CRM in place. Excel still rules.

A CRM system is in place, and the licenses are paid for regularly. Yet, the current overview of quotes is kept in Excel. Upcoming customer contacts are noted on a personal list. And for sales meetings, the figures are compiled separately all over again. Why is that?

The hidden cost in daily operations

It is quick and easy to create an extra Excel list: just add a column for the last contact, a color code for urgent quotes, and a second tab for next steps. These lists often arise from a specific need—perhaps an employee requires an overview not available in the CRM, a manager wants a different type of report, or a team simply prefers organizing tasks in a familiar spreadsheet. Individually, each of these solutions might seem sensible. However, things become inefficient when the same information has to be kept up to date in multiple places.

A simple calculation illustrates the cost involved. If five employees each spend 20 minutes a day searching for customer information, reconciling lists, and entering data multiple times, that adds up to around 367 hours a year (based on 220 working days). Assuming an internal cost of 50 euros per hour, this amounts to just over 18,000 euros. This is not a market statistic, but an illustrative calculation. It does, however, show how quickly small workarounds can accumulate into a significant expenditure. You are paying for the CRM licenses—and paying for the work involved in maintaining these parallel lists as well.

A completed row does not equate to a managed customer

Name, phone number, quote value—it’s all in the spreadsheet. Yet, the next step might never happen. After all, simply entering a date doesn't guarantee a follow-up. A color-coded cell doesn't clarify who is covering for whom. And a status of "Quote Sent" reveals little about outstanding questions. If supplementary information is scattered across the CRM, email inboxes, and yet another list, the team has to piece the full picture together manually.

This is precisely where a handy supplementary list turns into a weak point in the customer process. Who is handling it? What was agreed upon? What are the next steps? An existing CRM is of little use if crucial answers are maintained outside the system. The customer notices this—usually when they have to explain their inquiry all over again or when a promised follow-up fails to materialize.

What Excel lists reveal about your CRM

If you come across such lists, the first question should be: why do they exist? Perhaps there is no suitable view for open quotes. Maybe data isn't being transferred from another system. It could be that a simple report requires too many clicks, or the team simply isn't aware of an existing feature. These spreadsheets clearly highlight the specific areas where the CRM is failing to adequately support daily workflows.

It is therefore worth taking a closer look: What information is being exported? What does the team add afterward? What decisions and tasks hinge on the list? There is a difference between a list used once for a specific analysis and an overview maintained daily that an entire department relies on. Regularly used spreadsheets, in particular, offer valuable insights for further CRM development. They often contain the requirements themselves—even if the corresponding solution isn't yet implemented in the system.

Your existing CRM needs to help with daily operations

The solution doesn't necessarily have to be new software. Often, the existing CRM can be improved in targeted ways—through clearer views, relevant reports, clearly defined tasks, or integration with other systems. For instance, a quote overview could be made available directly within the CRM, linked to specific responsibilities and next steps. In this way, it serves not just as a source of information but as an active aid in daily work.

This requires the right workflows to be in place. Where are changes updated? Which dataset is considered the definitive one? What does a colleague need to take over a task? As long as these questions remain unanswered, employees will easily resort to creating their own personal lists. A CRM truly becomes a shared foundation for work when employees can reliably find and complete the tasks they need within it.

Excel can stay. Duplication of work has to go.

Excel remains a useful tool for calculations, custom analyses, and one-off planning tasks. Problems arise, however, when a second, permanently maintained repository of customer information emerges alongside the CRM. This increases the effort required for coordination while eroding trust in the data: Is the spreadsheet up to date, or the CRM? Was the change applied everywhere? And what is the current decision based on?