CRM for window and door companies: why Excel is no longer enough

Problem: the window and door specialist manages commercial contacts on Excel and loses quotes without realising it.

Solution: a simple CRM that keeps every open deal under control.

Result: 144.000 € in recovered revenue every year from quotes that previously fell through the cracks.

"How many open quotes do you have right now?"

A window and door specialist in Northern Italy shows me his commercial system: an Excel file with 28 columns, three separate sheets per year, custom filters that half work.

I ask him a simple question: "How many open quotes do you have right now?"

Silence. He starts scrolling through the sheet. Filters by "status", but the field is only filled in for half the rows. He opens a second sheet. Checks the dates. Looks through emails to understand whether certain clients have already replied. After fifteen minutes he says: "Around seventy, maybe eighty."

Second question: "Of these, how many have you called back after sending the quote?"

He can't answer. Not because he's disorganised. But because Excel isn't designed to keep track of commercial relationships. It's a spreadsheet. It calculates — it doesn't manage.

The real cost of Excel isn't the software. It's what you don't see.

The problem isn't a lack of work. It's the blindness to what happens between the first contact and the signed contract.

Excel gives you the illusion of control. You have a file, there are names, figures. But it doesn't tell you who you need to call back tomorrow. It doesn't warn you that a quote worth 12.000 € has been sitting without a reply for three weeks. It doesn't show you that your salesperson has 40 open deals and is actively following just 12.

The cost of the quote black hole

We analysed one company's data: 180 quotes in a year, average value 12.000 €.

Twelve quotes where the client had never said no. Nobody had followed them up. Not lost because of price, not lost because of competition. Lost because nobody made a phone call.

The problem nobody considers: the salesperson who leaves

The salesperson changes company, goes freelance, retires. And with them goes everything: contacts, relationships, client notes, ongoing deals.

With Excel, the history sits in the salesperson's head, on their phone, in their personal emails. The day after they leave, the owner opens the file and finds names and numbers. But they don't know who's warm, who's cold, who was waiting for a callback.

I've seen businesses lose open deals worth tens of thousands of euros because nobody knew those clients were waiting for an answer. Money that went to the competition because of a system that kept information inside one person's head.

With a CRM, when the salesperson leaves, the deals stay. The notes stay. The next day someone else opens the system and knows exactly where everything stands.

BAU Gest

Keep every deal under control with BAU Gest

BAU Gest shows you at a glance all open quotes, how long they've been sitting, and who you need to call back. No more quotes lost in limbo.

See how it works

Swiss
Made

BAU Gest

Net margin24,2%

Active jobs8

Hours deviation+12%

What a CRM for window and door companies must do

You don't need complicated CRMs with 200 features. A CRM for the construction industry needs to do four things well.

Quote list with status. You open the system and immediately see: how many open quotes, how long they've been open, what their value is. A clean, up-to-date, reliable view.

Automatic reminders. The system tells you who to call back. If a quote has been sitting for 7 days, you get an alert. If a client has asked "call me back in two weeks", the system reminds you.

Client history. A client calls about a problem with windows fitted two years ago. In 10 seconds you find: window type, installation date, who did the work, amount, previous interventions. No 10-minute search through emails needed.

Monthly report. How many quotes issued, won, lost; what the value of open deals is. A report with the numbers that matter — not 15 charts.

"But Excel is free"

True: you already have Excel, it costs nothing, you know how to use it.

But what does it cost you in the time your salesperson spends searching for information? If every day they lose 20 minutes scrolling through the file and searching emails, that's around 80 hours a year.

What do quotes lost in limbo cost you? Potentially 144.000 € in revenue.

What does not knowing your conversion rate cost you? If you don't know you close at 35%, you don't know whether that's good or bad. You don't know where to improve. You don't know whether your new salesperson is working.

Excel is free. But the cost of using Excel instead of a CRM is everything you lose without noticing.

How to get started, in practice

You don't need a six-month project. You can move from Excel to a CRM in two weeks.

Week one. Clean up the Excel file. Remove duplicates, fill in empty fields where possible, identify quotes that are still open. This clean-up alone will reveal things you didn't know.

Week two. Import the data into the CRM, set up the pipeline stages (first contact, site visit done, quote sent, in negotiation, won, lost) and run two hours of training with the users.

From day 15. Use only the CRM. No more Excel for contacts. If someone goes back to Excel "because it's faster", understand why and fix the issue in the CRM.

After 30 days you'll have your first report with real data. And you won't go back.

If you recognise yourself in this situation

If you have an Excel file with hundreds of rows and you don't know how many open quotes you have right now, the problem isn't you. It's the tool.

Book 30 minutes with us. We'll look at your commercial process together and work out what your current setup is actually costing you. No commitment, no contract.