Unsure if a Pivot Table is what I need

Hi folks,

Long story short, I have a massive database of business contacts that I'm trying to make more easy to manipulate so I can extract various information. 3,000 rows, 52 columns. I have 6 key columns that I'd like to filter by, but the others may need to be used eventually as well.

The problem is, there's no real numerical value in any of these cells. Everything consists of things such as client industry, email, newsletter subscriptions, whether or not they're a prime target for additional business, and so on. This is what leads me to believe a pivot table may not be what I need. It could be that I'm just doing it incorrectly but no matter how I organize the key elements into the table, it just doesn't look right.

I know it's probably kind of difficult to really give an answer without seeing the spreadsheet, but I can't exactly post it as it has confidential information. So I'm more or less just looking for advice on what might be the best thing to do. An example of something I'd like to see could be "Clients in the manufacturing industry who are considered a top target and not currently subscribed to our manufacturing newsletter."

Appreciate any insight you guys are able to give. I'm stumped.

Robert