I'm Shashikant Shah, a software engineer and digital marketing expert in Kathmandu. CRM development is the customer and lead system behind a business: either a custom build on the same stack as your website, or a proper setup of a CRM you buy. It's for businesses in Nepal that have outgrown a spreadsheet: consultancies, real estate, clinics, dealerships, schools. It sits with the software development I do and the automation that feeds it.

Short answer: CRM development in Nepal means deciding whether to buy or build, then getting every lead from WhatsApp, Facebook, the website and the phone into one pipeline with stages that match how you sell, logging calls and messages against each contact, and reporting what closed. Expect a written scope, a build in weeks, and a system in your name.

When you need this

The usual picture is a business that sells through conversations. An education consultancy in Putalisadak gets forty enquiries a week on WhatsApp, Messenger and the website form. Two counsellors reply from their own phones, and when one leaves, the leads leave with her.

Or the business already bought a CRM. Someone signed up for HubSpot or Zoho, imported a spreadsheet, and nobody logged in after the second week, because the stages didn't match how deals move and WhatsApp wasn't in it.

The third case is a product business that needs the pipeline inside its own software: a booking system, a member portal, a dealer network. A separate CRM synced by hand is worse than none.

The problems I see most often:

  • Leads in five places: WhatsApp, Messenger, Viber, a Google Sheet and someone's notebook, with no single list of who is waiting.
  • No record of calls, so the owner can't tell whether a lead went cold or was never called.
  • Pipeline stages copied from a template that don't match the real steps, so staff stop updating them.
  • Reports built by hand every month from exports, a day late and already wrong.
  • A CRM only the person who set it up understands, on their personal login.

What I actually do

  • Buy or build: I look at how you sell today and tell you in writing whether HubSpot, Zoho or Pipedrive does the job, or whether a custom build is worth it. You get a decision with reasons before any money is spent.
  • Pipeline design: stages that match your real steps, from first message to payment, with the fields a follow up will need later. You get a board your staff keep updated because it looks like their day.
  • Lead intake: the website form, Facebook lead forms, WhatsApp and calls land in the pipeline automatically, usually through n8n workflows. You get every lead in one list within a minute of it arriving.
  • WhatsApp and call logging: each conversation and call recorded against the contact, with a reminder when the next follow up is due. You get to see, per lead, what was said and when.
  • When it is a custom build: React or Next.js for the interface, Node.js with PostgreSQL or MongoDB behind it, role based access, the same stack as my backend and web development work. You get software you own, in your own repository.
  • Reports: a weekly view of new leads, follow ups done, and conversion by source and by person. You get numbers you don't build in a spreadsheet, connected to the tracking on your website so you know which ad or page each lead came from.
  • Training and handover: an hour with the people who will use it, written steps, and every login in your name. A real estate developer or an education consultancy needs this most, because the lead volume is high.

How it works

First call and scoping. The first thirty minutes are free. You walk me through one lead from first message to payment, and I tell you whether to buy, build or fix what you have. If you go ahead, scoping gives you a written document: the stages, the fields, the intake sources, the reports, who has access, the weeks it takes, a fixed price, and what's not included.

The work. A setup of an existing CRM with automated intake usually takes two to four weeks. A custom build takes longer, and the scope says how long. Either way it's done in your accounts, or in a repository under your GitHub account, and your staff use the pipeline with real leads before the end, not after a launch.

Reporting, and what you keep. You get the CRM's own reports, and while I'm involved, a monthly plain language note on what's working and what your team is skipping. You keep the code, the repository, the hosting and every login. If it's a bought CRM, the subscription is yours and I'm a user you can remove.

Proof from CRM development work

I haven't published a CRM engagement with numbers yet, and I won't invent one. The nearest published results by mechanism are two Google Ads engagements: an education consultancy where cost per lead went from NPR 3,500 to NPR 2,100 and leads roughly doubled at an unchanged NPR 300,000 a month, and a home services business where cost per acquisition fell from NPR 4,722 to NPR 2,571 in 90 days. Those are about getting the lead. A CRM is about not losing it afterwards. Some of these came from engagements I worked on as part of an agency team, so read them as account totals rather than mine alone.

Jhalko and Cosmos College of Management and Technology are on the case studies page for lead generation and enrolment campaigns. Neither was a CRM build. The baselines and dates for the figures above are on the same page.

What CRM development costs

A CRM is quoted per project after the first call, because the scope decides the price. Everything I build is created in your name, on accounts and hosting you control, so ending the engagement costs you nothing but my access. My published retainer for ongoing work is USD 1,800 a month, about NPR 245,000, and the audit and sprint prices are on the pricing page. The first thirty minute call is free, and if a bought CRM set up properly does the job, I'll quote the setup and not a build.

Questions about CRM development

Why build a CRM instead of using HubSpot or Zoho?

Most of the time you shouldn't, and I'll say so. A bought CRM set up properly, with leads flowing in automatically, is cheaper and faster for most businesses in Nepal. A custom build earns its cost when the pipeline has to live inside your own product, or your process doesn't fit a generic one.

Can it log WhatsApp messages and calls?

Yes. Calls and WhatsApp conversations get logged against the contact, with a reminder when the next follow up is due, because in Nepal that's where the sale happens. How much can be automated depends on which WhatsApp product you use, and I'll set out the honest options on the first call.

How long does it take?

A setup of an existing CRM with automated lead intake usually takes two to four weeks. A custom build is more often two to three months. You get the timeline in the scoping document before you decide.

What does it cost?

It's quoted per project after scoping. A setup is a much smaller job than a build, and I'll tell you which one you need before quoting either. My retainer for ongoing work is USD 1,800 a month, about NPR 245,000, and the rest is on the pricing page.

Can it connect to n8n or other automation?

Yes. A CRM is usually the best place to wire automation into: lead routing, follow up reminders, a WhatsApp message when a stage changes. I build those on n8n so you can see and change them yourself.

When are you not the right person?

If you want a sales team managed, or daily data entry done for you, I'm not that. If your company already runs a large enterprise CRM with its own consultants, I'll say so and let them do it. I'm right for a business in Nepal that needs the system built or set up by one person who will also hand it over.

All services · AI automation with n8n · Backend development · Software development expert · Software development in Nepal · Pricing.

Tell me about your sales process

Send me the stages a lead moves through today, from first message to payment, and I'll tell you whether to buy, build or fix what you have, whether or not you hire me. The first thirty minutes are free.

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