads get logged automatically. Follow-ups send themselves. Quotes and invoices are tracked in one place.
65% of businesses that adopt a CRM achieve their sales quotas, compared to 22% that don't use one (Innoppl Technologies). At Bare Bayside Labs, we've seen trades businesses double their quote-to-job conversion rate within three months of setting up a CRM — not because they changed their pricing, but because they stopped losing leads between "enquiry" and "follow-up."
There are plenty of CRMs out there — HubSpot, Salesforce, Jobber, ServiceM8. Here's why we use Zoho for trades.
It's all one system. Zoho One includes CRM, email automation, forms, invoicing, analytics, and over 45 apps under one login. No paying for CRM here, email tool there, form builder somewhere else.
It's built for customisation. You can add custom fields, rename pipeline stages, and build automations without needing a developer. We set up a landscaper in Black Rock who had his entire quote-to-invoice flow running in Zoho within three hours — no code, no consultants.
The price is right. Zoho One costs $45 AUD/employee/month (billed annually). HubSpot's equivalent feature set starts at $800+ USD/month once you move past the free tier. For a one-to-five person trades business, Zoho wins on value every time.
Jobber and ServiceM8 are solid for job management, but limited as marketing and sales tools. If you want to track where your leads come from, automate follow-ups, and run email campaigns — a proper CRM does that. Jobber doesn't.
The pipeline is the backbone of your CRM — a visual board showing every job from first contact to money in the bank. Here are the 7 stages we set up for trades businesses at Bare Bayside Labs:
| Stage | What It Means |
|---|---|
| New Enquiry | Someone's reached out — form submission, phone call, text. They're in the system. |
| Quote Sent | You've assessed the job and sent a written quote. |
| Quote Accepted | They've said yes. Job confirmed. |
| Job Scheduled | A date is locked in. It's on the calendar. |
| Job Complete | Work's done. Customer's happy. |
| Invoice Sent | You've sent the invoice (manually or automatically through Zoho). |
| Paid | Money's in the account. Deal closed. |
Now when you open the Deals module, you'll see a Kanban board with your 7 columns. Drag a deal from one column to the next as the job progresses.
Zoho's default fields are built for generic sales teams. Here are four custom fields that match how a trades business actually works.
What kind of work is it? Add the options that match your trade:
Go to Setup > Customisation > Modules and Fields > Deals > Add Field > choose Pick List. Name it "Job Type" and add your options.
This tells you which job types you do most, which are most profitable, and which you're winning vs losing quotes on. We set this up for a sparkie in Hampton and within two months he could see that switchboard upgrades had a 70% conversion rate while rewires sat at 15%. He stopped quoting rewires for free.
Where is the job? Add a text field called "Suburb" to the Deal record. It helps you schedule jobs efficiently by grouping nearby suburbs together. Over time it shows you which areas your best customers come from — so you know where to focus your advertising.
Zoho has a default "Amount" field on Deals, but add a separate "Quoted Amount" field. The default Amount becomes the final invoiced amount (what you actually got paid). Quoted Amount tracks what you originally quoted. The difference tells you how often jobs go over or under quote — critical for pricing future work.
How did this customer find you? Options to include:
This is the most valuable field in your CRM. After three months, you'll know exactly which marketing channels put money in your pocket and which ones waste it. We had a plumber in Mentone who discovered 80% of his best jobs came from property manager referrals. He stopped spending $600/month on Google Ads and put that into building property manager relationships instead.
To add these fields: Setup > Customisation > Modules and Fields > select the module > drag a field type onto the layout > name it > save.
Once your pipeline and fields are set up, turn on these three automations. They handle the busywork that costs you jobs when it falls through the cracks.
What it does: The second someone fills out your website enquiry form, they get an email confirming you received their message.
Why it matters: If someone doesn't hear back within a few hours, they call your competitor. An instant email buys you time and makes you look professional — even if you're knee-deep in a trench when the enquiry comes in.
How to set it up:
Template to use: "Hi {First Name}, thanks for getting in touch. We've got your message and we'll be back to you within 2 hours. If it's urgent, call us on {your number}."
What it does: When you move a deal to "Quote Sent" and the customer hasn't responded after 3 days, the system sends a polite follow-up email automatically.
Why it matters: People get busy. Your quote got buried under 50 other emails. A simple nudge brings it back to the top.
Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads (The Annuitas Group). At Bare Bayside Labs, we've found that a single follow-up email after quoting recovers roughly 1 in 5 deals that would have gone cold. For a tradie quoting $3,000-$5,000 jobs, that's $600-$1,000 recovered per week just from one automated email.
How to set it up:
Template to use: "Hi {First Name}, just checking in on the quote we sent through for your {Job Type}. Happy to answer any questions or adjust the scope if needed. No rush — just wanted to make sure it didn't get lost in your inbox."
What it does: Two hours after you move a deal to "Job Complete," the customer gets an email asking for a Google review.
Why it matters: Google reviews are the single biggest driver of local search rankings for trades businesses. Automation means every completed job gets a review request — no exceptions, no forgetting.
How to set it up:
Template to use: "Hi {First Name}, glad we could help with your {Job Type}. If you were happy with the work, would you mind leaving us a quick Google review? Takes 30 seconds and helps other locals find us. {Google Review Link}. Thanks again."
We set this up for a builder in Beaumaris who went from 12 Google reviews to 47 in four months. His quote requests jumped 35% in the same period — people trust reviews.
Let's talk numbers.
Zoho One: $45 AUD/employee/month (billed annually). This includes Zoho CRM, Zoho Forms, Zoho Marketing Automation, Zoho Analytics, Zoho Invoice, and 40+ other apps. For a sole trader or a small team, this is everything you need. No add-ons, no surprise fees.
Setup time: Follow this guide and you'll have the pipeline, custom fields, and three automations running in 2-3 hours. A Sunday afternoon, not a month-long project.
Cost of not having it: A trades business with 30 enquiries a month and a $2,000 average job value that converts 30% of quotes is doing $18,000/month. If poor follow-up drops that conversion rate to 20%, that's $6,000/month left on the table — $72,000 a year. The CRM costs $540/year.
If you already use Zoho CRM on its own (not Zoho One), the Standard plan starts at $20 AUD/user/month. You get the pipeline, custom fields, and workflow automations covered in this guide. Adding Marketing Automation for email sequences and lead scoring is separate, which is why most of our clients go with Zoho One — it bundles everything.
Getting the CRM running is step one. Here's what to do in the first 30 days to make sure it sticks.
Week 1: Log every new enquiry as a Lead. Every quote as a Deal. Fill in the Job Type, Suburb, Quoted Amount, and Referral Source fields every time. Build the habit now.
Week 2: Check your pipeline view every morning. How many quotes are sitting in "Quote Sent"? How many jobs are scheduled? This becomes your daily dashboard.
Week 3: Look at your Referral Source data. Where are your leads actually coming from? If 60% are word of mouth and you're spending $500/month on Google Ads, that's worth knowing.
Week 4: Review your automations. Did the confirmation emails go out? Did the quote follow-ups fire? Adjust the email templates based on what you're seeing.
After the first month, the system runs itself. Your job is to move deals through the stages and let the automations handle the rest. For a deeper dive into follow-up sequences, read our guide on how to stop losing leads with automated follow-ups.
No. The pipeline view is a visual board — you drag deals from one column to the next as the job progresses. The mobile app works well too, so you can update a deal from the job site in 30 seconds. The learning curve is about a week of regular use.
Yes. Zoho has a mobile app for iOS and Android. You can add leads, move deals through stages, check your pipeline, and call customers directly from the app. It syncs in real time with the desktop version.
Yes. In Zoho, a Lead is someone who's enquired but you haven't quoted yet. Once you send a quote, convert the Lead into a Contact and a Deal. The Deal tracks the job through your pipeline. This gives you clean data: you can see how many enquiries turn into quotes, and how many quotes turn into jobs. If you're not sure whether you need a CRM at all yet, read our guide on how to know if you need a CRM.
You can import them. Go to Setup > Data Administration > Import, upload your CSV or Excel file, and map the columns to the right CRM fields. Clean up the data first — remove duplicates and make sure email addresses are valid. A messy import creates a messy CRM. If you're deciding between sticking with your spreadsheet or switching, read CRM vs Spreadsheet: When It's Time to Switch.
Zoho CRM Standard ($20/user/month) covers everything in this guide. But if you also want email sequences, lead scoring, web forms, and analytics — things most growing trades businesses need within 6 months — Zoho One at $45/employee/month is better value than buying each app separately.
Book a free strategy call. We'll build your Zoho CRM pipeline, custom fields, and automations — done in an afternoon.
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