Notes for owners · CRM, automation and RevOps
Enquiry register for a manufacturer: a spreadsheet to use before you buy a CRM
A twelve-column enquiry register a factory can start this afternoon, the three rules that keep it honest, how to read it for follow-up gaps, and the signs that it is time for a CRM.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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Three salespeople, two WhatsApp numbers and a diary on the despatch desk. Ask which of last month's enquiries got a quotation, and nobody can say. Before you buy a CRM, keep an enquiry register: one shared sheet, one row per enquiry, twelve columns, filled by whoever takes the enquiry. Within a few weeks it shows where enquiries stall and who was meant to own them. The columns your team actually fills then become the specification for a CRM, if you still need one.
Why start with a sheet, not software
A CRM bought first gets set up from the vendor's demo, with stages named for somebody else's business. Your team fills it for a fortnight, then goes back to WhatsApp. A sheet costs nothing and everyone knows how to use one. It also forces the only question that matters at this stage: what must we write down about an enquiry so that nobody drops it?
Skip the sheet if you already have a CRM that people use. A register beside a working system means every enquiry is typed twice, and within a month the two disagree.
The register layout
Make one tab called Live. Turn the Source and Status columns into drop-down lists, so nobody types "Indiamart", "IM" and "india mart" for the same thing.
| Column | What goes in | The gap it exposes |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiry no. | E-001 onward, never reused | Two salespeople logging the same buyer |
| Received on | Date, and the time if it came after hours | Enquiries that waited overnight for a reply |
| Source | Dealer, directory, website, walk-in, existing customer, referral, trade fair | Which source brings orders and which brings calls |
| Buyer | Company, person, mobile, town | A repeat buyer recorded as a stranger |
| What they want | Product, size, quantity, in the buyer's words | Enquiries you should never have quoted |
| Owner | One person's name | Enquiries each person thought someone else had |
| Status | New, questions sent, quoted, negotiating, won, lost, not for us | Where enquiries pile up |
| Quoted on | Date the priced quotation went out | Slow quoting, measured rather than guessed |
| Quote ref and value | Your quotation number and amount | Quotes sent and never chased |
| Next action | Five words: "call Ravi re thickness" | Vague follow-up such as "in touch" |
| Next action date | A date, never blank while the row is open | Dropped enquiries |
| Closed reason | The buyer's words when won, lost or not for us | Whether you lose on price, delivery or silence |
If you sell through directories and want to judge each listing from the same sheet, our post on IndiaMART, TradeIndia and directories adds the columns for that decision.
Three rules that keep it honest
A row starts at first contact. Not when a quotation is made. The call that asked for a rate and never got one is the enquiry you most need to see.
One owner per row. A name, not "sales team". If the owner is on leave, the name changes; the row does not sit.
No open row without a next action date. Won, lost and not-for-us rows can have a blank date. Every other row needs one, even if the action is "ask again after the tender opens".
Everything else is optional. A register with these three rules and half the columns filled is worth more than a perfect layout nobody keeps.
Reading it on a Monday morning
Ten minutes, with the sheet filtered four ways:
- Open rows where the next action date is blank or already past. That is your follow-up gap, by name.
- Rows in "quoted" with no change since the quote went out. Each of them needs a reason to call, and following up a quotation gives you several.
- Received on against quoted on, for the last month's rows. If the gap is longer than the buyer's own deadline, you are losing before price comes up.
- Source against won. The source that brings the most rows and the source that brings the most orders are often not the same.
The owner reads, asks one question per stuck row, and the person named answers it that day.
Imagine a roofing sheet maker in Raipur
Imagine a unit in Raipur making colour-coated roofing sheets, selling to contractors, to dealers in Bilaspur and Durg, and to farmers building poultry sheds. Enquiries came by phone, by WhatsApp and through dealers. The sales coordinator kept a register, and it looked healthy: most quoted rows ended in an order.
The mistake was in when a row began. A row was made only when a quotation went out. A contractor who rang for a rate on a shed roof and heard "I will send it" never appeared anywhere, so the register could not show him. Enquiries passed on by dealers had no owner at all, because each salesperson assumed the dealer was handling them.
Two changes closed both gaps. Every call and message became a row the day it arrived, including the ones marked "not for us". And the person who logged the row chose its owner there and then. The first Monday reading after that was uncomfortable: a column of open rows with past dates and, beside several of them, a dealer's name and no salesperson's. Those were the calls to make first, and by then two of the dealer-passed enquiries had been waiting more than a month.
When the sheet stops being enough
Move to a CRM when one of these is true, not before:
- Two people overwrite each other's rows, or a field salesperson cannot update the sheet from a site.
- Next action dates are missed because nobody opens the sheet, and you need a reminder on the phone.
- You want call history per buyer.
- The Monday reading takes longer than an hour, because there are too many open rows to scan.
Do not move if the sheet is half empty. A team that does not fill twelve columns will not fill a CRM either. Fix the habit first.
When you do move, the register is your brief: the columns that got filled, the status list, the owner rule and the closed reasons. Duplicate buyers have to be merged before anything goes across. A shop that quotes part by part needs more fields than this, and setting up a CRM for a factory lists them. Which sources fill the Source column depends on what you make; a roofing sheet maker and a forge hear from very different places.
Make the Live tab before Monday
Twelve columns, and every enquiry that is still open, each with an owner and a date. On Monday, run the four filters and ask your one question per stuck row. If the register shows more gaps than your team can close alone, the manufacturing hub and lead database management are where to look, or tell us what you need.
