Spreadsheet vs shared directory vs CRM: what a small team actually needs
Most small teams don't need a CRM. They need the address book to work. Here's how to tell the difference.
When a team outgrows the shared spreadsheet, the reflex is 'we need a CRM'. Sometimes that's right. Often it's like buying a lorry to do the school run. Here's how to work out what you actually need.
The spreadsheet
Free, familiar, and fine — until more than one person touches it. Then versions multiply, numbers go stale, and there's no way to call from it or prove consent. Great for twenty contacts; painful past a hundred.
The CRM
Built for pipelines: deals, stages, forecasts, reporting. If your question is 'where's this deal up to?', a CRM earns its keep. But if your question is 'what's the current number for the marina?', a CRM is weeks of setup and per-seat cost to answer something simple — and half the fields stay empty.
The shared directory
Sits exactly in the gap. It's the address book, done properly: shared across the team, callable in one click, current because contacts maintain their own details, and compliant because consent and an audit trail come built in. Minutes to start, one flat price, no training.
Keep deals in a CRM if you need one. Keep the phonebook somewhere it actually stays right.
A simple way to choose
- Fewer than ~30 contacts and one person managing them? A spreadsheet is fine.
- Running a structured sales pipeline with stages and forecasting? Get a CRM.
- A team that lives on the phone and just needs the right, current number every time? A shared directory is the fit — and it happily runs alongside a CRM.
CentralContacts is that shared directory. It won't replace your CRM's pipeline, and it doesn't try to. It just makes sure the whole team is always calling the right number — which, for most small teams, is the problem they actually have.