A CRM spreadsheet that makes sure no follow-up slips
A full CRM can feel like overkill when you are a freelancer or a three-person sales team, but sticky notes and inbox searches lose deals. This prompt has your todo.is agent build a lean CRM spreadsheet with linked contacts and deals, your pipeline stages, weighted forecast and an overdue follow-ups list, and it can import the contacts you already have.
The prompt
- Build a CRM spreadsheet in Excel for [MY BUSINESS]. Sheets: Contacts (name, company, role, email, phone, source, tags, last contact date), Deals (deal name, company, contact, value, stage, probability by stage, expected close date, owner, next step, next step date, notes) and Pipeline (count and value per stage, weighted forecast by month, win rate). My stages are [PIPELINE STAGES]. Use dropdowns for stage, owner and source, and look up contact details from Contacts with XLOOKUP. Highlight deals whose next step date has passed and deals with no activity for [DAYS WITHOUT ACTIVITY] days, and add a "Today" sheet listing follow-ups due. Import my existing contacts from [EXISTING CONTACTS].
What to change
- [MY BUSINESS]: e.g. "a web design studio selling to local businesses" or "B2B office furniture sales, 3 reps".
- [PIPELINE STAGES]: e.g. "Lead, Contacted, Meeting, Proposal sent, Negotiation, Won, Lost". Or "suggest stages for my business".
- [DAYS WITHOUT ACTIVITY]: e.g. "14".
- [EXISTING CONTACTS]: Attach a CSV export from your phone, email or old list, or write "none, start empty".
Example result
- CRM_Tracker.xlsx · Larkspur Web Studio (example)
- Contacts sheet
- • 312 contacts imported from your CSV, 9 duplicates merged by email
- • Example: Tom Reyes · Reyes Family Dental · Practice manager · tom@reyesdental.example · Source: Referral · Tags: dental, local · Last contact: 2026-09-30
- Deals sheet
- • Deal: Reyes Dental website rebuild · Value: 6,500 · Stage: Proposal sent · Probability: 50% · Close: 2026-10-31 · Owner: Mia · Next step: call to go through proposal · Next step date: 2026-10-07 (overdue, shown in red)
- • Contact email and phone fill in automatically with XLOOKUP from the company and contact name
- Stage probabilities
- • Lead 5% · Contacted 10% · Meeting 25% · Proposal sent 50% · Negotiation 75% · Won 100% · Lost 0%
- Pipeline sheet
- • Open deals: 23 · Total value: 94,300 · Weighted forecast: 38,950
- • By stage: Meeting 7 (28,000) · Proposal sent 6 (31,500) · Negotiation 3 (17,800)
- • Win rate (last 90 days): 9 won of 21 closed = 43%
- • Weighted forecast by close month for October to December
- Today sheet
- • Follow-ups due today or overdue, sorted by date: Reyes Dental (1 day late), Harbor Yoga (due today)
- • Deals with no activity for 14+ days: 4
- How to use it
- • Update the stage and the next step after every call or email
- • Every deal must have a next step date. That is what keeps the Today list useful
- Want a reminder? Make it recurring: "every weekday at 8:30, read my CRM file and message me today's follow-ups on WhatsApp".
How to do it with todo.is
- Copy the prompt, add your stages and attach any contacts you already have.
- Paste it on the Today screen in todo.is, or send it to your agent on Telegram.
- Your agent builds the linked sheets, imports and dedupes contacts and sets up the pipeline view.
- Use it daily. Ask your agent to add fields, or to send you a morning list of follow-ups.
Tips for a better result
- Give every open deal a next step and a date. A deal with no next step is a deal you are slowly losing.
- Keep stages few and clear, each with an exit rule ("Proposal sent" means it is in their inbox).
- Log the source of every lead so you know which channels actually bring paying clients.
- When several people edit at the same time daily, move the file to Google Sheets or consider a proper CRM.
CRM spreadsheet: FAQ
- Can I use a spreadsheet as a CRM? Yes, for small teams and freelancers it works well. It needs a contacts list, a deals list with stages and next steps, and a habit of updating it.
- What columns should a CRM spreadsheet have? At minimum: contact, company, deal value, stage, expected close date, owner, next step and next step date. Source and last contact date help a lot.
- What is a weighted pipeline? Each deal's value times its stage probability, added up. It gives a more realistic forecast than the total pipeline value.
- Can todo.is pull contacts from my Gmail? With Google connected, your agent can search your Gmail and list people you have emailed, so you can add them to the sheet.
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