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Use Notion AI to Build a CRM Pipeline

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a CRM dashboard for your sales pipeline with Notion AI. Instead of creating the dashboard manually (pages, subpages, setting toggles), all of this will be done for you using the power of Notion AI.

Who is this useful for:

  • Entrepreneurs who need to track leads
  • Freelancers managing client relationships
  • Sales professionals looking for a lightweight CRM solution
  • Small business owners who don’t want the complexity of traditional CRMs
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STEP 1: Getting started with Notion

To begin, head over to Notion.so. Once you’re on the homepage, you’ll see your main dashboard.

From here, open up the Notion AI feature. I recommend collapsing the side panel to keep your workspace clean - it just makes everything easier to navigate.

If you’re on a business plan (around $24/month), you’ll also get access to integrations like Gmail, Slack, Notion Mail, and cloud storage services. That’s powerful if you want to sync files or automate tasks.

But for this walkthrough, we’ll keep it simple and focus on building the CRM directly inside Notion.

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STEP 2: Submit your prompt to Notion AI

Here’s what I asked it to create:

A CRM pipeline database where I can track leads from first contact through conversion. Add filters for:

  • Email
  • Type of subscriber (free vs. paid)
  • First contact
  • Second contact
  • Did they convert?
  • Why didn’t they convert?

Honestly, you don’t even need to over-engineer the prompt. Notion AI is smart enough to structure things logically, and it saves you the hours we used to spend manually building sub-pages, toggles, and custom views.


STEP 3: Submit your prompt

After drafting the prompt, I clicked Submit. Notion AI immediately started building the database structure.

This is where I realized how much faster this is than doing it by hand. Yes, Notion AI isn’t perfect, but the fact that it’s integrated right into your workspace makes it incredibly efficient.

For example, when it finished, it even asked me if I wanted to add pipeline stages like:

  • Follow-up
  • Assigned to
  • Next step

This is how you can make your database more extensive by agreeing to the suggestions of Notion AI.

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STEP 4: Review and refine the database

The AI generated a new page titled CRM – Sales Pipeline, with all the requested fields.

At this point, I recommend reviewing the database and making small tweaks:

  • Change toggle fields into checkboxes or yes/no buttons, depending on your workflow.
  • Add any extra filters unique to your business (e.g., “Deal Size,” “Industry,” etc.).

From my experience, this step is where you’ll save hours compared to building from scratch. It feels more like refining than creating, and that’s a huge win.


STEP 5: Put it into practice

Once your CRM pipeline is ready, start adding your actual leads by pasting them into Notion AI in the window pop-up on the right. Over time, this becomes your central hub for managing outreach and tracking conversions.

It’s not flawless, but for SOPs, process docs, and database setups, I’ve found it makes my workflow way easier.


Pro Tip: Experiment with different prompt styles. For example, instead of saying “create me a CRM,” try “create a sales pipeline with Kanban stages” or “build a lead tracker with follow-up reminders.” The more specific you are, the better your results.