Outlook flags and a spreadsheet as a CRM: when is it enough?

What the system looks like for most people

For many consultants, advisers and small IT firms, the sales system is three things that grew on their own: a flag on the emails that need something, a folder in Outlook with sent quotes, and a spreadsheet with customer, assignment, amount and status.

It is not a bad system. It is free, it lives where you work, and it needs no setup. The question is not whether it is good enough in principle, but whether it still fits how many deals you have in progress.

What flags and folders do well

A flag in Outlook can have a due date and a reminder, so the email comes back on the day you want to follow up. The folder keeps the quotes together, and the spreadsheet gives you one place to see amounts and status.

• No new software and nothing to learn.
• The reminder arrives in the Outlook you already have open.
• You decide what goes in the sheet.

Microsoft: Flag email messages for follow-up in Outlook

Five signs it no longer holds up

The system rarely breaks in a day. It slips, and the first signs are small:

• You have more quotes out than you can name without looking.
• The sheet shows a status older than the customer's latest email.
• A flag sits on an email the customer has already answered in another thread.
• A customer has two deals in progress, and they share one row in the sheet.
• You find a quote that has gone weeks without a reply, and nothing reminded you.

Make it better without a new tool

If you see one or two of the signs, small changes go a long way:

1. Always put a due date on the flag when you send a quote, so the reminder comes by itself.
2. Make one row per deal in the sheet, not one per customer.
3. Add a column for who has the ball: you or the customer.
4. Go through the sheet at a fixed time every week, and correct the status from the latest email.
5. Reply in the same thread as the quote, so the history stays in one place.

When a CRM makes sense, and which one

If you see three or more of the signs, the problem is no longer your habits but that the system needs you to update it by hand. A classic CRM fixes the overview but moves the typing somewhere else. For a small firm where selling already happens in Outlook, it makes more sense to choose a tool that reads the conversations and suggests the changes, so you only have to say yes.

Mind the limit: what is only agreed on the phone, such a tool cannot see unless it is also in an email.

How Frida does it

Frida is a CRM for Outlook and Microsoft 365 for small B2B firms where the person who sells also delivers. Your sales opportunities are already in Outlook. Frida finds them, keeps them up to date and has the follow-up ready. Each deal gets its own card, the court shows who has the ball, and when a quote has gone without a reply, a draft follow-up in your tone is waiting.

You type nothing in, and nothing is sent until you have read it.