5 reasons why Excel will never replace a quality CRM
Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2025 8:14 am
Many small businesses or startups start by storing all their information in spreadsheets and documents in Excel or Google Sheets. This strategy works for a short time, but soon order turns to chaos. It becomes difficult to keep track. In addition, Excel does not offer the useful features that come naturally to a dedicated CRM system. Although you can get by without a CRM for a while, the sooner you start using it, the better for your business.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management software . With CRM software, you can track interactions, analyze data, and keep notes about existing and potential customers. The data is stored in a central database and can be used by the entire team in the organization.
You will never beat a system elaborated with a spreadsheet, and in the end, you will often spend much more time maintaining it.
Here are the main reasons to invest in CRM:
1. All data – clearly in one place
If you use Excel, you probably also have several other applications, folders, spreadsheets, and documents – all scattered in several places. CRM centralizes all your customer data and information, such as contact information, history of all communications and customer relationships, and documents.
Additionally, changes made by one user are immediately accessible to the rest of the team, allowing everyone to have complete visibility into every business process and customer when they need it for their work.
74% of users say that a CRM system has improved their access to customer data
In Excel, data just sits there and doesn't work - it just waits, stored on disk. In CRM, on the other hand, data is constantly in action .
2. Automating routine tasks to combat unproductive manual labor
Automation, not only in marketing and sales, is the process by which routine but necessary tasks and processes are performed automatically. In Excel, don't expect automation - unless you program your own macros, prepare for tedious manual editing of cells.
Automation significantly saves time and increases productivity for the entire team. bahamas phone number data For example, marketers save over 25 hours per week thanks to automation .
What automated tools can you find in CRM?
Automate data entry
Salespeople spend an average of 17% of their day entering data . With automation, they can spend that time on something more useful, like their deals and customers.
Personalized email sequences
Based on CRM data, personalized email sequences can be created for automated communication with potential customers.
Automatically record all customer interactions
CRM automatically records phone calls and email communications with your (potential) customers. This automation ensures that you always have up-to-date information about what stage of the sales process a given customer is in.
CRM customer service automation
will greatly help you with customer service, for example using chatbots.
Workflows
Thanks to workflows, some tasks can be performed automatically, based on pre-set rules.
3. Lead management to more leads and customers
If there's one thing Excel really can't do, it's lead management. Lead management is the systematic process of qualifying, analyzing, and nurturing potential customers so that they can be converted into new business opportunities.
The goal of lead management is to ensure that no potential customer slips through your fingers.
Why is CRM an invaluable tool for lead management?
CRM keeps all the information about your potential customers in one place. You can find out everything you need in a matter of seconds.
Lead qualification and scoring will reveal which prospects are truly worth your time.
CRM can help with lead management at every stage – from capturing leads to personalized communication with them. And thanks to automation, the entire process is much faster and more transparent.
4. Reporting easier than ever
A big disadvantage of Excel is that it cannot process large amounts of complex data. With a CRM system, you don't have to worry about this problem because it can store an incredible amount of interconnected information. It can properly analyze it and transform it into valuable insights not only about customer behavior.
CRM offers automated analytical and reporting features that allow you to create up-to-date overviews, for example in the form of dashboards. Dashboards provide visual insight into data at various levels of detail, whether in a table, graph, or a specific indicator.
Did you know that most CRM reports are available in a mobile version? This means that all your data is always at your fingertips.
5. Higher sales, faster process and more accurate forecasts
Will Excel give you a better overview of all your sales data, streamline your sales process, and increase your company's revenue? No. But CRM will.
With CRM, you create a unified and repeatable sales process that provides clarity and integrity for your sales team. If your sales process is scattered across different documents, folders, and applications, your team can’t be on the same page. It must be difficult for them to effectively understand the sales process if it’s not clearly documented.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management software . With CRM software, you can track interactions, analyze data, and keep notes about existing and potential customers. The data is stored in a central database and can be used by the entire team in the organization.
You will never beat a system elaborated with a spreadsheet, and in the end, you will often spend much more time maintaining it.
Here are the main reasons to invest in CRM:
1. All data – clearly in one place
If you use Excel, you probably also have several other applications, folders, spreadsheets, and documents – all scattered in several places. CRM centralizes all your customer data and information, such as contact information, history of all communications and customer relationships, and documents.
Additionally, changes made by one user are immediately accessible to the rest of the team, allowing everyone to have complete visibility into every business process and customer when they need it for their work.
74% of users say that a CRM system has improved their access to customer dataIn Excel, data just sits there and doesn't work - it just waits, stored on disk. In CRM, on the other hand, data is constantly in action .
2. Automating routine tasks to combat unproductive manual labor
Automation, not only in marketing and sales, is the process by which routine but necessary tasks and processes are performed automatically. In Excel, don't expect automation - unless you program your own macros, prepare for tedious manual editing of cells.
Automation significantly saves time and increases productivity for the entire team. bahamas phone number data For example, marketers save over 25 hours per week thanks to automation .
What automated tools can you find in CRM?
Automate data entry
Salespeople spend an average of 17% of their day entering data . With automation, they can spend that time on something more useful, like their deals and customers.
Personalized email sequences
Based on CRM data, personalized email sequences can be created for automated communication with potential customers.
Automatically record all customer interactions
CRM automatically records phone calls and email communications with your (potential) customers. This automation ensures that you always have up-to-date information about what stage of the sales process a given customer is in.
CRM customer service automation
will greatly help you with customer service, for example using chatbots.
Workflows
Thanks to workflows, some tasks can be performed automatically, based on pre-set rules.
3. Lead management to more leads and customers
If there's one thing Excel really can't do, it's lead management. Lead management is the systematic process of qualifying, analyzing, and nurturing potential customers so that they can be converted into new business opportunities.
The goal of lead management is to ensure that no potential customer slips through your fingers.
Why is CRM an invaluable tool for lead management?
CRM keeps all the information about your potential customers in one place. You can find out everything you need in a matter of seconds.
Lead qualification and scoring will reveal which prospects are truly worth your time.
CRM can help with lead management at every stage – from capturing leads to personalized communication with them. And thanks to automation, the entire process is much faster and more transparent.
4. Reporting easier than ever
A big disadvantage of Excel is that it cannot process large amounts of complex data. With a CRM system, you don't have to worry about this problem because it can store an incredible amount of interconnected information. It can properly analyze it and transform it into valuable insights not only about customer behavior.
CRM offers automated analytical and reporting features that allow you to create up-to-date overviews, for example in the form of dashboards. Dashboards provide visual insight into data at various levels of detail, whether in a table, graph, or a specific indicator.
Did you know that most CRM reports are available in a mobile version? This means that all your data is always at your fingertips.5. Higher sales, faster process and more accurate forecasts
Will Excel give you a better overview of all your sales data, streamline your sales process, and increase your company's revenue? No. But CRM will.
With CRM, you create a unified and repeatable sales process that provides clarity and integrity for your sales team. If your sales process is scattered across different documents, folders, and applications, your team can’t be on the same page. It must be difficult for them to effectively understand the sales process if it’s not clearly documented.