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The search for the perfect Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a familiar story for any growing business. You need a central place to manage leads, track interactions, and understand your sales pipeline. The default step is to research the big names: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and countless others. You sit through demos, compare feature lists, and eventually, you pick one.

And for many businesses, that is where the problems begin.

The one-size-fits-all CRM is often a one-size-fits-none compromise. It is expensive, bloated with features you will never use, and worst of all, it creates yet another data silo, completely separate from the ecosystem where your team actually works: Google Workspace.

If your organisation runs on Gmail, Google Drive, Google Sheets, and Google Calendar, you are paying for a powerful, integrated suite of tools. So why are you also paying a premium for an external, disconnected CRM?

There is a better, cheaper, and more powerful alternative. It is called AppSheet, and if you are a Google Workspace customer, you likely already own it.

The Familiar Problems with Off-the-Shelf CRM

Before we explore the solution, let's diagnose the illness. Traditional, off-the-shelf CRM solutions, despite their marketing budgets, come with a standard set of frustrations.

• Exorbitant Licensing Costs: The "per-user, per-month" model is a budget killer. A licence for a popular CRM can range from £20 to over £100 per user. For a sales team of 10 people, that is easily an extra £5,000 to £12,000 a year, just for the software.
• Feature Bloat: These platforms are built to serve everyone, from a local estate agent to a global pharmaceutical company. This means your team has to navigate a complex interface, disabling notifications and hiding modules for features you do not need, just to find the simple contact form.
• Rigid Workflows: Off-the-shelf CRMs force you to adapt your sales process to their software. Want a custom pipeline stage called "Technical Review" that is not in their template? That might require an expensive developer or a premium-tier plan. You end up changing your business to fit the tool, not the other way around.
• The Integration Nightmare: The CRM is here, but your data is there. Your team's emails are in Gmail, your proposal documents are in Google Drive, and your client data is probably in a Google Sheet already. Connecting these systems requires fragile, expensive, third-party connectors (like Zapier), creating more points of failure and more monthly bills.

For organisations embedded in Google Workspace, these problems are magnified. You are trying to plug a square peg into a round hole, and paying a premium for the privilege.

What is AppSheet and Why is it Different?

Google AppSheet is a no-code development platform. In simple terms, it is a tool that lets you build powerful, custom web and mobile applications without writing a single line of code.

And its superpower? It builds these apps directly from your existing data sources, most notably Google Sheets.

Instead of your data living in a Google Sheet and a separate CRM, AppSheet turns your Google Sheet into the CRM. The Sheet acts as the secure, cloud-based database, and AppSheet builds a feature-rich, user-friendly interface on top of it.

This is not just a different CRM; it is a different way of thinking about business software. Instead of buying a rigid, finished product, you use AppSheet to build your own perfect, lightweight solution in a fraction of the time.

The Compelling Case for a Custom AppSheet CRM

For a Google Workspace customer, choosing AppSheet is not just a minor upgrade; it is a fundamental shift that unlocks huge benefits.

1. Massive Cost Savings (It is Probably Already Included)

This is the most significant benefit. AppSheet Core licensing is included at no additional cost with most Google Workspace plans, including Business Starter, Standard, and Plus, as well as Enterprise and Education tiers.

Let that sink in.

That £5,000 to £12,000 a year (or more) that you were quoted for an external CRM? That cost evaporates. You can build, deploy, and share a custom-built CRM for your entire team, and it is already covered by your existing Google Workspace subscription.

The budget you save can be reinvested in sales training, marketing, or other growth-focused activities instead of just "keeping the lights on" with your software.

2. Perfect, Native Integration (It Lives in Google)

An AppSheet CRM is not "integrated" with Google Workspace; it is native to it. The entire system is one seamless workflow.

• Single Source of Truth: Your database is a Google Sheet in your Google Drive. All your customer data lives securely within your organisation's existing file structure, subject to your existing security and permissions.
• Automate Your Ecosystem: You can build automations that connect all your Google tools. For example:
  • When a lead's status is changed to "Proposal Sent" in the AppSheet CRM, an automation can generate a Google Doc from a template, fill it with the customer's data, and save it to their folder in Google Drive.
  • An automated workflow can send an email from Gmail to a sales manager when a new high-value lead is added.
  • You can build a button in the app that creates a follow-up meeting and adds it directly to your Google Calendar.
• Access Anywhere: Because it is part of Google, your team can access and update the CRM from their desktop, laptop, tablet, or a fully-functional mobile app on their phone.

3. Total Customisation (Build Your Process)

With an off-the-shelf CRM, you get 100 features and use 15. With AppSheet, you need 15 features, so you build 15 features.

Your business is unique, and your CRM should be too.

• Build Your Perfect Pipeline: You decide the exact stages of your sales process. No more trying to fit your workflow into someone else's template.
• Create Custom Fields: Need to track "Industry Type," "Last Service Date," or "Favourite Biscuit" for your clients? Just add a new column in your Google Sheet. It will appear in the app instantly.
• Control User Views: You can set up different views for different users. A sales rep might only see their own leads, while a sales manager sees a high-level dashboard of the entire team's performance. Field technicians can have a mobile-first view for logging service calls, while the finance team sees only the invoicing data.

This is the definition of an agile solution. If you need to change your process, you do not file a ticket and wait six months. You open the AppSheet editor, make the change, and deploy it in minutes.

What Can a Custom AppSheet CRM Actually Do?

A common question is whether a "spreadsheet app" can really compete with a dedicated CRM. The answer is a resounding yes. You can build a solution that includes:

• Full Contact Management: A searchable database of all your leads, customers, and suppliers.
• Sales Pipeline Tracking: Visual, card-based (Kanban) views of your sales pipeline, allowing you to drag-and-drop leads from one stage to the next.
• Activity Logging: A simple way for reps to log calls, meetings, and emails, with all activities linked to the relevant contact.
• Automated Reminders: Trigger push notifications or emails for follow-ups, so no lead ever falls through the cracks.
• Mobile & Offline Access: Field sales teams can look up customer details, get directions, and update notes on their mobile, even if they are offline. The app will sync the changes when they are back online.
• Simple Quoting & Invoicing: Generate PDF quotes or invoices using Google Docs templates and email them directly from the app.
• Data-Rich Dashboards: Create real-time charts and graphs that show your key metrics, such as leads per month, conversion rate, and sales by representative.

The Clear Choice for Google-Powered Businesses

The debate between off-the-shelf and custom solutions used to be a choice between convenience and control. Off-the-shelf was fast but rigid. Custom-built was perfect but took months and a team of developers.

AppSheet changes this. It gives you the speed of an off-the-shelf solution with the flexibility of a custom build.

If your organisation is already invested in the Google Workspace ecosystem, you are sitting on an untapped goldmine. Stop paying for redundant, disconnected software. The most powerful, flexible, and cost-effective CRM for your business is the one you already own. It is time to stop shopping for a CRM and start building your CRM.

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