5 Steps to Use Google Sheets as a CRM (Free Template)

Fast query: what number of enterprise playing cards and/or sticky notes with essential contact data are in your desk proper now? Too many? Yeah, I believed so…

Possibly you’ve at all times had an issue with group. Or perhaps you’re getting so many new leads, it’s change into more durable and more durable to maintain up. (If that is the case, congrats!).

Both method, it’s time for an improve.

A customer relationship management (CRM) platform is a method so that you can retailer important prospect and customer-related knowledge, visualize your pipeline, and automate communication. Not solely that, good CRM apps assist customers assess their whole gross sales course of and enhance it.

When you’re on the lookout for a straightforward method to get began, hold studying. I will present you find out how to flip Google Sheets, a well-liked Microsoft Excel different, right into a viable CRM system.

(Questioning when you’ve got entry to Google Sheets? Ask your self this: “Do I take advantage of Gmail?” If the reply is sure, you may entry Google Sheets, as each apps are a part of Google Workspace.)

Heads up: to make issues as simple as attainable, I am providing you a free CRM spreadsheet template, which I’ve affectionately named SalesTable. That method, you may get rolling with Google Sheets as your CRM as shortly as attainable. Get free entry right here.

What’s a Google Sheets CRM & How Does it Work?

Establishing your individual CRM in Google Sheets means you may keep away from paying for CRM software program (bear in mind: even free packages like HubSpot CRM are sometimes restricted, and may solely be upgraded with paid add-ons).

Listed here are some advantages of utilizing a Google Sheets CRM template:

• Get entry to your lead and buyer knowledge anyplace: Since Google Sheets is a web-based app, you may at all times entry the newest model of your buyer knowledge, and even share it with others
• Retailer and set up your gross sales knowledge without cost: Identical to Google Drive, Docs, and Slides, you need to use Google spreadsheets without cost
• Customise to what you are promoting and wishes: Google Sheets offers you tons of formatting choices and instruments, that means you need to use it to construct and retailer contact lists, help undertaking administration efforts, crunch numbers, and a complete lot extra
• Simply adapt Microsoft Excel worksheets into Google Sheets: Google’s spreadsheet system permits you to entry, edit, and convert Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, that means you may seize a template from anyplace and switch it right into a working CRM system.

Necessary Google Sheets Phrases

When you’re not aware of Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or another spreadsheet instrument, you most likely do not perceive what phrases like “cell” and “operate” imply on this context.

I’ve received you coated. Listed here are the fundamental Google Sheets phrases you want to know:

• Cell: A solitary knowledge level inside a spreadsheet
• Column: A vertical line of cells
• Row: A horizontal line of cells
• Vary: A bunch of cells, which extends past a single row or column
• Operate: An motion that enables customers to run calculations, manipulate knowledge, and so forth
• System: The combination of cells, rows, columns, and ranges used to acquire a sure outcome
• Worksheet: The particular set of rows and columns, which make up a spreadsheet
• Spreadsheet: The doc that accommodates all associated worksheets

Right here Are 5 Simple Steps to Begin Utilizing Google Sheets as a CRM

Now that you just’re aware of Google Sheets, let’s dive into the good things. Specifically, how do you flip this app right into a CRM system? It is easy, actually. Simply observe these 5 steps.

1. Make Positive a Google Sheets CRM is Proper for You

Earlier than we begin, let’s make clear that Google Sheets does not substitute an actual CRM.

When you work for a big firm, have a giant gross sales workforce, or have a gross sales pipeline with lots of of prospects and clients, Google Sheets will not minimize it for you as a CRM.

That stated, if you happen to…

• Are a small enterprise seeking to hold your contacts organized
• Make use of one or two junior salespeople, or a bigger, part-time gross sales workforce
• Want a quick and simple method to retailer contacts, however don’t have the price range for a real CRM
• Are a Google energy consumer and wish to supercharge your present workflow with an ideal integration between your CRM and different enterprise instruments

…then a Google Sheets CRM is likely to be a superb launchpad for you and your workforce.

