Do you need a CRM, or will a spreadsheet do?

Almost every business starts tracking customers in a spreadsheet, and for a while it's the right call. It's free, everyone knows how to use it, and you can set it up in ten minutes.

The trouble is that spreadsheets don't tell you when you've outgrown them. They just get slowly harder to trust.

Signs you've outgrown the spreadsheet

• Two people edit it at once and something gets overwritten. Or there are three versions saved in different places.
• Nobody knows what happens next with a lead. There's a notes column, but no clear next step or date.
• Follow-ups depend on someone's memory. When that person is on holiday, leads go quiet.
• You can't answer simple questions quickly. How many quotes went out last month? How many turned into work? Where did your best customers come from?
• Information is copied in by hand. Website enquiries, emails and calls all get typed into the sheet, when they get typed in at all.

If two or three of those sound familiar, the spreadsheet is costing you more than it saves.

Off-the-shelf CRM or your own?

Once you've decided to move, the next question is what to move to.

Off-the-shelf CRMs like HubSpot or Pipedrive are a good fit when your sales process is fairly standard. You get a lot out of the box, they're quick to start, and they connect to most other tools. The catch is that you shape your process around the software, and per-user pricing adds up as the team grows.

A custom CRM makes sense when your process doesn't fit the usual mould. Maybe you sell at trade shows, manage long project pipelines, or need the CRM tied closely into your quoting, stock or job scheduling. Then a system built around how you actually work is often simpler for your team, not more complicated, because it only has the things you use.

We've built both kinds. We built our own project management system because nothing on the market matched how we run client work, and a lead CRM for trade shows where every lead always has a next step and a date.

What a good CRM needs, whichever you choose

• Every lead has an owner and a next action. If you only do one thing, do this.
• Enquiries arrive on their own. Website forms, emails and calls should land in the CRM without anyone typing them in.
• A pipeline you can see at a glance. Where every deal is, and what's stuck.
• Reminders that come to you. A morning list of who to call beats a report nobody opens.
• It fits into the tools you already use. Email, calendar, accounts. Otherwise people drift back to the spreadsheet.

Moving over without the pain

The biggest worry is usually the switch itself. It doesn't need to be a big bang. Import the spreadsheet, clean up the duplicates once, and run both side by side for a couple of weeks if it helps. Most teams stop opening the spreadsheet on their own once enquiries start arriving in the CRM automatically.

If you're not sure which way to go, book a free 30-minute call. We'll look at how you sell today and tell you straight whether an off-the-shelf CRM will do the job or whether it's worth building your own. You might also like our guide to replying to every enquiry in minutes.