Many tools are complicated to learn. But CRMs seem to have this knack for being even more complex than others.
Who contacted you?
Where did they come from?
Have you spoken with them? When? How? Where?
Did they move forward in the sales process?
Did they sign a contract?
Where was that contract again?
Was it signed?
All these questions and more are part of your workflow.
And you want a place to put all that data seamlessly.
But it's not easy.
You have many entry points to your workflow. Social, website, ads, calls....
And you have a team of people working with you to market and sell your product or service.
But you need a tool to take care of it all.
A CRM does just that. It manages your customer relations.
And boy how hard it is to set up just right with your workflow.
Does it have the functionality you want?
If you want to be able to create your own stage activities in the pipeline, or if you want to have the ability to have formulas auto calculate stuff - you want a tool that has these capabilities.
Does it have built-in workflows?
Can you create templates?
Does it track your emails and enable multi-email sending?
What about multi-currency?
Does it integrate with your current tech? You want to be sure that the tools you already have in place can speak with any new tools. You want to know when contracts are signed, bills are paid and meetings scheduled.
Mostly, you want the tool to fit into the environment you are used to and that works for you.
There are so many options out there.
It is important to define your requirements and your workflow before you commit to a tool.
Don't let features blind you.
Check for benefits, and make sure that they give you what you need.
Looking for suggestions where to start looking?
Check out Streak and Copper for native GSuite/Gmail integration.
You can also check out Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, Less annoying CRM, Zendesk, or Freshsales.
As you grow, you may want a more powerful tool like Salesforce or Hubspot.