Simply bear in mind: you may at all times transfer to an actual CRM later. If you would like to strive Shut CRM, you may sign up for a free 14-day trial—no bank card required!

2. Make a Copy of Our Free Spreadsheet CRM Template

First, access our Google Sheets CRM template if you happen to haven’t already. After getting it, open it up and choose ‘File’ within the high menu. Then, choose ‘Make a Copy’.

Save time and use this Google Sheet template as a CRM in your Google Drive account. Plus, this template has some fairly cool options that we’ll focus on later.

Now it’s time to adapt this template to what you are promoting.

3. Customise the Google Sheets CRM Template to Match Your Wants

It’s time to make this template scream YOU. Right here’s find out how to do it:

Outline How Your Gross sales Course of Works

When you haven’t already, take time to outline the gross sales course of that you just’re presently utilizing. Write down the steps you’re taking to shut a deal. Then see if you happen to can pinpoint methods to enhance it.

Simply watch out to not overcomplicate your gross sales course of. A easy course of that works is at all times higher than a posh course of that doesn’t. This is among the explanation why I at all times recommend beginning with minimal viable gross sales documentation.

When precisely how your individual gross sales course of works, you’ll be higher ready to regulate the Google Sheets CRM template to your wants.

Alter Alternative Levels

Within the Alternatives sheet of the template, you’ll see all the knowledge for every of your contacts. Right here is the place you’ll discover the column Alternative Stage.

Within the template, there are seven completely different pre-made levels:

• Observe-Up
• Certified
• Demo
• Negotiation
• Gained
• Misplaced
• Unqualified

It’s possible you’ll want to regulate these levels relying on how your gross sales course of works.

Possibly product demos aren’t actually your factor. However displays? Yeah, you give these in your sleep. In that case, you’d wish to delete “Demo” and substitute it with “Presentation”.

To regulate the Alternative Levels, click on on the three traces to the left of the 2 seen sheets. It will open a menu, the place you may choose the hidden Settings sheet.

Right here, you may regulate each the Alternative Stage and the Alternative Standing choices to suit your course of and gross sales model.

Add or Alter the Fields

Within the Alternatives sheet, there are 18 completely different columns the place you may enter details about the individuals in your gross sales pipeline, together with:

• Firm title: The title of your prospect or buyer’s firm
• Date created: The date on which you first contacted this prospect or buyer
• Assignee: The worker presently engaged on this deal, or caring for this buyer
• Alternative standing: Open, received, or closed
• Alternative stage: The stage of your gross sales pipeline that this contact is presently in
• Alternative final modified: This discipline mechanically updates to the present date while you modify any data on this row
• Worth: The quantity of mullah this deal is value
• Web site: Your prospect’s or buyer’s web site handle
• Handle: Your prospect’s or buyer’s mailing handle
• Main contact: The primary individual you are speaking to on the firm you wish to shut
• E-mail handle: Your major contact’s principal electronic mail handle
• Cellphone quantity: Your major contact’s principal cellphone quantity
• LinkedIn profile: Your major contact’s LinkedIn profile. Or, the LinkedIn profile on your major contact’s firm
• Notes: Area to make notes concerning the conversations you’ve gotten with this prospect or buyer. That method, you and the oldsters you share your Google Sheet CRM with at all times have up-to-date details about the individuals in your gross sales pipeline

A few of these fields might not apply to your particular enterprise. For instance, a realtor received’t want a piece for firm names. However they may want one for particular person individuals’s names.

Or, perhaps the alternative is true, and also you wish to be uber-efficient, together with as many particulars concerning the companies in your pipeline as humanly attainable. So, you wish to retailer knowledge factors like the scale of every enterprise, its variety of staff, and the names of key stakeholders.

Both method, keep in mind that this Google Sheet CRM is yours. Which means you may customise it to your coronary heart’s content material. Add sections, take away others—do what you need.

