As an entrepreneur for over 15 years now,
I've spent so much time and money
trying to find the right CRM for our business.
So hopefully in this video, I can save you some time and pain
by outlining five CRMs that I think are
suitable for small business.
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Hey, guys.
Alan Brannigan here from Founder Cave.
And before we get started, I just
want to outline a little caveat here,
and that this video is first of all
for starting or early-stage businesses.
So we're not going to cover the very expensive Salesforce
or Microsoft Dynamic-type CRMs where you need thousands
of dollars of integration fees.
This is really a low cost, very easy to implement
type CRMs for business sets, either very small or just
starting out.
Secondly, I've only been involved in businesses that
sell B2B as opposed to B2C.
So I'm reviewing these CRMs in the context
of having tens of clients as opposed to hundreds
or thousands of clients.
So this is really a review for early-stage businesses
with a sub-100 client base.
Hey, guys.
If we're just meeting for the first time,
I'm Alan Brannigan here at Founder Cave.
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And so let's get into it.
Coming in at number five, one of the first CRM tools I really
ever used was Pipedrive.
Now, Pipedrive is a web-based CRM tool.
Its strength, in my opinion, is a very simple, lovely
to look at, well thought-out, intuitive pipeline view.
And very simple drag and drop.
Very clear on what all team members tasks are,
and what you need to do to move a deal forward
down the pipeline.
Pipedrive starts out at around $12.50 for its basic or silver
membership.
It provides a lot of functionality for that.
That's per user, by the way, so good for small teams.
In the end, for us, we just kind of outgrew the tool.
It's great for starting out, but we
found it was a little limited in functionality
in terms of integrations and what
we wanted to do as we grew, and so we moved on.
But as an early stage tool, I really recommend it.
Especially if you're really focused on the pipeline.
You've got a sales team that really
wants to crank through what they're going to do
to get the deal over the line.
This is a great tool for you.
Coming in at number four is Streak CRM.
Now, this tool is great if you're a solo trader
or you're a Google fanatic.
This one is totally designed around integrating
with Gmail and the G Suites, so Google Drive, Google Docs, et
cetera.
And you can actually get a free version for a personal account.
So if you're a sole trader, a freelancer, or somebody
just starting out, this is really a great tool for you.
However, it really is for the Google enthusiast.
So if you're using Gmail for your business,
and you're using all of the Google tools,
then this one's for you.
You can upgrade, of course, to professional or enterprise
plans, anywhere from $49 to $99 per month, per user.
And so, if your team is really integrated with Google,
then this is one for you.
In the end, we went with Microsoft 365,
so this really wasn't a tool for us.
But, nonetheless, again, especially
if you're a sole trader or a freelancer,
this is a fantastic tool for you to get started.
And it's free.
Coming in at number three is Accelo.
Now, this tool I loved.
I absolutely loved Accelo.
I kind of regret we're still not using it.
It's one of the best service operations automation tools out
there.
So if you're in the service industry,
I would highly recommend you look at this one.
Pricing plans start from around $34 per month, per user.
So it's a little on the high side,
but it is packed full of functionality.
What I loved most about this for our business is it
had a really great stage-gate check off system.
So if you wanted to put some gates in place and some checks
and balances to move a deal down a pipeline,
whether it was you had to have a memorandum of understanding
or a purchase order in order to move
that deal forward and assign more resources to it,
this was fantastic.
You could set it up so that your sales people couldn't just
push a deal through without the product management
team and the engineering team and everyone else making sure
that they had the right information, all of the things
that were required to get the deal over the line.
And that we weren't over-allocating a resource
disproportional to the deal size.
Like I say, I kind of regret that we're still
not using this.
Two reasons we're not using it now.
The first one was the email integration wasn't great.
And I found that it was pulling in emails
from all sorts of accounts.
And I had this complicated setup where sales staff were getting
access to emails from my board of directors,
and it was just weird.
And, look, this was two years ago,
so maybe Accelo has fixed it now.
But that was a real problem for us.
The other reason was more and more
we had a lot more marketing requirements,
and Accelo, in my view, doesn't really support that so well.
So we eventually found a tool that
catered to our marketing requirements
as much as our sales requirements.
And that leads me on to number two.
Coming in at number two is HubSpot CRM,
which I think is a fantastic product.
It's the one we currently use, and we're
using the free version.
It covers our marketing requirements and our sales
requirements.
It's got that great pipeline view that Pipedrive had.
In fact, it's possibly even better, so I love that.
It's really easy to allocate tasks.
Our team loves it.
You know, you'll find that when you're having a CRM
tool in place, if your team doesn't adopt it and use it,
then it's dead in the water.
This one, HubSpot, they all like it.
It's really easy to share information around.
And I guess, most importantly, we
chose it because we felt it was the platform we could grow
with that didn't involve the complicated integrations
like a Salesforce or a Microsoft Dynamics.
Now, on that though, do be warned,
there is a big price hike between free
and when you start to use some of their hub plans.
You know, you're talking about possibly $400 to $800
per month, depending on what your requirements are.
So there is a big jump there, and I am aware that.
At this stage, I'm not prepared to make that jump.
I recognize we're going to need to do it at some point.
And I will say, from what I've seen,
and from others I've spoken to, they do deliver
and they do feel it's value for money.
Again, we're just not quite there yet.
What I will say though is HubSpot
is fantastic at providing content for you.
So anything that you need to learn,
just general thought leadership-type papers,
they're brilliant at it.
Their customer service is fantastic.
And, like I say, it's free and very functional
for the free version.
So I'd really recommend you check this one out.
It's the one I think we're going to grow with.
And, obviously, we'll take that jump.
But I think this is the one that we'll
continue with in the future.
OK.
Now, what is the number one CRM that I'd
recommend for a small business just starting out
with less than 100 clients?
Wait for it.
Drum roll, please.
Yes!
Spreadsheets.
No joke.
If you were just standing out, more often than not,
your time and your money are very precious resources to you.
So I would just start with something
that you're already using most likely,
whether it's Pages from Apple or Microsoft Excel.
You know, that combined with a task list
and email can get the job done.
You
Can do your charting.
You can do all your spreadsheets.
And, look, there's loads of templates out there, even
for project management tools.
So CRM right through to project management.
I'll put some of the links below, so make sure
you check those out.
I guess my point here, guys, is don't go crazy
with tools, no matter whether it's CRM or any other tool.
Wait until you've got a real pain point
before you go and choose one.
More often than not, like in Microsoft 365 or the Apple
equivalent, will suffice.
And, you know, don't spend money unnecessarily.
Don't spend time reviewing things unnecessarily.
The other tools are fantastic, and they will
provide real value as you grow.
But if you're a small business and you're not
growing very fast or you're just ticking along,
Spreadsheets are just fine.
And, like I say, there's plenty of good templates out there.
So, guys, I hope that was useful.
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So that's it, guys.
I wish you well on your journey.
And we'll see you next time.
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