Smartsheet Delivers Sales Pipeline Solution for Google Apps

Smartsheet has integrated with Google Apps to create an easy to use Sales Pipeline Management solution.  Adopting a CRM application like Salesforce is often a challenge.  If you’re used to using spreadsheets for tracking deals, you will be forced into a new look & feel, process, complexity and higher cost structure.  Many companies start managing a sales pipeline in a spreadsheet.  However, at some point, that process becomes cumbersome.  The absence of reminders and the ability to store documents and notes associated with an opportunity make spreadsheets a partial solution at best. 

Take stock of all that ails you in your sales pipeline management and decide what makes more sense - switching to something entirely different and more complex or using something that feels similar to the spreadsheet you’ve been using, but provides the helpful extras that you really need.

Smartsheet meets three key requirements for a salesperson:

• Easy to use – dead simple transition from using a spreadsheet to using Smartsheet
• All deal info in one place – with Smartsheet, attach documents to any deal, track discussions and emails, see what’s changed recently, and create summary reports across individual pipelines
• Helps generate leads – use our Smartsourcing feature to build effective prospect lists

Easy to use
Here’s an example of a sales pipeline in a Google Spreadsheet that tracks deal status, probability and other info.

With two clicks, you can import that sheet into Smartsheet.

This is the easy transition salespeople are looking for – the deal and contact info has not been moved into multiple complex application screens – it works in a way they’re used to.  In addition to importing a Google Spreadsheet, we’ve made it easy to use other Google Apps features, enabling integrated sign in with your Google account info, the attachment of Google Docs to any row in a Smartsheet, opening attached files as a Google Doc, exporting from Smartsheet to a Google Spreadsheet, and importing Google contacts.

All Deal Info in One Place
Now you have everything exactly as you had it before, along with a host of easily understood features that fix your spreadsheet shortcomings:

• Attach associated files & documents directly to any opportunity
• Track the key discussions and e-mail correspondence with their opportunity
• Get at-a-glance highlighting of what’s changed
• Toggle between grid and calendar views
• See summary reports across individual pipelines

Preserved are the core functions you’ve relied on in Google Spreadsheets, such as sharing, publish, notifications, survey forms, and formulas. 

Help Generate Leads
Numerous customers have used our Smartsourcing feature to build accurate, affordable prospect lists.  For example, one customer created a sheet with several hundred target companies listed and then asked the on-demand workforce to search the web for the CIO’s name and email for each company.  The results?  An 80% accuracy rate that was nearly 3 times as high as their purchased list, at 1/10th the cost.

Smartsheet vs. The Complex Alternative
Or you can go big, and sign up for Salesforce to answer your sales pipeline woes.  Included with high per user monthly costs, Salesforce gives you many new concepts to learn, consulting fees, data conversion, and, as a bonus - ongoing administration costs. 

For small and medium sized businesses, Sales Pipeline Management and CRM don’t have to be difficult.    We know what we’re talking about.  It’s no secret that the Smartsheet team is largely composed of CRM-industry veterans.  We founded and ran Onyx Software for 10 years and saw how most small business operations preferred simplicity and usability to feature bloat and complexity.  

Compare the screenshots below or click on the image to watch the videos of the Salesforce and Smartsheet solutions for Google Apps to see for yourself which approach you prefer.

Smartsheet + Google Apps:  A Great Combination
We believe in the simplicity and flexibility of tracking work in a spreadsheet.  We believe that Smartsheet has overcome the shortcomings of using a spreadsheet for tracking work, and specifically for managing a sales pipeline.  And we believe in the power of Google Apps for business productivity.

So today, we’re excited to share that our Sales Pipeline Management solution is live in the Google Solutions Marketplace.  We will continue to provide additional solutions that integrate with the tools our customers use to get work done, so stay tuned…