Get the Excel CRM Template

Are you feeling a bit misplaced with Google Sheets? If that’s the case, you could be dreaming a couple of return to the nice and cozy embrace of Microsoft Excel. It was your old flame, in any case.

No drawback! You possibly can download our Excel CRM template here.

No? You are cool to maintain utilizing a Google Sheets CRM—particularly now that it is personalized to your particular needs and wishes? Nice, now it is time to put this unhealthy boy to work.

4. Enter Your Present Pipeline Data

So, how do you truly begin utilizing your Google Sheets CRM? First, enter your present pipeline data. That method all of your essential knowledge is precisely the place it must be.

There are two other ways to deal with the importation course of: manually or by way of electronic mail:

Manually

When you don’t have too many contacts, and also you’ve carried out a fairly good job of conserving monitor of all of them, then take into account inputting data into your sheet manually, as will probably be quicker.

Here is a useful tip: You don’t must enter all of this knowledge on the identical time!

Manually transferring lots of of knowledge factors into your personalized CRM spreadsheet might be daunting. Do not panic. As a substitute, put aside quarter-hour a day for this process. So long as you do not have too many contacts, you must be capable to get the job carried out in per week or much less.

Import From E-mail

One other method to get buyer knowledge into your Google Sheet CRM is to import it out of your electronic mail.

This can be a nice choice if you happen to’ve been diligent about conserving your prospects’ data up-to-date in your electronic mail contacts. Particularly if you happen to use Gmail.

Gmail customers can simply export contacts from their Google accounts to CSV recordsdata. (Right here’s a handy tutorial from Google that may stroll you thru this course of.

Different electronic mail suppliers offer you this feature, too. See related articles from Outlook and Yahoo).

After getting that CSV file, you may open it in Google Sheets. Then simply copy the knowledge over into your personalized CRM spreadsheet, and… Voila!

5. Set Up Sharing for Your Google Sheets Template

Lastly, it’s time to share your new Google Sheet CRM with anybody else who would possibly want it.

Step one within the sharing course of is to determine who you’re going to share the doc with. You’ll wish to embrace anybody who instantly interacts with clients and prospects, together with your gross sales workforce and customer support workforce.

Bonus level: In Google Sheets, you may work together instantly with different workforce members and see what they’re doing inside the sheet in actual time.

Second, you’ll must outline entry choices for others. Google Sheets has three attainable entry choices: view-only entry, commenting rights, or full enhancing skills.

You’ll almost definitely wish to give your gross sales and buyer assist groups full enhancing skills. It will permit them to make use of your shiny new CRM spreadsheet to its most potential.

Nervous about safety? Do not be. There are methods to guard your Google Sheets. Simply head to the superior sharing settings and choose the next two choices:

• Forestall editors from altering entry and including new individuals
• Disable choices to obtain, print, and replica for commenters and viewers

Deciding on these two choices will be certain that your sheet is barely seen by choose individuals.

In search of additional tricks to enhance your productiveness when utilizing Google Sheets as a CRM?

Fast Tricks to Use Your Google Sheets CRM Successfully

I will assume that Google Sheets is not the one instrument you employ to run what you are promoting.

Thankfully, nearly each different app available on the market can combine with the Google platform. When you arrange the connection, you can take full benefit of sensible automation.

Hold studying to be taught a no-code method to scale back knowledge entry, ship Sheets data to Google Docs and different options, and in any other case degree up your contact administration sport.

Combine With Different Gross sales Instruments Utilizing Zapier

Zapier is a implausible productiveness instrument that connects over 5,000 completely different apps, permitting customers to create strategic automations, known as Zaps, that enhance their workflows.

You would, for instance, join your internet kind builder of option to Google Sheets by way of Zapier. When you do, the brand new leads you accumulate in your web site will mechanically be added to your Google Sheets CRM—in neat, tidy new rows, no much less. How cool is that?

