From Excel to CRM – The necessary switch to uplift your business

Excel seems like a familiar face when you start a new business, so without wasting time you embrace and start using it. However, as you move ahead and encounter different business challenges, the difficulty level escalates with the limitations of an excel.

Limitations of using Excel –

• You cannot share data between different locations
• There is lack of transparency between the sales teams
• You cannot track your emails or know if a client has opened your email
• There are high chances of losing data
• If the list exceeds hundred, it becomes challenging to manage the data
• The situation becomes worst when you think of expanding your team
• You cannot check the status of a deal
• If you add a data it won’t show up in other files means rest of the team member will not receive the updated information
• You will need a separate messaging and calling software, calendar and various other tools to function effectively

These limitations, can not only be a hindrance in your workflow but also affect your business growth and make your survival difficult in the industry. The best solution to deal with these issues is to switch to a CRM (customer relationship management technology) that will not only help in building a healthy relationship with your customers but also organize your various operations. It is the best tool to gain control over your data and streamline your workflow to accelerate productivity and augment profitability.

CRM is a perfect partner of your sales team, as it gives them clear visibility of their sales cycle and provides them frequent updates about their deals. It keeps every member of the team on the same page and helps the head of the team to assign tasks and analyze the performance of each member to increase the win rate.

With the rising competition in the industry, CRM has become a powerful strategy of businesses, as it enriches organization’s work processes and helps them in staying ahead. To beat the rising competition, it is necessary to upgrade from conventional excel files to the modern way of operating business.

Still confused? Don’t worry read below to clear your doubt about choosing a CRM over an excel file –

Workflow Automation

Eliminate the repetitive task of entering data in a spreadsheet with a CRM, that automates processes and saves your precious time. Using workflow automation, CRM allows you to automatically fetch contact data from web forms or survey sheets and store it as deals or contacts in your CRM as per the workflow set by you. It gives sales rep time to focus on more important aspects like approaching new prospects and following up on old ones. Once new deals enter your sales pipeline, the CRM helps nurture these deals by automating your emails using workflows.

E.g. An automatically generated email is sent out for introducing your product or service or following up with prospects regarding deals.

Tracking

CRM unlike excel does more than just storing data. It allows you to keep a stringent track on your deal activities and emails to ensure you do not skip an opportunity. CRM keeps you updated with the past and present actions of each deal and notifies you when an email is clicked and read. Such crucial information can be a strong base to take immediate actions and aid you in clinching more deals. It is also a useful tool for the sales leaders to track their team’s performance to know if they are meeting their target and helps in identifying the areas that need improvement.

Reporting

Reports are vital to track and analyze the progress of your business towards its vision and goals. It gives a better insight into the performance of your organization. Though excel is the old player in creating reports, but its inability to handle huge amount of data has made CRM the preferred choice for developing complex reports for vast records across different timelines. CRM allows you to create various kinds of informative reports to track development, identify loopholes, plan new strategies and review team’s performance.

Data Security

Handling data in an excel becomes a cumbersome job with its various constraints and there is even a risk of losing data while copying or updating the records. A web-based CRM is a secured solution to protect your sensitive data from being lost. It is confined to various security policies to ensure your important data is safe. Yes, there can be sudden hard drive crashes but even in that case, if you have a strong web host and data backup, you do not need to fear as your data will be secured.

Forecasting Sales

An excel can give you the details of the past and current data but it cannot help you in predicting the future of your business. CRM helps you in doing that; using the past data, you can forecast the sales for the upcoming months. With a good CRM, you can make accurate sales projections which will help in identifying problems and planning the course of action to achieve successful results.

Sales Metrics

Metrics are essential to grow your business and they are mainly very critical in sales to track performance and take the right decisions. However, calculating these metrics using excel spreadsheet formula can be complicated as well as consume your precious work hours. With a CRM, you can instantly get accurate metrics on various sales aspects. It is a quick and easy solution to measure vital metrics for improving and progressing in sales.

Summing up

Working within limits can be a big roadblock in your revenue growth. Avoid it, by switching to a smarter alternative like CRM, that helps in expanding your boundaries to reach your business goals quickly. Instead of struggling with multiple spreadsheets to find a single contact you can centralize your contacts and work seamlessly with a CRM. Tools like Salesmate CRM, allows you to do much more than just organizing data, you can manage your deals, automate repetitive tasks, track you deal activities, analyze your sales team’s performance, create customized reports, forecast sales etc. It is the best tool for your sales teams as it provides complete control over their sales cycle for closing maximum deals in less time.