Peakline outgrew its paper book, so it did what most growing businesses do next: it moved to spreadsheets and email. It feels like a big upgrade. Here's where it breaks, because that's where Salesforce comes in.
The upgrade
- Jason's spreadsheet. Every customer gets one row, and every detail gets one column: name, phone, and what they bought.
- David's inbox. Repairs are tracked in his email.
- Sarah's Friday emails. Every Friday she asks everyone to email her their numbers.
And honestly, it's better than paper. You can search, you can sort, and you can keep a backup copy.
One shared sheet
Then Peakline tries one shared spreadsheet, so everyone works from the same file. But Jason edits it on his laptop, Sarah downloads a copy for her report, and someone saves a file called "customers final version 2". Now there are three copies, and nobody knows which one is right.
What about an online spreadsheet?
Today many teams use an online spreadsheet instead, such as Google Sheets, where several people can work on the same file at the same time. That fixes the copies problem: there's one file, and everyone sees the latest version.
But it's still just rows and columns. Nothing reminds Jason to call Hilltop Gym on Friday, the customer's emails still sit in one person's inbox, and the sales rows still don't link to David's repairs. Sharing the file helps, but it doesn't make it a CRM.
What still breaks
- Copies drift apart. There's no single version of the truth. An online sheet helps here, but it still won't remind anyone of anything.
- Emails stay in one inbox. Nobody else can see the customer's emails.
- Sales and repairs aren't connected. When Hilltop Gym calls, nobody sees the whole story.
This is exactly the gap a CRM fills: one shared place for every customer, every deal and every repair.
Recap
- Spreadsheets and email beat paper: you can search, sort and back up.
- But copies multiply, emails stay private, and nothing links sales to service.
Next, we'll see what IT, software and a database really are.
Now you try
Think of a spreadsheet you've shared with someone. Did you ever end up with two versions? Tell us what happened in the video's comments.