Which CRM software should i be using

Hi everyone,

New here and first time posting.

I'm after opinions on what CRM software i should consider looking at for my business, all opinions are appreciated.
Basically i would like to implement something which will be kept for the life of the business and not have to swap over to something later on which is better.
So far I've been told i should be looking at hubspot.

If this type of thread has been done before, feel free to direct me over to the existing thread.

For anyone to give you are solid answer you need to really specify what you need from a CRM, each CRM has different strengths, weakness's and features. It is no point me recommending you a product which suits my requirements, but it doesnt even have your key features.

The only requirement you have really specified is something that is long life. That is not even a real function of a CRM.

Me thinks you need to do some homework into what you want from a CRM, then ask the question.

Thanks Paul for your welcoming message.
I was expecting a little more life on these forums with the amount of members you have here but it seems very dead.

busy times and poor requests do reduce the amount of feedback over time. alas, there is nothing that is "will last the length of the business" as technology changes so will your needs so trying to avoid upgrading is just going to screw you over in the long term.

what do you need in a CRM, what do you want it to do as basic, how are you currently doing it and how will you get your existing details into that new system.

when you look at that information yourself you will find what to look for online without needing to have to even ask because you have already figured out what you want when you say CRM.

customer relationship manager or customer record manager.

would you use rusty bolts in your shed because you had in stock before providing it to the customer or would you use what is needed and functioning well with your product overall?

Sorry, I'll try to be more clear.
I've looked around online and tried to do as much research as i can but all the information seems to be extremely vague (must like your reply)
Which is why I've posted here, in hope someone has some great advice from experience.
Basically i want a system which

• I can keep for the life of my business (hopefully) and by this i mean a product which is continually updated and improved, which is scalable so as my business grows the software is still compatible
• Ease of use and easy to learn
• Allows me to have all my customers contacts easily on hand, as well as some analysis tools for tracking what

1. Areas my leads come from (suburbs or towns)
2. Average price of the quote
3. Average win price etc
4. Have inputs for following up on quotes such as quote expiry dates etc

I'm also open to advice on what other features i should be looking for.
Currently I'm just logging things with files and spreadsheets which obviously isn't ideal

all my work is existing products so quotes are not much of a thing I need to track as it mainly sells X or Y

but I have used

• Microsoft Dynamics
• SugarCRM
  
• (trialled) Pipeline

checkout the features and see if it works for you. look for important things as well as most of my sales work is email updates not face to face so email integration is more important than physical location so landscaping suggestions could be a better fit. if your focus is face to face and scheduled appointments

none of these will work out of the box and I can not guarantee nor should you trust anyone who is going to state X will work forever due to always being around in the last Y years. so the real only way you can get them to work for you is to trial them, speak to the company it is going to take manhours so generate a list of suggestions call them to have them "sell" you. put your concerns to them and make sure you are agreeing to what you need not what they think you need.

good luck in your search.

Yes I found that to, a few years ago I would connect everyday to this forum and find heaps of new posts. Sadly not anymore

I am currently looking at CRM too. I’d stay away from Zoho, the internal email tool directs all emails being sent to spam!

Google comparison on CRM and you will some informative articles
The points they compare on will probably point you in the direction of what is important for you to consider
Example - what email system do you use and does your chosen CRM integrate well with email - you want to be able to add new email contacts (and website leadds, FB messages or SMS received) direct to CRM with a minimum of effort, ideally automatically. Likewise emails sent should log against a customers profile
FWIW I trialled Hubspot and found it very good for the price (free). Adding on some of the marketing options comes at a cost which is how they monetize it. I would expect Hubspot to be around for quite a while - if not for free then at a low cost. Start with that and then compare other options to it for the points that are most important to you. There are lots of tutorials for it around too

@bb1 was right, we needed some specifics because each system has it's strengths and weaknesses. But now we're getting there .

Here's feedback on your reqs from my experience:

1) Scalable - most hosted / cloud CRMs are easy one.
2) Ease of use - stay away from Zoho in this regard, but systems like Pipedrive and HubSpot is really up there with the easiest and most powerful
3) All CRMs have the user data tracking, but not so much on the data analysis side. HubSpot / Pipedrive / most top CRMs will track that deal data for you (deal source, average price, etc), but knowing the location performance data would be tricky. You would need to manually analyse.

Most CRMs will allow you to make custom fields too so you can add the quote expiry date to your 'deal' entry.

Something to consider here though is that you might be dealing with a lot of inbound calls and inbound / outbound SMS. I saw you have your mobile phone as a call button on the site - so it might be worth thinking about how to tackle missed calls too (or whether you can route them to someone to answer for you).

HubSpot will need a plugin for this regarding SMS and call routing. I like to integrate a calling app called Justcall.

From working with home services clients in the US, I see a new system getting popular in the space called High Level: https://www.gohighlevel.com/

Looks to be $99 US a month and includes SMS / inbound calls, etc. I haven't tried it for the aussie market yet but could be a better match for all the above if they can get numbers that service the Australian market. Should be fine from what I see.

thanks for the relies everyone but i think i might go down the custom route

My two cents with this. Many of these platforms share the same fundamentals for all of the traditional CRM elements. If you haven't already ranked it as a top criterion I would investigate their level of automation capability for comprehensive digital marketing. We have been working with Byron at PixelRush (forum member here) and it has been a massive eye-opener in terms of how far you can take your fully automated marketing IF you have the right tools. Byron can explain it better so if you are interested in combining it with building a digital marketing system he is a good starting point. And when I say "automated" I don't just mean automatically send an email at this time or other basics. I mean funnel management transferring different leads down different paths with completely different content (ebooks etc) based on their behaviors with how your system is interacting with them.

We recently did a video with Byron you can watch here https://360partners.com.au/blog/has-your-business-embraced-digital-marketing/