Complex calculations and logical operations are essential when creating sales quotes. That is why sales teams often prefer to create their models on flexible and easy-to-maintain platforms, rather than relying on traditional coding. The platform must be agile and modifiable, so that new products can be added swiftly, without requiring weeks or months of change requests. These aspects of sales operations make spreadsheets an excellent candidate since they can host complex logical systems while still being flexible to accommodate quick modifications and enhancements.
Close is a powerful CRM platform that aids in tracking potential customers, closing sales, and managing a sales team. Close CRM also offers a variety of API Integrations with a wide array of marketing and business apps. One of those integrations supports embedding SpreadsheetWeb applications.
Using SpreadsheetWeb, you can turn your complex pricing spreadsheets into full-blown web applications, including full support for spreadsheet calculations and a variety of extensible features, such as customizable user interface design, database integration, and forms generation. Using the Close integration, you can embed these powerful apps directly into your Close CRM leads or contacts.
Let’s see how this can be done.
First, log into your Close CRM account, click on a lead or a contact. You may want to add some custom fields that correspond with the inputs and outputs from the pricing sheet. This will be helpful when it comes to binding the name fields between the two platforms.
After that, go to ''Settings'', and under the ''Integrations'' section, you will see ''API Keys''. Create a new API key for your SpreadsheetWeb extension. Then, go to the SpreadsheetWeb Integration page and enter this API Key. You will be forwarded to your Close account, and now you can start using the SpreadsheetWeb integration.
Select a lead or contact and click on the SpreadsheetWeb button. The system will ask for the application link and its unique identifier, which you can find in your SpreadsheetWeb account.
If there are matching names, the "Auto Populate" feature can be used to automatically detect the fields on Close CRM and match them to any corresponding fields in the SpreadsheetWeb application. Alternatively, if you use different names across the platforms, then you can map them manually during this step.
Now it's time to run the application. When you click on the "Run" button, the inputs from the Close CRM will be automatically populated into a clean version of the SpreadsheetWeb application. Additionally, all calculations will be executed. Clicking on the save button will also push the data back to Close CRM.
If you run the application for an existing contact or lead, then you can also change the previously stored inputs. Additionally, if you make modifications within Close CRM and run the application again, those changes will be visible, and the up-to-date calculations can be seen. Of course, hitting the save button will push those changes back into the system again.
Another important facet of SpreadsheetWeb is the ability to create fully customizable PDF documents. These may include inputs and calculation results with advanced features like formatting, headers/footers, page numbering, conditional page generation, and even recursive documents. In the end, you will have a professional proposal that can be printed, emailed, or shared with your customers.
In conclusion, If you have a complex, Excel-based pricing model that you have converted into a web application using SpreadsheetWeb, you can embed that application into Close CRM and utilize it to calculate and create sales quotes.
