WhatsApp plus Excel: do you actually need a CRM?

Audit a few recent enquiries

Choose completed, stalled and duplicate enquiries. Record their source, owner, last action and promised date. If you need several colleagues to reconstruct one enquiry, shared status is missing. If a shared record exists but nobody updates it, fix responsibility and working habits before buying software.

Test the rules in one shared table

Give each customer a stable identifier and distinguish contacts from opportunities. Define stages through observable events: requirements pending, quotation sent, decision pending. Every open opportunity needs an owner and a dated next action; each WhatsApp message is not a new opportunity.

A spreadsheet remains reasonable when one person maintains it reliably, handovers are rare and permissions are simple. Concurrent updates, overdue queues and restricted access are reasons to test the same rules in a CRM.

Accept a workflow, not a sales demonstration

Using anonymised examples, test enquiry creation, assignment, holiday cover, duplicate resolution and export. Ask to see opportunities with no next action. SmartSales starts with a bounded workflow. WhatsApp APIs, automated sending, AI and integrations require separate scope and pricing; access to all personal chat history is not promised.