Get rid of the spreadsheets, please!

Spreadsheet usage has proliferated so much, that it has started reducing the efficiency of business operations. Spreadsheet usage was supposed to reduce clutter on the physical desktop; I am not sure if it reduced the paper use (remember, the paperless office). But I am confident that the spreadsheets have increased the clutter on the PC desktops and hard disks. With hundreds (if not thousands) of spreadsheets floating on every PC in the organization, it has become difficult to get the right spreadsheet when needed. Since everyone has a different version of the same dataset, it is literally impossible to identify the latest data.

Do you wonder why I worry about the pros and cons of spreadsheet usage in a blog on sales lead management? The reason is obvious: everyone who deals with the Lead Management has his / her own version of lead database in nice little spreadsheet database with neat color coding and acronyms. Sales folks are required to feed their datasheets with updates and notes. Sometimes I wonder if the million dollar CRM suites may be less complex than these spreadsheet dragons. Don’t forget about lead coordinators, sales managers and their bosses; each of them have their own version of spreadsheet based lead management tools.

So, please get rid of these spreadsheet based mini applications, if you are serious about lead management and let the sales guys perform their jobs: selling.

I am not suggesting that spreadsheets should be banned and mega customer relationship management applications should be installed, which will be totally counter-productive. Get into the world of centralized, web based, cute, and light weight lead management applications. These applications are always on (oh, they do go down when you need it, that’s the subject of another blog post!), available everywhere (on the Internet) and fairly easy to use.

The on-demand lead management applications (such as LeadPro) generally include other lead follow-up related features such as email marketing automation. If your products or services are sold over the internet (what is not being sold on the Internet nowadays?) or if you are in a B2C scenario, these solutions are more than sufficient.

I am sure you have lots of stories that you can’t wait to share. Your thoughts are welcome!

Thanks.