CRM fundamentals
CRM fundamentals is a free, beginner online course from Herizon.
Learn what a CRM does and how to keep one clean, whichever tool your employer uses: contacts, companies and deals, pipeline stages, data hygiene, reports and forecasts, the Finnish and EU rules for emailing and phoning business contacts, which CRMs the ads name and what they cost, and the free certificates for your CV.
You finish with Customer Relationship Management, Data Quality and Sales Pipeline Management added to your Herizon profile.
Free · 26 min read · certificate when you pass the quiz · part of Sales development · last updated 28 October 2026
Free account, about two minutes. You can join if you live in the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland, or a partner organisation invited you.
Already have an account? Open it in the portalA look inside the course
Veera starts as a junior in sales and marketing operations at Pihlaja Software in Oulu. The company sells Pihlaja Route, route planning software for freight firms. Her manager Teemu gives her three jobs. First, clean the Oulu Logistics Fair list before it goes into the CRM. Second, get the pipeline ready for the quarterly review. Third, handle an opt-out from a phone call. Each part of this course follows one of them. Pihlaja Software and every person in it are invented.
It takes about 26 min of reading, plus exercises, a short quiz and a practice task. It teaches Customer Relationship Management, Data Quality and Sales Pipeline Management. Pass the short quiz at the end to get a certificate.
What you will be able to do
- Explain what contacts, companies, deals and activities are, and why one email is one contact.
- Clean a lead list before it goes into a CRM.
- Build pipeline stages that describe what the buyer has done, and keep deals honest.
- Prepare a weekly pipeline review and read a weighted forecast.
- Follow the Finnish rules for emailing and phoning business contacts, and say where you got their data.
- Compare four CRMs by free tier and price, and pick a free certificate for your CV.
Who it is for
Anyone starting a job that uses a CRM, or applying for one: sales support, sales development, marketing coordination, customer success or operations. No technical background needed. This course is not legal advice. It explains what the Finnish Data Protection Ombudsman says, so you know when to ask your employer's data protection contact.
The situation you work through
Veera, a made-up junior in sales and marketing operations at Pihlaja Software in Oulu, cleans a trade-fair lead list, tidies a pipeline before the quarterly review, builds a weighted forecast and handles a phone opt-out in her first week.
Your practice task
On an invented example, clean a trade-fair list of six rows with a duplicate, a generic address and a source column, and mark each address fine to email or on hold with a written reason. Review three invented deals with amount, stage and win chance, flag one that was quiet for more than 30 days, and calculate the open pipeline and weighted forecast before and after you close it. Write a short note on one phone opt-out. Submit the cleaned list, the pipeline review and the note. Use no real customer data.
Key topics
- What a CRM is and why jobs ask for it
- Contacts, companies and deals
- Cleaning a lead list before import
- Pipelines and stages
- Keeping the data clean
- Reporting and forecasting
and 5 more pages
What you get when you pass
A certificate with your name, the course and the date. Sharing it is your choice. If you share it, it has a public link that anyone can open to check it, and you can add it to LinkedIn.
Common questions about CRM fundamentals
- Is CRM fundamentals free?
- Yes. The course is free with a Herizon account, and the account is free too.
- How long does CRM fundamentals take?
- It takes about 26 min of reading, plus exercises, a short quiz and a practice task. You can stop and continue later, because the portal keeps your place.
- Do I get a certificate?
- Yes. Pass the short quiz at the end to get a certificate you can share, for example on LinkedIn.
- What do I need to start?
- A free Herizon account. The course is written at beginner level.
- Who can join Herizon?
- You can join if you live in the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland, or a partner organisation invited you.
- Who is CRM fundamentals for?
- Anyone starting a job that uses a CRM, or applying for one: sales support, sales development, marketing coordination, customer success or operations. No technical background needed. This course is not legal advice. It explains what the Finnish Data Protection Ombudsman says, so you know when to ask your employer's data protection contact.
Start CRM fundamentals free
Start this course freeCommon questions about CRM fundamentals
- Is CRM fundamentals free?
- Yes. The course is free with a Herizon account, and the account is free too.
- How long does CRM fundamentals take?
- It takes about 26 min of reading, plus exercises, a short quiz and a practice task. You can stop and continue later, because the portal keeps your place.
- Do I get a certificate?
- Yes. Pass the short quiz at the end to get a certificate you can share, for example on LinkedIn.
- What do I need to start?
- A free Herizon account. The course is written at beginner level.
- Who can join Herizon?
- You can join if you live in the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland, or a partner organisation invited you.
- Who is CRM fundamentals for?
- Anyone starting a job that uses a CRM, or applying for one: sales support, sales development, marketing coordination, customer success or operations. No technical background needed. This course is not legal advice. It explains what the Finnish Data Protection Ombudsman says, so you know when to ask your employer's data protection contact.
More in Sales development
- SaaS business fundamentals35 min · 11 pages
- Sales fundamentals38 min · 13 pages
- Cold outreach that works33 min · 11 pages
- B2B sales in the Nordics40 min · 11 pages
- Salesforce essentials20 min · 7 pages
- HubSpot CRM for sales and marketing jobs24 min · 11 pages
- Account executive: the B2B sales cycle24 min · 11 pages