How to manage customers and business leads: telephone and Excel vs CRM

In the business world, especially in sales and marketing teams, efficiency in customer and lead management is crucial. But, traditionally, tools such as the telephone and Excel have been the pillars of this management. This is great at the beginning of a business, when you don’t have enough resources to devote to this. But as your business grows, these methods can fall short.

In contrast, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems are designed specifically for managing customer relationships, offering advanced storage, analysis and automation capabilities that allow you to understand and manage customer interactions more effectively and strategically. Here’s how a CRM system can be the solution you need to take your customer relationship management to the next level.

• Top +30: the best CRM tools for your business (2023)

Traditional management: Phone and Excel VS CRM

Using an Excel spreadsheet and a telephone to manage customers and leads has been done by all of us, in the early stages of a business, as these tools are accessible and easy to use. With Excel, you can create lists, record sales and monitor activities, while the phone allows you to communicate directly and personally with your customers.

Limitations of Excel vs. the advantages of a CRM

However, this way of working has certain limitations. Manual data entry is error-prone and time-consuming, which can make it difficult to maintain up-to-date information on customers and leads. In addition, Excel lacks the ability to automate key processes, such as data capture and real-time updating. This hinders efficient collaboration between teams, as these files do not allow simultaneous editing by multiple users, leading to problems of duplicate versions and inconsistent data. In summary, its limitations are:

1. Difficulty updating and sharing information: Excel files need to be updated manually, a process that can be tedious and error-prone.
2. Lack of integration: Phone calls and data in Excel are often not synchronized, which can lead to a fragmented view of the customer.
3. Limited scalability: As your customer base grows, maintaining and analyzing large volumes of data in Excel becomes unsustainable.
4. Restricted access to information: If you are not in the office or do not have access to the file, the information you need will not be available.

6 advantages of switching to a CRM

In contrast, CRMs offer a comprehensive solution for customer and lead management. Automation is one of the main advantages of CRMs, as it simplifies the efficient capture and updating of data. CRMs also facilitate collaboration by allowing multiple users to access and update data in real time from any location. This improves communication between teams and ensures that everyone is working with the latest information, which is critical for effective customer relationship management.

In addition to automation and collaboration, CRMs offer advanced analytics and reporting capabilities. These tools enable companies to identify trends, segment customers and make strategic decisions based on accurate, real-time data. The customized reports and clear data visualizations provided by CRMs help companies better understand customer behavior and optimize their sales and marketing strategies.

Another key advantage of CRMs is security and reliable data storage. Data stored in a CRM cloud is protected by robust security measures, reducing the risk of data loss due to hardware failure or human error. This provides businesses with peace of mind and ensures secure access to data from any authorized device, which is essential in a modern, highly connected business environment.

In summary, I show you below how a CRM can overcome the limitations of Excel and the telephone:

1. Automation and efficiency: A CRM reduces manual workload by automating tasks such as data entry, lead tracking, and marketing campaign management.
2. Comprehensive view of the customer: Offers a 360-degree view of your customers, consolidating all interaction, purchase history, preferences and contact data in a single platform. This facilitates better decision making and service personalization.
3. Accessibility and collaboration: A cloud-based CRM allows access to information from anywhere and at any time, facilitating real-time collaboration between teams.
4. Scale with your business: CRMs are designed to grow with your business. They can handle large volumes of data and a growing number of users without loss of performance.
5. Analysis and reporting: The ability to generate reports and analyze data is much more advanced in a CRM than in Excel, allowing you to gain insights into sales performance, campaign effectiveness and more.
6. Improved customer satisfaction: By centralizing information and making it accessible, you can respond more quickly to customer inquiries and better anticipate their needs, which in turn can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Why it is important to make the leap to CRM

This change can be challenging, but it is critical to business growth and efficiency. With a CRM, organizations can focus on better understanding and meeting individual customer needs, leading to a stronger and more profitable relationship. As an example, here is the case of how Conservas Los Peperetes changed this management system for the CRM Pipedrive and the results obtained:

• What is Pipedrive CRM and how does it work, used by over 95,000 companies worldwide

A CRM offers efficiency and automation, as well as giving you the ability to offer a more personalized service tailored to each customer’s individual needs. If you’re considering taking the leap, exploring options like Pipedrive can be a good start. This CRM is 100% sales-oriented, helps you organize and prioritize activities, automate repetitive tasks and improve the efficiency of business processes. If you want to try Pipedrive, you can do so from our affiliate link, which includes a 30-day free trial and a 20% discount on the first year:

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