Like every startup our customer dwfinition is pretty flexable at this point, so any recommendation on lean and efficient CRM proccess is appriciated
by wj on 10/1/17, 11:21 PM
What is your sales process going to look like? Figure out your requirements and it will make your search easier.
I really like Close.io for cold outbound sales. If you're doing social media then maybe look at Nimble. As someone else said you can get started for free with Hubspot. Intercom might be something to look at as well if your going for a more automated process.
You can obviously use Zapier to tie your software together so you can use best in class software for whatever processes you end up putting in place.
by iamjbean on 10/2/17, 12:10 AM
I work for Base (getbase.com) and recently put this spreadsheet together with 45 vendor details, links to pricing, etc. Whatever you select, just make sure it scales with your business and you have a solid plan around implementation/process. Happy to answer any questions about Base (or any others if I can).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10H4p3vg_smsE54bdSJ9U...
by gk1 on 10/1/17, 8:12 PM
Hubspot CRM is free, Hubspot Sales has affordable tiers, and they also have special discount programs for startups. I don't have any affiliation with them.
by patio11 on 10/2/17, 1:25 AM
Close.io -- clean, stays out of your way, very extensible API for when you want to tie it directly into your site/dashboard/various marketing mechanisms.
by OliverJones on 10/2/17, 12:29 AM
WJ has it right. Figure out your sales process. How many customers? How do you identify suspects / prospects / likelies? How long is the sales cycle? Do your first US$50K of deals managing with tools you already own, like a whiteboard or spreadsheet or quickbooks, or with tools you have to have, like payment card processors like stripe.com and/or braintree.
Once you've got the beginnings of a process, you'll be much better positioned to decide on tools.
Tools don't close deals. You do. Go close some. Seriously.
by dcwca on 10/2/17, 12:21 AM
Salesforce.com because you’ll move to it anyway.
by PhilipA on 10/2/17, 1:22 AM
We chose Salesforce, and haven't regretted it. The thing you need to keep in mind if you are doing any semi-complicated B2B sales, is that you will need to do some customizations, and Salesforce is a king of this. We have heavily customized it, and especially workflows have been quite helpfull for us.
It does come with a hefty price-tag, but when moving forward you will eventually outgrow most other CRM solutions, and it will be quite time consuming to switch later on.
It also helps with recruiting, since most people have used Salesforce previously.
by tixocloud on 10/2/17, 4:03 PM
Since you're at the beginning of it all, you might want to take a step back and think about your sales process. Here are some other questions to ponder as you're thinking about your CRM:
- Are you a B2B or a B2C startup?
- What are your goals for your CRM? (i.e. close more deals, relationship management, etc.)
- How many people are in your organization? How many people are in your sales team?
- What existing systems do you have already? Do you need the sales data to feed into other systems?
- How do you plan on updating your customer information?
- How skilled is your sales team? Will they primarily be in the office, working remotely? Do they need additional capabilities from the CRM software?
- Which communication channels do you expect your customers to be?
Without a clear picture of your organization and your sales process, it's difficult to pinpoint the right solution. I used to be a consultant and have seen clients implement all kinds of software without fully understanding their own capabilities and the software's capabilities.
However, given that you're at the beginning of things, what would make the most sense might be to try a few different free tools to see what works for you. I wouldn't spend too much at this point - something simple and easy might be best. Heck, even Google Sheets or Excel might suffice at this point.
by las3r on 10/1/17, 11:21 PM
Office365 comes with a complementary Outlooks Contacts Manager that lives straight in outlook (well, exchange). It's a great tool for a 1 man shop with a few simple products and leads.
You need a business premium license though. (10eur/MO)
by lessclue on 10/2/17, 4:10 AM
by jksmith on 10/2/17, 2:05 AM
Whatever you use, here's the trick we learned from trying to use Msft Dynamics XRM: Do not make the core of your application a bunch of custom functoids. Also plan custom changes very carefully; always use what's out of the box first. Also, don't hesitate to hire pro consultants; they will reinforce what I just stated.
Even given all that, would I use XRM again? No. It just isn't there yet for a large enterprise app.
by turbosales on 10/2/17, 1:30 PM
Turbosales.io is a good one [disclaimer - I made it]
It's great because it bundles mass email, automated email and a CRM into one so you don't have to run around stitching a bunch of pieces together.
