6 Signs You’ve Outgrown Spreadsheets for Sales
I love spreadsheets. LOVE them. But even I have to admit—there comes a time when you need to stop pretending Excel is a CRM.
Spreadsheets had their moment, but they weren’t built to scale your business
Hi, I’m Amy—and I love spreadsheets.
I don’t mean “oh spreadsheets are handy” love. I mean I’ve got color-coded formulas, pivot tables with flair, and a deeply satisfying tab system kind of love. I’ve been known to send someone a spreadsheet just because I was excited about a new column structure.
My boss wants me to compete in the Microsoft Excel World Championship... so when I say that spreadsheets have their place, believe me—I mean it.
But I’m also here to tell you: a spreadsheet is not a CRM. And if your firm is trying to manage business development in one, I hate to say it—but you’ve probably outgrown it.
Let’s be clear: I’m not here to shame spreadsheets. I worship at the altar of a well-organized Google Sheet. Formulas? Yes please. Conditional formatting? Love language. I have spreadsheets that are basically works of art.
But even I have to draw the line somewhere. And that somewhere is business development tracking.
Because as much as I love a beautiful grid, your firm cannot scale on “Color Code Chaos” and “Tab Roulette” alone. If you're still tracking your sales pipeline in spreadsheets, there’s a good chance you're tripping over these red flags.
1. You're Playing Sales Clue
It was Sarah, with the cold email, in the Q2 pipeline tab… or was it the Events Follow-up tab? If your team spends more time trying to figure out what’s happening in your sales pipeline than actually selling, your spreadsheet is working against you.
Let’s play this out. A warm lead reaches out. You know you’ve talked to them before… maybe at a conference? You check the spreadsheet. There’s an entry—but it’s missing notes. Or it’s got conflicting info. Or your teammate created a separate tab for “leads from events” and now there are two versions of the truth.
You shouldn’t need a decoder ring to know where a deal stands.
2. Your Tabs Have Tabs
I’ve been shared dozens of spreadsheets from clients—each one tracking some piece of the BD puzzle. One for active leads. One for events. One for follow-ups. One that’s mysteriously titled “DO NOT DELETE.”
It’s no wonder teams feel overwhelmed. They’re trying to manage a complex, multi-touch sales process across a sea of disconnected sheets. And here’s the kicker: everything they’re tracking can be managed in HubSpot. Automatically. With reminders. And visibility. And no one “accidentally deleting a formula” moments.
I’ve reconciled all of it—siloed sheets, contradictory notes, duplicate entries—and built it back into one clean, scalable, usable CRM system. Because that’s what it should be: usable. Not a full-time job to interpret.
3. You’ve Become the Spreadsheet Gatekeeper
Let me guess—you’re the only one who can update the pipeline correctly. You’ve trained the team three times, but people still put notes in the wrong column or delete formulas by accident. So now you update it yourself. Every week. Alone. Late at night. With a glass of wine and a prayer.
It’s fine. Until it’s not. You deserve more than a system that makes you a full-time data wrangler.
A CRM like HubSpot doesn’t just store info—it makes it easy (and dare I say enjoyable?) for your team to keep data accurate and up to date. It helps everyone stay aligned without you playing air traffic control.
4. You’re Copy-Pasting Like It’s 1999
Manual data entry is the death of momentum. If you're copying notes from emails into cells, toggling between inboxes and spreadsheets, or duplicating lead info from one tab to another... that's not a system. That's busywork.
A CRM eliminates all that. You can track emails, schedule follow-ups, log calls, and assign tasks without leaving the contact record. That’s how you spend more time selling—and less time playing copy/paste bingo.
5. You’re Guessing More Than You’re Analyzing
A spreadsheet might show you what’s happening right now, but what about last quarter? What about conversion rates by lead source? What about deals that got stuck in negotiation?
Unless you’re a spreadsheet wizard with time to build dynamic dashboards (and I see you, fellow nerds), you’re likely flying blind.
A CRM gives you instant access to reports, trends, and forecasting. It tells you what’s working, what’s broken, and what to prioritize—without needing to cross-reference six tabs and three people’s memories.
6. You’re Doing Too Much for Too Little
Let’s talk ROI.
Your spreadsheet might be “free,” but what is it costing you in lost time, missed follow-ups, and unrealized revenue? How many deals slipped through the cracks because the data was buried in a tab no one checks anymore? How much energy are you spending maintaining a system that can’t even send an automated reminder?
It’s like trying to run your firm’s finances on a calculator app. Sure, it works. But why?
Spreadsheets Aren’t the Villain. They’re Just Not the Solution.
Look, I’ll always have a spreadsheet open. Probably color-coded. Definitely with a filter or two. But when it comes to business development? Even I can admit—love just isn’t enough.
It’s time to graduate from the spreadsheet hustle and build a real sales system. At The Middle Six, we specialize in process mapping, CRM implementation, and giving your BD efforts the structure and support they need to scale.
If any of this felt a little too familiar, let’s talk. We’ll help you map your current process, design something sustainable, and build your custom CRM inside HubSpot—without killing your spreadsheet-loving soul.
Let’s stop the CHAOS and start CLOSING.
About Amy Kant
Amy Kant is a Sales Architect at The Middle Six®. She specializes in process mapping and HubSpot data schema architecture. With over 20 years of experience in digital marketing, web development, project management, and communication, she thrives on transforming complex systems into streamlined, scalable solutions that drive business success. Amy uncovers operational efficiencies and optimize business and sales practices. She is passionate about innovation and problem-solving, empowering teams with the right tools and structures to work smarter.
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