How to Track Leads and Sales Without Complex Software

When you’re starting a business, it’s tempting to think you need a CRM or complicated systems right away. But you don’t. In the beginning, simple tools are more than enough to keep you organized and moving forward.

In this episode, we share practical, low-cost ways to track leads and sales without overspending on tools you don’t really need yet. From spreadsheets to payment processor reports, we break down how to keep things simple while still staying professional.

We cover:

• Why Stripe, PayPal, and other processors already give you essential sales reports
• How Excel (or Google Sheets) can be a surprisingly powerful starter system
• The importance of protecting customer data, even in simple tools
• Why frameworks and processes matter more than software in the early stages
• How to prepare for scaling later by starting lean today

If you’ve been holding off on sales because you don’t have the “right” tech stack yet, this episode will help you take action now with what you already have.

Join our free Visionary Founders Club now. A community for small and mid-sized business owners to connect, grow, and support each other. You’ll get resources, trainings, and a space to ask questions and share your journey.

“Start simple now. You can always scale your systems later.” – Jores Minasvand

Transcript for “Tracking Leads and Sales Without Complex Software”

The transcript below was automatically generated. Please ignore any errors or inconsistencies in the text.

Anna Angelova   0:05
Happy Monday. Welcome to more than just Task Management, your favorite daily podcast where we help you build a thriving business. I’m Anna Angelova, business coach and consultant and a co-host of this daily podcast and together with me.
After a 9 hour flight to to Vienna, I have Joris Minisvant, my fellow co-host and business consultant. Hey Joris, how is Europe this time of the year?

Jores Minasvand   0:34
Hey Anna, yeah, it’s 9 hour flight. Actually they went over Greenland so they flew us in in eight hours. But plus a 2 1/2 hour drive South of Vienna to the beautiful city of Graz. It’s actually it was colder in Vienna than it is here because it’s 2 1/2 hours S obviously.
It’s pretty nice, actually. Patios are full. It’s still summer here. It’s a bit chilly in the West, but I was in short sleeve all day. Sun and cloud mix. Doesn’t seem like there’s going to be any rain coming anytime soon, but.
Still full blown summer. There was a festival here on the clock tower of the hill for Goodbye Summer Festival. But I’m like, if you guys want goodbye summer, come to Canada, come to Toronto. It’s already.
Winter. We don’t even have a fall. We jump, jump straight from summer to winter. So no, it’s beautiful. It’s a bit tiring. 11,000 kilometers is a bit. But hey, it’s life and it’s I’ve already been here a full day and.

Anna Angelova   1:26
Oh, yes.

Jores Minasvand   1:42
Grueling work in the next few couple of weeks and then flying another 1000 kilometers back home.

Anna Angelova   1:51
Oh, yes. And well, so we don’t keep you too busy. Let’s get going today before you start yawning. Exactly. So today what we’re discussing is tracking leads and sales without complex software. So.

Jores Minasvand   1:58
Before I start learning.

Anna Angelova   2:10
And especially this applies when you are starting your business. At some point you might actually wanna get software, get a system that’s a little bit more complex, has more features and capabilities and that talks to other systems and all these kind of things. But in the beginning you don’t need this and Azure is usually.
Know about a company or corporation that doesn’t have a CRM yet. So it’s like you don’t have like thinking that I need software is a wrong thinking like it’s a wrong way of thinking and if you are actually wondering what you need in the beginning that is sufficient for you to start and run.

Jores Minasvand   2:36
Mhm.

Anna Angelova   2:49
On a successful business, you’re in the right place and you have the right way of thinking. And this episode will actually probably be shorter than usual than our episodes. But ultimately, how do you track leads and sales?
Without the complex software, two ways. I would say one thing is depending on what sales you’re you’re having, right? Like how you’re selling things if you’re selling things online.
You definitely need to have some kind of a way for people to purchase and this.
Providers like the these service providers, they have their own reports already like they they have a simple like way for you to see people who are purchasing their emails the the and how much they paid, what products they’ve purchased so.
You don’t need anything else like they already provide this for you like Stripe and PayPal and all these kind of service providers. They already provide this for you for you to track the sales right when it comes to sales, the sales part. So this is one thing where you’re already.
Using these systems anyway and they provide a reporting. So in the beginning you don’t need anything more than that. And when it comes to leads, again, depending on what kind of business you have, like one of the things actually even with sales and sales conversation.
One of the things that you can use that can allow you to track this in the beginning stages is something that like a software that you probably might have a love hate relationship with. You might hate it completely, who knows, but ultimately Excel.
Like a simple Excel spreadsheet can be more than sufficient in the beginning stages of your business for you to track leads and for you to track sales. And yes, it’s a bit of manual work for you, but this is one thing we’ve mentioned a few times that Excel and Outlook have killed more.
Software ideas than anything else. Just because they’re so powerful, just because they’re so versatile, just because they can be used so well in so many situations. And here it is. Excel. Yeah, they’re simple. So a simple Excel spreadsheet.

Jores Minasvand   5:10
And they’re simple.

Anna Angelova   5:15
It can be what it takes.

Jores Minasvand   5:17
Combine simplicity and power. It’s amazing you have Excel taking over the world.

