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Gallery CRM fields checklist
The field schema a working gallery CRM needs, one row per field with why it matters and an example. Use it to audit your current spreadsheet or Mailchimp list, or as the column plan for a contacts sheet you intend to import later.
Identity and reachability
Name, contact type (collector, advisor, artist, institution, press), email, phone, company, socials, and full address. The type field matters most: an advisor buying for three clients needs different follow-up than a first-time collector, and the CRM guide explains how each relationship type behaves.
Interests and history
Artists followed, mediums, price range, acquisition history, viewing-room engagement, and offers including passes. The last price discussed is the single most valuable field in a gallery CRM: conversations that reopen lower than the last offer lose money silently.
Consent and provenance of the contact
Campaign consent, unsubscribe state, and where the contact came from (fair, referral, walk-in, website). Consent fields are legal hygiene; source fields tell you which fairs actually pay for themselves.
When the spreadsheet version of this schema stops scaling, the same columns import into gallery CRM software where engagement and sales history accumulate automatically instead of being typed in.
FAQ
- Why not just use Mailchimp or HubSpot?
- Generic CRMs have no concept of works, editions, viewing rooms, or consignments, so the art-specific half of this checklist ends up in notes fields that cannot be queried. The CRM guide covers where each generic tool breaks.
- Which fields matter most for a small gallery?
- Type, interests, acquisition history, and last price discussed. Everything else can be filled in over time; those four change what you show and what you quote.
- How should private notes be handled?
- Separate shareable notes from director-only notes from day one. In Art.industries the two are distinct fields with role-based visibility.
- Can I import my existing contact list?
- Yes. Export to CSV from your current tool, align columns with this checklist, and import into a free Core workspace with an AI-suggested mapping and validation preview.
- What about engagement data like room opens?
- That is the part a spreadsheet can never carry: viewing-room opens, per-work attention, and campaign engagement accumulate on the contact automatically once the records live in one system.
More free tools
A CRM with these fields built in
Import 20 contacts into free Core and open one collector record: works owned, rooms viewed, offers made, consent state. The checklist becomes the software.