In the last blog I talked about why you need a CRM system. Here I look at some of the ones I’ve used as a Virtual Assistant working with small businesses.
Zoho CRM is a user-friendly cloud-based CRM tool. If you’re looking to track leads through your sales pipeline it’s a great option.
In Zoho you can track leads from the initial enquiry through the pipeline right through to completing sales. Customers can be stored with their contact details and linked to the Company Account. For each you can add notes and record details of calls- there’s the option to log call details and also VOIP telephony apps that can be linked. In fact, there’s lots of Apps that can be integrated including G Suite, Microsoft 365, QuickBooks and Mailchimp.
Integrating accounting software for your finances can help bring your process through the final stages of the sale.
You can add team members – useful if you have a Virtual Assistant supporting your processes!
There’s a free plan which is a good starting option, that allows up to three users and up to 5000 records.
When you need more options for reporting, want insights into email opening and tracking and custom dashboards to give you the best views of the information that is relevant to your business, there are paid plans.
For small and medium businesses, Zoho CRM is simple to get started with, and the navigation to see your open leads, deals and reports as well as customer detail is straightforward. The paid plans come with lots of extras as that could be useful as your team and needs grow.
HubSpot CRM
HubSpot CRM is another choice for anyone wanting an online tool to track prospects and leads.
With a dashboard to see company and individual contact details, log contact details and notes, add tasks and follow through the flow of deals, interactions, and process, HubSpot is a useful tool.
There’s a free entry-level plan with lots of features and the ability to look after all your marketing, and sales data.
The interface is relatively easy to use and it can help you track the complete sales lifecycle in real time right from the leads prospecting stage to after-sales processes. To manage leads, you can track emails and track whenever a lead opens your email. You can add contacts directly from your emails helping you keep on top of those new enquiries.
Email marketing can be set up so you can manage your sales pipeline all in one place, include marketing automation, social media management, lead tracking, reporting, and content management.
The only downside of HubSpot could be the overwhelming number of features that are included. To get the most out of the CRM HubSpot has lots of free training resources in the knowledge base and it getting to grips with the basics is advisable before investing in a paid plan.
Capsule CRM
Capsule is the CRM that I use myself. It has a straight-forward dashboard and is simple to use. It’s aimed at the needs for smaller teams and small businesses and if you don’t have much of a budget to invest in software is a great place to start with a CRM.
It has an easy to-get-started intuitive workflow customisable to suit your business process. If you have been looking to move to a CRM to take greater control over your client relationships and pipeline Capsule develops as you grow your business.
The free plan is available for 2 users and lets you store up to 250 contacts. The Professional and Teams plans have higher contact limits and access to reporting functionality and premium integrations with FreshBooks, Xero, Mailchimp etc.
You have the ability to create new tasks, contacts, cases, and opportunities from anywhere in the system. It’s easy to browse contacts, view business opportunities and create a sales pipeline.
There’s good integration with Gmail and GSuite and Mailchimp with other options using Zapier, although for mass email marketing and automations HubSpot would be better option if that’s essential.
There are many more CRM systems on the market, and finding the one that works for you is dependent on your business, how your sales process works, your budget, the learning curve you are prepared to go through – there’s no one-size-fits-all CRM.
Workout what you need to track, and compare the features that will provide that and then take a trial or one or two – there’s usually a free period to trial and see how you get on.
If you need some help getting started get in touch and we can help you find the one that will work for your business.
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