Don’t know where your latest deal is in your sales pipeline? Not even sure what a sales pipeline is (maybe something to do with plumbing?) If this sounds familiar, chances are you’re using the typical go-to piece of tech that most people turn to when they are not quite sure what they’re doing or looking for: an Excel spreadsheet.
Sure, these spreadsheets can be useful for some stuff (college projects, basic math), but they’re not up to the job when you have to tackle something as important as pipeline management (which, by the way, shows you what stage your deal is at – eg ready to close, researching, etc). The good news is that there are many cloud-based Excel substitutes that can transform the way you manage your sales pipeline, which not only saves sales staff a lot of time on manual data entry, tracking, and reporting, but also allow you to better manage the sales process, and connect with your customers at the right time in the right way.
We’ve put together a list of 10 Excel alternatives for managing your sales pipeline that will make you ditch those spreadsheets for good.
SalesforceIQ (formerly RelateIQ)
SalesforceIQ is the first of the Excel alternatives for managing your sales pipeline on our list due to the sheer amount of reviewers who mentioned this on GetApp – more than with any other app. SalesforceIQ’s sales pipeline management features include robust reporting that provides data on the percentage of deals that are converting through each stage of the process, the win rate of each member of your sales team, and where deals might be getting held up in the proces.
GetApp reviewer Eric Chen says: “After I started using it for a couple of weeks, I started to gradually optimize my deal pipeline and how I move things through the funnel. Ultimately this is the unquantifiable value in RelateIQ … avoiding a missed opportunity!”
Josiah Filler, director of business development and operations at tour activity operator Peek.com, says: “I use it religiously every day for my BizDev pipeline and can’t imagine a world without it now!
Pipeliner
The name says it all: Pipeliner is a cloud app that is dedicated to helping you manage your sales pipeline. It has all the usual pipeline management features such as a drag-and-drop, customizable interface, the ability to create multiple pipelines, and sales forecasting functionality, but it also includes a 3D view to give you a more visual representation of what stage your deals are at. Pipeliner’s 3D view means you can set trackable dimensions – sales stage, expected time to close and size of deal – with the bigger the entry on the dashboard representing a more lucrative opportunity.
GetApp reviewer Jon Torrens says: “I used to use Excel to keep track of where I was with my customers on the sales process, which became very time-consuming. Pipeliner cuts out a ton of time each day with a drag and drop interface for moving my customers along the process. Each customer exists as an account (with its own list of contacts and notes) from which I create each opportunity (piece of work). Integrated social media slots for each contact allow me to get a complete picture of each account, and I can see all my accounts (there are about 70) on one page.”
PipelineDeals
Another app where the clue is in the name, PipelineDeals aims to provide excellent visibility into each stage of the sales pipeline. What makes PipelineDeals a good Excel substitute is that it allows you to customize not only the deal stages you choose, but also the metrics you want to measure. The pipeline management app’s reports measure data such as win/loss ratios, pipeline volume and the speed sales are taking place. Each deal also gets a dedicated page where you can record tasks, events, communication, add documents, and see who is involved.
Amy Robb, owner/publisher at bimonthly magazine Edible Northeast Florida, explains why you need to find an alternative to Excel: “Pipeline is the only product I’d recommend to other small publishers — and for two of us on staff, it’s a life-save. If you’re using six Excel spreadsheets to track information and punting it back and forth between multiple contributors — for heaven’s sake. Stop. Do a trial. It’ll speak for itself.”
Infusionsoft
Infusionsoft provides a specific module within its marketing and sales management software for managing your pipeline. By creating what Infusionsoft calls “sales stages”, Opportunities allows you to track where your deal is in the pipeline, as well as tracking the next action date and time so you can more easily manage follow-up tasks. It can also automate stages of the pipeline, for example when you move from one stage to the next and the task is to email a client, Infusionsoft will automatically do it for you according to the pre-defined template you have created. This frees up a sales rep’s time to focus on selling.
