Why CRM over Excel?

There are many reasons why a company uses Excel over a proper Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. It’s cheap, easy to use, something that most people are familiar with and most people think it can do the job.

Unlike a CRM system, it’s not always reliable and you cannot share information if you have a sales team that consists of more than one person. However, this is not to say that a single operated business cannot use a CRM system and get the core business advantages from it.

An Excel spreadsheet is messy and it's time consuming to enter and change information as well as share the spreadsheet with others. This is time you could be spending on making sales and doing business that will translate into future success.

Utilising a CRM system for your client accounts will mean:

• Valuable information about your client such as revenue amounts, stages of the sale, decision makers, email tracking, and progress can easily be viewed.
• All information can be shared quickly and easily.
• There is less room for human error when entering and tracking information.
• Charts and lists can be embedded automatically to give you a better view of your sales pipeline.
• Fields can be added to use for grouping and segmenting for marketing.
• Automation of information can occur, such as dates and times, last purchases and when an activity was last completed.

This is not to say that using an Excel spreadsheet is bad or because you have been doing so means your business hasn’t been as successful as it could. It simply means that as a result of using Excel:

• You cannot store files against your prospects; they would need to be stored somewhere else which is time consuming to design and use.
• You cannot automatically share information unless you send the spreadsheet to your colleagues and even then, you would have to continue to send updated versions – to keep everyone singing from the same spreadsheet!
• You cannot convert leads, for example, move them to ‘potential sales’ or ‘sales’.
• You cannot set reminders, unless of course you use the task manager in Outlook; again, time consuming.
• Make informed and clear business decisions.
• Provide accountability to staff and set clear business processes and structures.
• Integrate with an accounting solution to create a 360 degree view of your client relationships.
• You cannot track campaigns that you have attached to your prospects.
• You cannot automatically schedule in tasks to follow up a prospect. You could use Outlook for this purpose but again, this is time consuming to do.

No matter the system, the key is that it is an asset to your business and provides both value and benefit. A CRM system such as Act! has shown that it meets these three requirements.

Although a successful business has more than just a CRM system, it is the CRM system that provides the tools to maximise productivity, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of processes, deliver accountability, and make informed business decisions. If you want these benefits, then a CRM system is the best option for your business.