I am a very small consultancy looking for a method to keep track of my leads, prospects and targets. I am not interested in a sophisticated CRM program and also don't care that much if the system syncs with my email. I want one step up from spreadsheet. Any suggestions?
I agree with David. Get yourself set up with a web-based CRM system. Salesforce used to be the only game in town but now there are lots of new competitors springing up. Here's a great article on three good choices, none of them costing more than $1200/year and some even less: http://fitsmallbusiness.com/best-crm-for-small-business/
Keep in mind that even though you feel like you don't need a "sophisticated system" now, if you may find you outgrow anything that doesn't have the ability to scale and it's going to be a bigger hassle to switch again in the future.
To effectively track leads and opportunities one should consider a centralized web-based CRM solution such as Zoho or SalesForce.com for team collaboration, data preservation and relationship management. A static spreadsheet risks data loss if your computer crashes before hitting save and version control is a challenge. Since your contact data is constantly changing with tasks specific to each relationship and each lead's time frame, your method should include a task management system enabling notes and task scheduling for timely follow-up. Spreadsheets or websites lack these dynamic features.