Once you make an account send me a message or call me (number is in the app) and I'll work out a special deal [basically free till it's actually bringing in revenue] for you since you're a startup.
by matchmike1313 on 10/1/17, 8:24 PM
Hubspot is great since their product is designed with marketing in mind, this makes it a great fit for SaaS companies as they heavily rely on digital marketing channels to grow. They also have some great integrations with tools such as Proposify, Lucky Orange, etc. Our SaaS company just switched to Hubspot from Streak and we are happy to have made the jump.
by fillskills on 10/2/17, 3:13 AM
Use the cheapest and easiest one to install. Once you use it you will start finding more about what you need in CRM. If you are really a startup, it shouldnt be that hard to switch to a different one later. We started with excel files, then used Zoho for 1 year before switching to SalesForce. Based on size and scenarios, I would recommend all of them.
by tmikaeld on 10/2/17, 7:35 AM
https://www.group-office.comBasic version is open source but the premium is only 200$ a year if you self host it. They have out of the box Debian packages so it's easy to run. It's the most feature packed crm we have found and we have used it for clients the last 8 years.
by hayksaakian on 10/1/17, 11:08 PM
Google spreadsheets are pretty good
once you really need automation features, then something like insightly or hubspot can be useful
by ramanujank on 10/2/17, 8:58 AM
Zoho all the way! (Zoho fanboy here)
Main reasons:
1. Good coverage in terms of features and customization.
2. Pure play on Zoho is very advantageous. There are numerous apps, products that play well, which are deeply integrated (Survey, Sign, Campaigns, etc).
3. Amazing price point!
by ggillas on 10/1/17, 11:01 PM
Streak CRM, fantastic if on G Suite.
by nip on 10/1/17, 9:43 PM
Have you looked into Pipedrive?
by kartikkumar on 10/2/17, 9:15 AM
Whatever you do, don't over complicate it with systems and processes. Do what works today and possibly tomorrow, because your startup is going to go through plenty of changes anyway. We started out using Google Sheets and then migrated to Asana (free), which we've sorta "hacked" to do CRM the way that works for us. One thing I've learned is to not waste too much time in these choices because it's not the core value in your org, at least not at an early stage.
by nodesocket on 10/1/17, 11:29 PM
I've been using
https://agilecrm.com for my startup and it's worked well. They even have a free plan.
by forzo on 10/2/17, 8:38 AM
by nivasravi on 10/2/17, 9:32 AM
Have you tried using Freshsales CRM? -
https://www.freshworks.com/freshsales-crm
Has AI-based lead scoring, built-in phone, email, activity capture, workflows and more. A lot of SaaS startups have been using it and found it to be really helpful for their teams.
[Disclaimer: I work for Freshsales (Freshworks)]
by vikas_jha on 10/2/17, 2:20 PM
If you want to follow Predictable Revenue ( by Aaron ross) give Alore CRM a try (
https://crm.alore.io) .
Alore CRM offers everything needed to run a sales team at scale - from finding business email addresses to running automated drip campaigns to monitoring the performance of sales teams.
We have special price for startups with less than 5 team member.
by wicha on 10/2/17, 1:19 PM
We put together a free CRM designed for startups that works 100% over Slack. Sudo.ai, is free for our own CRM version and integrates with Salesforce. It's zero-input collects everything from your email and calendar and automagically organizes it on a CRM. Disclaimer: CEO founder here.
by csandstedt on 10/2/17, 12:39 AM
by rrrhys on 10/2/17, 4:52 AM
WORKetc[1] is pretty feature packed and their support is supposedly second to none. (Disclaimer: I have worked with them in the past)
1: https://www.worketc.com
by jocke12 on 10/2/17, 8:53 AM
We just founded
https://prospekt.ai for automatically finding and contacting leads. Might be a good fit for you. Get in touch for an HN discount.
by fstephany on 10/2/17, 8:36 AM
It really depends of your sales flow.
In any case, I've heard a lot of people are happy with
https://prospect.io/by jdormit on 10/1/17, 11:41 PM
[Disclaimer: I work for HubSpot]
HubSpot has a startup "scholarship" program, I think it is a 90% discount. Not sure about the details for applying, but it's worth looking into.
by gerenuk on 10/1/17, 8:04 PM
Check out salesflare.com
by mikaelhernrup on 10/2/17, 9:28 AM
by poof_he_is_gone on 10/1/17, 11:19 PM
by dedalus on 10/2/17, 3:44 AM
by eshlomo on 10/1/17, 10:58 PM
Thanks for the replies, havnt tried any of those. Adding to the list
by goatherders on 10/1/17, 11:52 PM
Agile CRM is my preferred, particularly because it sucks in Gmail.
by cygned on 10/1/17, 11:41 PM
Using Central Station CRM over here.
by krallja on 10/2/17, 1:12 AM
I've heard of Highrise (came out of 37signals) and Salesforce (because they put their name on buildings in many major cities)
by riemannzeta on 10/1/17, 11:23 PM
Prosperworks
by jimjimjim on 10/2/17, 2:03 AM
whiteboard
email
spreadsheet
by anacleto on 10/1/17, 10:20 PM
Close.io or getbase.com