Microsoft Excel is the foundation on which many a businesses run. It can be a simple sheet to list out items, similar to a grocery list, or can actually be an interface for a video game! One very common use of Excel spreadsheets is lead capturing. While lead capturing used to happen manually, today there are multiple integration tools available that allow you to sync your email with Excel, so form data coming in from your website can directly be added to the Excel sheet.
Even with these incredible powers, however, Excel does have some shortfalls, ones that CRM tools are capable to fulfill. In this article, we list out 5 such advantages CRM tools have over Excel, and these are also reasons why you should considering implementing a CRM tool like Salesforce as your lead management system as opposed to using Excel.
Reason 1 – You have teams working on the leads in collaboration
Leads are serviced by multiple teams as they pass down the sales funnel. Starting from the front end sales team to the back end support team, everyone plays a role. The advantage CRM tools like Salesforce have over excel is that they are amazing for collaborative teams. Leads can be assigned to different teams/individuals, real-time conversations can occur, hand-overs can be made, etc.
Reason 2 – You’re looking for a feature rich lead servicing tool
Servicing a lead happens in multiple steps. Each of these steps can be executed better and faster with the help of tools. For example, a calendar can help keep call or meeting schedules, book appointments and set reminders. A conferencing tool can help multiple members joining a meeting do so with no confusion. Now with excel, you would need to do each of these tasks on separate tools and then track each of them. With most CRM tools, however, these lead servicing tools come in-built making the entire process seamless and simple.
Reason 3 – You want to automate repetitive tasks
CRM tools offer great automation possibilities. Right from passing lead data through your website’s form to the backend, to sending out response and follow up emails, allocating responsibilities, and collecting, sorting and storing documents. Now with excel, each of these would be manual jobs requiring multiple workers, taking much more time.
Reason 4 – When you want to track the performance of your emails
A CRM tool’s email reporting system works like that of an email provider. You can track the number of emails that landed in an inbox, spam or bounced, the number of opens, clicks, etc. This data provides some extremely meaningful insights that you can leverage to plan out the next steps of lead servicing. You can prepare different styled emails with different messaging for people who have clicked (maximum interest) and those who haven’t even opened (minimum interest) your emails.
Reason 5 – You want to integrate your lead collection system with third party apps
Some CRM tools do not provide all the features we have listed above. However, all CRM tools come with the ability to integrate with third party tools that let you use all the mentioned features seamlessly, something that excel does not. For example, if your CRM solution does not have an email reporting system, you can integrate it with an emailing solution, like MailChimp for example, and reap all the benefits.
Conclusion
We don’t mean any disrespect to the veteran of business tools here. We love excel as much as the next entrepreneur. In fact, we use it on a daily basis. However, for some situations, it makes sense to shell out a little money and implement a solution that saves time and effort, and in the long run money, hence paying for itself and then some!
Looking to implement SalesForce within your organization? Drop us a message and we’ll build a custom solution to suit your needs.