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Rob Kelly → Software → A Quick Evaluation Of 9 CRM Tools

A Quick Evaluation Of 9 CRM Tools

April 20th, 2012 | By Rob Kelly | Category: Software | Tags: ,

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A small business I’m involved in did an evaluation of some CRM software (Customer Relationship Management) tools. I like to share such learnings to save you or your pals time if you’re in the same boat.

Just to be clear, it was just two of us who spent about 10 hours total looking at demos online and trying trial versions where possible. And we excluded Salesforce.com — the market leader — because we had used it before and while it worked great, we wanted to try some new CRMs. Here’s the quick list:

ProsCons
Highrise
  • Easy UI (Web 2.0 like)
  • Name/Person-Oriented
  • Mobile App
  • Missing Probability/Deal Stages (a vital part of doing a pipeline!)
Zoho
  • Has most functionality
  • UI seemed to require extra steps
SugarCRM
  • Has most functionality (Accounts, Contacts, Opps Cases, etc.)
  • UI seem to require extra steps
Nutshell
  • Easy UI (Web 2.0 like)
  • Mobile App
  • Excellent Pipeline Feature
  • Google Apps Integration
  • Easy Highrise Import
  • $49/month for 5 users
  • Learning Curve
Batchbook
  • Very “Social” looking
  • Has Business Stages (though you have to customize them)
  • Integrates with Google, MailChimp, Eventbrite & others
  • Deal Stages may not include a numerical probability (so a “yield” calculation is not doable)
  • Pipeline Management not nailed down (they admit they’re more of a contact management system)
Sprinx
  • Google Apps Integration
  • Mobile
  • UI seemed to require extra steps
  • Not intuitive
  • Seems Microsoft-focused in many ways.
PipelineDeals
  • Google Apps Integration
  • Mobile
  • Solid Deal Stage Tracking
  • Email Integration
  • UI is okay
  • Limited Social Integration
CapsuleCRM
  • Strong Pipeline Tracking
  • Easy to use
  • Mobile
  • Good help functionality
  • No easy Google Apps integration
InfusionSoft
  • Overall: Seems Super-powerful/tons of functionality
  • Has strong email campaign manager (with auto-responders/follow-ups)
  • Web-based lead gen form
  • Has Customizable Probability/Deal Stage
  • Learning Curve
  • Price — $199 (2 users) to $999 per mo.

We ended up going with Nutshell because their interface was low on friction and the price was right. So far, the team likes it.

If you’ve tried one of these CRMs or another one, please add a comment about your experience.

And if you want to learn more about sales pipelines, check out How To Create A Sales Pipeline.

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