Anna Angelova   5:25
It took over the world. Yeah, yes, it is. So this is it. Like, simple and straightforward. A lot of times we think, oh, we need more than this. No, you don’t need more than this. Now, of course, if you’re tracking in Excel more than just the numbers, like if you’re tracking.

Jores Minasvand   5:27
Yep. Hello.

Anna Angelova   5:45
Actually people’s names and emails and some of these things. Of course you wanna be careful, password protected, keep it in a secure space. Don’t share it with others, don’t e-mail it to people or something like this. You wanna make sure.
That you’re taking some of these necessary precautions to keep it safe and secure because you are building a business and you need to think as a business owner. And even if you’re not using a software and you’re using Excel, which is a software, but you’re using.
So you’re not using a dedicated like a specialized software. You still want to make sure things are protected and people don’t. You don’t expose their data somehow, somewhere.

Jores Minasvand   6:40
Absolutely. We talked about this before. I think it was one of our episodes 2-3 weeks ago where what technology should a company that’s starting use and we mentioned that you don’t really need to use technology right away.
Again, the the key is to build the right framework, right processes, and the same goes for sales. If you have the right framework, you can easily track it in Excel and automate it in Outlook and there it goes until you will reach a certain level and then.
Yeah, you can go to new software, but you don’t really need it as a startup. Some keep things simple, make sure that it’s it.
Provides the purpose that you need and a simple Excel works, then so be it.

Anna Angelova   7:41
Absolutely. And The thing is that again in the beginning, if you are careful with how much you’re spending, this is, this is what you can utilise. And I know we’re talking about Excel, I don’t know if like I haven’t checked it lately at some point.
Check the Google spreadsheet. It didn’t actually have the functionality for password protecting. I don’t know if they do have it now and and whether it works or not and how it works. So again, be careful with this is the only caveat that we want to be careful.
Now of course another way for you to track sales and leads and sales is with tools like MailChimp, which is it’s not a CRM. It allows you to e-mail your people like your e-mail list. It allows you to collect emails and.
Mail people and also you can connect it with your store and that you can see sales and things like this. But this become a little bit more complex, right? Like when you start connecting different systems like MailChimp, Chimp and Stripe or some other things like HubSpot or something like this, then these things become a little bit more complex and today we’re talking about not complex.
So this is what I would say and actually if you think about probably the most basic way is pen and paper, but I would say don’t because in terms of security and things like this is probably and in terms of manual work is probably the most manual work and the least.
Secure thing. So I would say Excel is a good point for you to start and track this and go from there. And the beautiful thing is that once you’re actually ready to start adding software on top of this to.
Make your processes more like automated and have things work better. Then Excel can always be imported the key everything like all of them.
Turn it into a CSV file and suddenly you can import it in any system. So yeah, I think this is more than enough. As I said, a short conversation. This is more than enough. This is like don’t underestimate the power of simple tools of simple.
Free tools that are available for you when you start your business.

Jores Minasvand   10:15
Very well put, Anna. Very well put. Beautiful.

Anna Angelova   10:19
Thanks, Joris. I know you’re tired. So anyway, this is it for today, for Monday. Now we are actually, well, we kind of soft launched our community, right? So I want to use this opportunity to invite you as you’re listening to this episode.

Jores Minasvand   10:32
Yes.

Anna Angelova   10:38
As you’re listening to this episode until the end, I actually want to invite you to join this community. So it’s called the Visionary Founders Club. It’s a free community where aspiring business owners and current business owners are welcome.
And our goal is to turn this into the best place for small, mid-sized business owners where they can connect, they can grow together, they can learn from each other, support each other and of course where we provide a lot of resources as well training and make your life easier and make your.
journey more fulfilling. So the link is in the description of the episode. Go check it out and we’d love to see you in the community.

Jores Minasvand   11:23
Yes, it’s a it’s a location full of good resource, good information and we’re always there. If you don’t find something, post the question, we will answer it within hours.

Anna Angelova   11:39
Yes, absolutely. So this is where you can connect with us more and you can ask your questions and as we say even.
Help shape this podcast, the episodes that are coming up in this podcast. So click that link, join the community and keep on being amazing. Keep on doing the work you’re doing. Keep on moving forward every single small step you take.
Takes you to the business you want to have. And if you’re just starting, keep moving, keep talking with people, keep selling, keep advertising and marketing and spreading the word about your product or service. The world needs more business owner. The world needs.
Us because we are the backbone of the economy. We are the heartbeat of the communities. So keep on shining your light and join the Visionary Founders Club and come back tomorrow for another episode of More than just Task Management.
Here we are shifting gears and talking about what to do when a key employee wants to leave or threatens to leave. So if you’re just starting your business, this is probably not relevant for you, so feel free to skip it. But if you have an existing business.

Jores Minasvand   12:59
Mm.

Anna Angelova   13:07
With employees and you know, this is probably one of the things you worry about. Like what if one of your key employees decides to leave? What do you do then? So join us for another awesome conversation tomorrow. Hopefully Joris will be awake at that time, so.

Jores Minasvand   13:25
I will be going back to normal hours tomorrow. The only difference is I’ll be 6 hours ahead of you.

Anna Angelova   13:25
Just kidding.
Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. But I’m I’m just kidding. So join us for another wonderful conversation tomorrow. Now go start your week and have a wonderful Monday.

Jores Minasvand   13:45
All right, bye.

Anna Angelova   13:47
Bye.