One of GetApp reviewers had this to say about the benefits of Infusionsoft: “With InfusionSoft we were able to stream processes such as email marketing, sales pipeline, CRM and customization of our customer email marketing program.”
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a CRM for small businesses that has a built-in pipeline view that allows sales team to get a quick overview of which stage their deals are, as well as delve in for a more in-depth view. Much like a digital Kanban board, these deals can also easily moved from column-to-column in a drag-and-drop fashion depending on where they are in the pipeline. No more copy and paste nightmares with this Excel substitute.
Karlis Andersons, general manager at Blue Bridge Technologies, says: “We were using Excel to keep track of our sales pipeline. Once we started using Pipedrive we quickly understood how it works, it was easy to import our existing deals and in a day or two we were using world class software solution that made our process transparent so everyone knew what was happening and how well we were doing.”
Teamgate CRM
Another CRM and sales management tool that has a built-in pipeline view is Teamgate CRM. This Excel alternative makes managing your sales pipeline more straightforward with its filterable and customizable pipeline management view. With Teamgate, you can manage more than one sales pipeline at once, drag and drop depending on the stage, and add forecasting information such as estimated deal closing day or win/loss percentage. This CRM also highlights areas where your sales team need to apply extra attention.
One GetApp reviewer highlighted the pipeline view as a major pro after switching from Microsoft Dynamics CRM to Teamgate.
Base CRM
Base CRM is a sales pipeline management tool that prides itself on offering a wide range of analytics to help you keep a hold of where your deals are and produce useful reports to inform future decisions. Base CRM also offers highly rated mobile apps – scoring full marks in the mobile category of our GetRank quarterly sales management rankings – as well as personalized notifications, meaning key information reaches the right person to allow them to make decisions in a timely manner.
Per Egnerfors, CRM consultant at IT company Beguine, says that Base CRM’s data reports, “give sales managers total control of their sales teams.”
Insightly
As Insightly is both a CRM and a project management app in one, you can either choose to create sales pipelines or milestones, depending on the needs of the team. You can then apply this pipeline to a project, and create a set of activities that is associated with each step of the pipeline. Insightly also offers the ability to send configurable reports scheduled at a time of your choosing, and provides smart alerts. If you need help on setting up a Pipeline, the company has drawn up a useful guide.
GetApp reviewer Oliver Lee says that Insightly is: “Great for small businesses, and better than an Excel spreadsheet.”
You Don’t Need a CRM
You Don’t Need a CRM is a no-frills sales management solution that aims to simplify your sales activities. Its Pipeline View offers a wide range of filters to help you quickly access the information you need, and its drag-and-drop functionality makes moving to the next stage of the process quick and easy. Pipeline View is visible from the app’s main menu, and allows you to switch from here to Extended View for a comprehensive look at your sales activity, or Compact View for a quick overview.
One of our reviewers – a creative director of a design company – had this to say about You Don’t Need a CRM: “I finally have a place to store all my leads and view the sales pipeline. I also love the fact that is syncs with Freshbooks, so I don’t have to enter a new Customer each time.”
Tracks
Tracks is a tool that is completely focused on pipeline management. Its selling point is it ease of use, as well as its low price point – you pay a flat price per month no matter how many users you have. Tracks advocates a more simplistic approach to managing your sales pipeline, being aimed at smaller companies that have a more slimline portfolio of products.
Experienced business consultant Geoff Brandt says: “In its present incarnation, Tracks is a very functional and flexible pipeline tool (and nothing else) that your sales team will immediately incorporate into its workflow. The learning curve is literally minutes. The cost is very low. Perfect for micro to medium sized businesses that don’t want to navigate expensive training classes or hire a consultant to “integrate” a tool into the company.”
What do you use to manage your sales pipeline?
The apps above are what we at GetApp think are your best bet to manage your sales pipeline, but if you know of something that should be on the list, let us know in the comments below. If you need more information about certain features in your sales management software, check out GetRank, our quarterly ranking of the top apps for your small business.