Are you in need of a lightweight, customizable, and affordable CRM solution? Look no further than Google Sheets! With its simple interface and endless customization options, a CRM on Google Sheets can be the perfect fit for small businesses, freelancers, and startups. And the best part? You don’t have to start from scratch. There are plenty of pre-built templates and solutions available for Google Sheets. In this article, we’ll cover the following points:
CRM Templates: Start Simply to Manage Customer Data
As a starting point, we have compiled ten links to popular CRM templates on Google Sheets that you can use for your business. These templates are customized to perform various functions, from simple lead management to advanced revenue forecasting. You can find them on the internet, download them, and install them on your Google Sheets. It’s the easiest way to get started.
- Lightweight CRM on folk
- Deal flow CRM on folk
- Sales CRM built on Notion
- Simple CRM built on Notion
- Sales CRM built on Airtable
- Business Development CRM on Airtable
- CRM on Coda
- Hubspot CRM for Excel and Google Sheet
- Google Sheet CRM
A Quick Overview of Each Free Template
Lightweight CRM on folk
This free template is designed for small businesses and startups. It allows you to track leads, customer contact information, and revenue pipelines. It is as easy to set up as a Google Sheets CRM template but more comprehensive and flexible, combining the simplicity of a spreadsheet with more powerful CRM features such as the ability to send mass messages, automatically track your interactions (by syncing with your Gmail or Outlook), and set reminders.
Advantages:
- Chrome Extension: folkX allows you to import search lists and individual contact information directly into your folk CRM without interrupting your workflow.
- Pipeline Management: Supports tracking interactions, assigning tasks, and team collaboration.
- Support for Multiple Business Functions: folk is not limited to sales teams. It can also support business development in recruiting, investment, fundraising, etc.
- Automation: Automate manual tasks to save time and streamline your workflows. Get help filling in missing contact information with contact enrichment, create pipelines, and group contacts.
- Team Collaboration: Assign teammates to ensure follow-up on a contact and create a single source of truth with collaborative note-taking.
- Mail Merge: Send email campaigns, create email sequences, and track analytics directly from folk, without having to export your contact lists.
- AI Support: The “Magic Field” helps users create custom reminders by instructing the AI which data to extract from your database, enabling you to send ultra-personalized messages to multiple recipients.
- User Experience: User-friendly with a Notion-like experience. Helps users avoid a steep learning curve.
Disadvantages:
- Reports are not yet available on folk, but they will be soon.
Deal flow CRM on folk
This template provides a simple way to manage deal flows for investment teams. It allows you to track prospects, customer contact information, and other important data.
Advantages:
- Scalability: Once you’re ready to grow your business, folk can scale with you and offer affordable pricing and features designed to create a smooth workflow between you and your team.
- Multiple Display Options: Choose between a list or Kanban board view.
- Contact Enrichment: Missing contact information? Contact enrichment can help fill in the gaps in seconds.
- Ready-to-use Contact List: Get an initial advantage with folk’s investor lists.
Disadvantages:
- Reports are not yet available on folk, but they will be soon.
Sales CRM built on Notion
This Notion-built CRM template is ideal for sales teams looking to manage their customer relationships. It includes features such as contact management and pipeline tracking.
Advantages:
- Easy Setup: The template is easy to use and modify.
- Collaboration: Easily assign team members and create a single source of truth.
- Multiple View Configuration: Choose between a list or Kanban board view that can be tailored to your specific sales cycle.
Disadvantages:
- Manual Input Dependency: If you accidentally enter an incorrect estimated value, it will affect the calculated forecasts.
- Project Management-focused Tool: Notion is great for organizing workflows, but it’s hard to stay up to date. You’ll need to manually update information, which takes time.
- Heavy CRM Experience: Notion is not a traditional CRM, so you won’t find features like automation or contact synchronization.
Simple CRM built on Notion
Simple CRM is a lightweight solution built on Notion that offers basic features such as contact management, lead tracking, and follow-up reminders. It is suitable for freelancers and small businesses looking to keep track of their customers in an organized manner.
Advantages:
- Lightweight Contact Management Solution: Easy to use for freelancers and small businesses with a small pool of contacts.
- Visual Enhancement compared to the Google Sheets experience.
- Notion AI: Can extract key points from your notes and create a high-level summary.
Disadvantages:
- Heavy CRM Experience: Lack of automation support such as contact synchronization, which can help keep all your contacts in one platform.
- Fact-checking Process Required: Notion’s AI may provide incorrect information, so you need to double-check after each use.
Sales CRM built on Airtable
This template offers a comprehensive set of features such as contact management, pipeline tracking, lead management, and revenue forecasting. It is designed to be highly customizable to suit your specific needs.
Advantages:
- Relational Database: Streamline your sales funnel by connecting one piece of data to another.
- Privacy Control: Have full control over what each team member can see.
- Sales-focused Features: Customizable interface that easily aligns with your internal sales process.
Disadvantages:
- Heavy CRM Experience: Airtable is not a traditional CRM, so you won’t have features like contact synchronization, mail merge, or automation support.
- Steep Learning Curve: Airtable is not intuitive to use. Allow time to get used to the platform.
Business Development CRM on Airtable
This template is ideal for businesses looking to manage customer relationships and drive business growth. It includes features such as contact management, pipeline tracking, lead nurturing, and revenue forecasting.
Advantages:
- Consolidate Documents in One Place: Attach files and new clients directly to your business opportunities.
- Multiple Display Options: Track your progress in different deals or see upcoming interactions in a calendar.
