In today’s market, salespeople have their pick of several customer relationship management (CRM) software programs. And they’re all quite useful in accomplishing the goal. Google Sheets, on the other hand, has two important benefits over competing products: If you’re already familiar with how to use it, it’s free.
In some cases, a Google Sheets sales tracker may be an attractive option for those who don’t want to invest in specialized software or who simply prefer a simple spreadsheet to move customers through the sales pipeline.
The question is, where do you begin? It is possible to use Google Sheets as a CRM platform that fits your basic needs, as explained below:
- Get a customer relationship management template
- Create your own
- Customize and adapt to your specific requirements
- Share it carefully
-
Get a customer relationship management template
Inspect the template to make sure it fulfills your expectations. Among other things, it should help you with relationship management and analytics, for example. Templates that are comprehensive and well-designed can easily be found online. Despite the fact that Google Sheets is free, it is possible that some of the templates are not.
A CRM for Google Sheets is available for free by simply entering your name, email address and phone number in the form provided by HubSpot CRM.As a result, the options available to you when shopping online are numerous. The best course of action is to test out a couple of them and see which one best suits your requirements.
-
Create your own
If you’d want to build a simple CRM in Google Sheets from scratch rather than using these templates, that’s totally ok too. With Google Sheets, you can create a list of contacts and organize their information into columns for name, phone number, email, notes and so on. It is possible to import a list of contacts from Excel or Outlook into the spreadsheet, and then begin filling out the columns.
If you’re a one-person operation serving a modest number of clients, this should suffice. You will, however, need a system that does not necessitate as much manual data entry and can handle vast volumes of data as your list increases and your staff expands, as well.
-
Customize and adapt to your specific requirements
With Google Sheets, you have the freedom to tailor the program’s features to your own needs. In contrast to a general design or software platform, your CRM database and sales spreadsheet will present data that is vital to you, not what is displayed by the default.
You should alter the flow of Google Sheets as you use it to keep track of your client interactions. Examine how you’re using the software and make adjustments until you’re putting in the least amount of data feasible while still making optimal use of what you do have available.
-
Share it carefully
If you collaborate with others, your CRM may need to be shared. Fortunately, Google Sheets has a “Share” button in the upper right corner that allows you to share it with a small group of people or allow anybody with the link to read and change it.
However, you should proceed with caution, especially if you’re working with a sales CRM. If both of you contact the same sales prospects, for example, this might lead to problems. If you use Google Sheets, you’re on your own when it comes to protecting yourself from this scenario.
When deciding who has access and editing rights, make sure you do it wisely. In order to avoid interfering with one another while working on the spreadsheet, you might want to create separate sheets, each containing a different list.