You’ve probably used an Excel spreadsheet for many different projects. Excel is most commonly used for finance and accounting. Many people also use it as a contact manager. You can create a row for each person in your network and columns with information about them such as a job title, company name, last time contacted, and status notes. Many people export their LinkedIn connections to a spreadsheet, delete all the people they don’t actually know, and then use that as a CRM. The problem is, it doesn’t automatically update as people change jobs or provide any added layer of intelligence or automation. You have to input and update manually, and it doesn’t provide any guidance on how you can build stronger relationships. Sometimes people also create spreadsheets for new projects. If you’re looking for clients in a new industry, such as media, you create a new spreadsheet with all the people you know in media or who know people in media. It then serves as a place to keep track of to dos and the status of each person.