Disadvantages:
- Heavy User Experience: User experience resembles Google Sheets. Still very manual, only distinguishing itself with Airtable’s CRM features.
Hubspot CRM for Excel and Google Sheet
Hubspot CRM for Excel and Google Sheet is a great way to manage your customer relationships. It allows you to track customer contact information, sales leads, revenue pipelines, and other important data. You can also export your data in CSV format for easier access and analysis.
Advantages:
- Free CRM Plan: Includes basic marketing automation, user-friendly form builder, and meeting scheduler.
- Team Alignment and Productivity: Known for improving visibility and productivity within teams, especially between sales and marketing departments.
Disadvantages:
- Steep Learning Curve: HubSpot is known for its complex interface. New users often need to dedicate a few days to familiarize themselves with the platform.
- Limited Customization: Offers limited options for custom configurations, which can be a constraint for large organizations looking for highly customized CRM solutions. Some integrations may result in higher costs.
- Pricing and Plans: As you grow and prepare to move to a higher level, HubSpot becomes expensive.
Google Sheet CRM
Creating a CRM software on Google Sheets is an intuitive and cost-effective solution for businesses. It offers features such as contact management, task tracking, sales funnel tracking, and revenue forecasting. You can also customize the columns of your spreadsheet to meet your unique needs.
Advantages:
- Affordability: Google Sheets is free, making it an affordable option, especially for small businesses or startups.
- User-Friendly: Many users are familiar with spreadsheet features, making it easy to adopt and use without specialized training.
Disadvantages:
- Manual Data Entry and Maintenance: Requires a lot of manual data entry and constant updates, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors.
- Difficulty Accommodating Growth: As the business expands, Google Sheets can become difficult to manage due to the volume and complexity of data.
Building Your Own CRM Software on Google Sheets
A Google Sheets template may seem quite basic and limited. Crucially, it lacks integrations with important tools used for communication with contacts or importing and syncing contacts.
If you want to create something custom, here’s the good news: you don’t need to be a programming expert to build your own CRM on Google Sheets. You can set it up using Gmail, Zapier, Google Calendar, and LinkedIn. All these tools offer features that can enhance your data management and give you an overview of what’s happening in your business. Gmail helps categorize your contacts, Zapier triggers actions based on incoming/outgoing emails and calendar events, Google Calendar manages appointment records, and LinkedIn handles contact records. With these tools, you can input data in one place, with all the existing features of Google Sheets.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating your own CRM system using Google Sheets, Zapier, Gmail, Google Calendar, and minimizing your daily manual entry to a manageable level, whether for contact management or sales management.
Step 1: Connect Gmail to Google Sheets using Zapier
To start setting up your custom CRM on Google Sheets with Zapier, you first need to create a new Zap. To do this, simply open Zapier and click on the “Create New Zap” button in the top right corner of your screen.
Once you have created your Zap, select Gmail as the trigger app and choose to trigger when a new email is received. Then, set the parameters for the emails that should be captured by your CRM. Next, you’ll need to connect your Gmail account to authenticate it with Zapier.
Step 2: Connect Google Calendar to Your CRM Software
The next step is to establish a connection between your calendar events and Google Sheets. This will allow you to track appointments, participant information, event durations, etc.
To do this, you need to create a new Zap and choose Google Calendar as the trigger app. You can then set which calendar events should be captured by your CRM.
Step 3: Manage Your Contacts on Google Sheets
All the contacts you interact with in steps 1 and 2 will be automatically imported into a Google sheet for you to track. This will help you better organize your data and easily find specific contacts when needed.
Note that it is also possible to start from existing CSV files.
Other options that we won’t cover in this document include integration with a Google Docs account to have direct links to contact profiles when mentioned in a Google document.
Explore Other Alternative CRM Options: folk
While Google Sheets is an excellent lightweight CRM solution, there are other options to explore. If you’re looking for something beyond what Google Sheets offers, folk is a lightweight yet comprehensive and powerful CRM system.
folk offers a variety of fully customizable ready-to-use templates, supports API integration and collaborative editing, and includes the following features:
- Easily import data from other platforms such as Gmail, Outlook, Twitter, with direct integration or with the one-click extension.
- Classify these contacts into groups with all the information you might need using custom fields.
- Automatically record all interaction details, for you and your team.
- Integrate with other business tools.
- Send personalized email campaigns to contacts.
- Create custom pipelines to easily track sales progress with customers.
In addition, folk also offers a Chrome extension that works on LinkedIn and Twitter (and any other website) to add people from those sites with just one click.
Note that contact details can also be imported from a CSV file directly.
Once on folk, you can use tags, views, and filters to organize contact lists as you wish.
Contact details can also be imported directly from form responses, such as Typeform, Tally, Google Forms, or any other form tool.
folk also offers a built-in mail merge system: inserting variable fields is very easy, as shown in the image below, and sending personalized mass emails is a breeze.
What’s more, it’s much easier to send personalized mail merge messages since you can see all previous email interactions and calendar events directly from your CRM spreadsheet.
Tracking email campaign results is also straightforward by checking open rates, click rates, and bounce rates.
Finally, collaboration is a central element on folk, so sales managers and other teammates can track processes: shared notes, mentions, reminders, shared emails, and other features can easily be enabled on the folk CRM platform.
Conclusion: Navigating the World of Google Sheets CRM Templates
Creating your own CRM on Google Sheets can save you money on expensive CRM infrastructure while providing modest customization options.
If you’re looking for a simple yet more powerful way to achieve your business goals, give folk a try.
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*Note: The content in this article has been adapted and rewritten to fit the brand focus of bolamarketing.com.
