The three most common ways to organize contacts on your computer: Type them into excel, enter your contacts in a “flat” contact database, or track and manage your contacts using a relational database.
Most contact managers include other functionality, such as task lists, sales pipeline features, etc. Within this article, though, I’m just discussing the actual management of business contacts. In other news, I’m in the midst of working on a sales tickler system that works along with the BCM. That’s not a common feature in most contact management databases and I hope its something you’ll find useful. And, of course, if there are other features you’d like to see in a contact management database, feel free to drop me a line from the contact page.
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- Excel Contact Management Template
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- Flat Database Contact Manager
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- Relational Database Contact Software
Managing Contacts with Excel
The Excel solution is very straight forward. There is almost no learning curve and you probably have Excel on your computer. Furthermore, it is basically a “free” solution. On the down side, every time you need to store an additional piece of information, you need to add new rows or columns in Excel and the list becomes unwieldy. The search, sort and filter functions are workable but not very flexible. When you’re working a “database” in Excel, it seems that half the work has to do with using and constantly reorganizing the spreadsheet.
Most people who do use Excel opt for using one row per contact. This makes it easy to do things like sort by zip code or city. If you do sort contacts using Excel, be sure to “expand the selection” if asked, or it is likely that your list will be irreparably damaged.
Managing Contacts with a “Flat” database
Virtually all contact managers on the market are in a “flat database” format. In other words, you can only list one person’s name per company record and there is only one field for each type of phone number. On the positive side, such software is a little less expensive and if you only deal with one contact at any particular company software such as this may be an ideal choice.
Most people are familiar with this type of format and there is virtually no learning curve. You can list one company on a page, with one person’s name, that individual’s various phone numbers, their email address, etc. This type of system is easy to understand and use and is a very popular choice.
Managing contacts with a Relational Database
This is a perfect, simple example of the difference between a “flat” database and a “relational” database. A flat contact database allows for only one contact (or a fixed number of contacts) per company. A relational database allows for one, twenty, or (theoretically) hundreds or thousands of contacts to be managed for each company, including individual phone numbers, extensions, email addresses, etc.
In the SalesTrack database, you enter the company name first. This sets the stage for the “one to many relationship” between the database records. Once the “main” (company) record is in place, you can enter any number of contacts for that company on the same screen. Note that in relational databases, the search function usually works a little differently. At the top of the SalesTrack Database form there are drop-down search boxes. You can search by Company as well as First and Last name.