All companies have their own way to keep track of their business. Whether you are a huge multinational company operating all over the globe, or a small one-man company, it is vital that you are keeping track of all of your sales as well as monitoring the sales process.
There are lots of different systems and software that you can find that can help you keep track of your sales, monitor how your sales team is doing and what type of leads they are generating. You can also look in detail at your sales process and see which aspects are performing well, and where something might need changing.
However, not every business is going to be able to afford to purchase or subscribe to a system, and they will look for alternative ways to manage and monitor their sales. One way is the old fashioned method of writing everything down, but in this day and age, it’s not the most practical option, and you will want a digital solution so that you can access your data wherever you are.
Using Excel
One tool that most businesses will have on their computers is Excel. It is a spreadsheet program that is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and is used to track data and create formulas based on the data being entered. To have more organized data, Excel uses formulas to combine spreadsheets such as Vlookup and Index match.
Though it isn’t too difficult to use, you will need to spend some time going through the basics so that you have a solid understanding of how to use it and get the most out of the features offered. It’s a relatively powerful program, and once you’ve got to grips with it, you can use it for some pretty complex functions.
Can you use Excel for sales monitoring?
Excel has more than enough power to be used for tracking your business sales. You can create your own spreadsheets based on the data that you need and have access to. The system will not be the most complex in the world, and depending on the data you are planning to enter, it might only be a very limited system in terms of what you can do.
If you are planning to use Excel, or alternatively, Google sheets, which is Google’s free alternative, then there are a number of different spreadsheets that you should be using. You will want to create one to track your current leads, monitor your sales calls and communication, and create sales reports, similar to those you can have generated with Commence Corporation solutions, that provide insightful information about how you can go about increasing your sales and ultimately, your revenue.
Advantages of using a Spreadsheet
There are a number of advantages of using Excel or Google sheets to keep track of your sales and customer information. The first is that they are free. Most businesses will have Microsoft Office installed on their computers. If not, you can also use Google Sheets, which is a tool available to everyone.
They are also relatively easy to use once you have understood the initial creation and setting up of the spreadsheet based on your data requirements. With your own spreadsheets, you are determining the data that you wish to include, and are not being forced to use data requirements that a CRM or other software would force upon you.
As good as they are, spreadsheets are not a proper long term solution, and you can gradually come to realize that in most cases, they are a lot more hassle than you originally thought. As the data entries into your spreadsheets increases, you are more prone to issues appearing which may even result in the loss of your data unless you’ve backed it up somewhere else.
Disadvantages of using a Spreadsheet
One of the biggest problems with using spreadsheets in companies where there are many people who need to use the data, is that they are not the easiest thing in the world to share. Keeping the master copy of the spreadsheet updated with all the changes done by your team can be very cumbersome and difficult. It’s simply not a good use of your time.
Spreadsheets are also prone to errors, and a report from the University of Hawaii states that most spreadsheets have a more than 80% chance of containing errors.
It is also difficult to keep track of which employee is working on what, as there is no easy way to keep track of real time action taking place at your business.
While internal sales management systems would require you to log in to the account, spreadsheets do not offer this level of privacy, and they are susceptible to be shared with anyone, including people who have nothing to do with your company or business.
Finally, another big disadvantage with spreadsheets is that they are not good for providing detailed and comprehensive reports of different aspects of your business such as sales, clients or lead generation.
This is where it is much better to use a dedicated sales monitoring system, which can effectively manage all aspects of your sales, as well as provide you with beautiful and fully detailed reports of your choice.