What about when potential clients join your organization’s electronic mail record? Your gross sales workforce most likely needs to speak to those of us, proper? With Zapier, new subscriber data from Mailchimp and different electronic mail instruments will mechanically seem in your Google Sheet CRM, too.

By connecting different instruments for lead amassing, customer support, and gross sales, your knowledge will at all times be up-to-date. Plus, you’ll have much less handbook knowledge entry work to do.

Translate Your Google Sheets CRM Dashboard Knowledge Into Actions

The Gross sales Dashboard of your Google Sheets CRM offers you a transparent overview of your present gross sales pipeline, together with offers received and misplaced, and the present stage of every open deal.

I recommend making time each week (or month, if you happen to simply cannot get to it on a weekly foundation) to take a look at this dashboard. Doing so will provide help to flip these knowledge factors into clear actions.

You might attempt to optimize for each metric you are presently monitoring, however that is not how high-performance gross sales groups function. Do that as a substitute:

Pinpoint the one space of your gross sales funnel that, as soon as improved, may have the largest affect in your backside line. Then focus fanatically on optimizing that space. As soon as it has been turbocharged, you may work on optimizing one other a part of your gross sales course of.

Try the closed alternatives field, for instance.

What’s your ratio of unqualified results in misplaced leads? If in case you have numerous unqualified gross sales leads, you would possibly want to enhance your lead scoring course of.

Or, check out which stage your open alternatives are in.

Is there a stage during which a good portion of your leads get caught? Possibly you’ve gotten a bunch of prospects within the negotiation stage, however only a few of them are shifting ahead. In that case, you could wish to regulate your levels to higher adapt to your leads.

One other method to get actionable knowledge out of your Google Sheet CRM is to filter the Alternative Final Modified record. Discover it beneath the tab “Filter by Situation”. Then select to see solely outcomes earlier than or after a sure date, to verify no leads slip via the cracks.

You should utilize this view to shortly assess the knowledge concerning present offers. Are they shifting ahead? Have they been modified in current days or even weeks?

In fact, to accumulate actionable knowledge, each member of your gross sales workforce must be disciplined and constant when monitoring knowledge and interactions on this easy CRM. Sounds cheap, proper? Nicely, it infrequently works out that method—particularly for fast-growing groups.

So right here’s a professional tip: Put one individual accountable for conserving the CRM spreadsheet up-to-date. That does not imply that this individual has to replace the spreadsheet by themselves. As a substitute, ask them to remind their colleagues to replace the CRM every now and then.

Whereas not a enjoyable job, it is nonetheless a lot better than dropping offers as a result of interplay particulars do not get logged. Or having to wash up a messy, incomplete, and outdated spreadsheet sooner or later.

Take Your Google Sheets CRM to the Subsequent Degree

I’ve proven you precisely find out how to use Google Sheets as a CRM. When you customise our CRM spreadsheet template to your particular wants, you’ll be capable to shortly enter knowledge out of your prospects and present clients and get a greater overview of your gross sales state of affairs.

That stated, a Google Sheet CRM just isn’t a everlasting resolution.

As firms develop, gross sales managers must establish the suitable second to change from a CRM spreadsheet to a real CRM system, like Close.

How will when it’s time? Search for indicators reminiscent of:

• Your workforce usually loses essential prospect data
• Completely different reps by accident name the identical prospect
• Your gross sales workforce is rising, however you do not actually know the way every of your gross sales reps closes offers and contributes to overarching firm targets

When what you are promoting is able to improve from a Google Sheets CRM, strive Close, a robust CRM software program that hundreds of gross sales groups use to attach with high quality prospects, construct stronger relationships with them, and shut offers extra persistently.

Is it the suitable CRM instrument for you? I am unsure, however I encourage you to test it out! Watch our on-demand demo to see Shut’s key options. When you like what you see, start a free trial. Or…

Get began with a Google Sheets CRM and check out the SalesTable template free proper now!

GET FREE ACCESS TO THE SALESTABLE TEMPLATE