Best Basic CRM for just Client interactions and management?

Hi guys, there are so many CRM on the net, I am pretty much very confused which CRM is the best for me.

I run 2 small distribution business representing a brand in 2 countries, working/selling to a few wholesalers to distribute the products to retailers, while we focus on marketing to generate consumer demands.

I am currently hiring a full time Customer Relationship Executive and what she would be doing are a courtesy calls to our wholesaler's retailer to check up on issues like stock level, any challenges in selling to the public consumers as well as gathering market feedbacks.

So here's the catch, in total, I have about 4000 retailer outlets to call over 2 countries. While we only focused on the top 20% retailers that generates 80% of the income, it is still so many and I can't continue to use excel to contain all the updates anymore.

Thus, I am looking for a software that would help me track interactions with each retailer and could even remind me to reach out to a retailer if I haven't talked/emailed or met with them in a certain amount of time. Something that would allow me to mark and let me write up a summary of what we have talked about in a phone call, email or even met in person with a client and this was their concerns/worries at the time and this is what I need to follow up on, either with my marketing team or my wholesale clients who manages those retailer

The CRM system does not need to track sales (because we already get total sales number from our wholesalers) but everytime I try a CRM, it is either pretty sales heavy, confusing to use or just costs a lot.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a CRM that could do what I need?

Thank you!