Using a CRM

[andrewdrake]

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Hi Everyone,

Anyone here using a CRM, or are they just all too expensive? I’ve tried a few over the years having been a freelancer for 12 years now and just wondering what people’s thoughts are on this when running a small business.

Andrew

[Paul – FS Concierge]

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Hi And Welcome to Flying Solo [USER=32126]@andrewdrake[/USER] .

It is great to have you!

Thank you for joining our community and posting.

There are a number of free CRM’s for the budget inclined soloer

Cheers
Paul

[andrewdrake]

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Hi [USER=78928]@Paul – FS Concierge[/USER]

Thanks, I actually joined quite some time ago but first post in the forum

I was wondering how many solo people actually use a CRM, what sort of free ones are available that aren’t too complicated or sell you into upgrades?

Right now I personally spending something like $800/mo on the various “apps” I require to operate my business efficiently these days! Seems crazy and I’m looking into a better way also.

Andrew

[Dave Gillen – Former FS Concierge]

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Hi Andrew,

You can try Streak CRM if you use Gmail. I used it for a while and liked it. Keeps it simple.

Hubspot has a free CRM now, but haven’t tried it.

I’ve found it takes a fair bit of trial and error to find one that suits your needs, so if you’ve found one that you like already, it may be worth the money.

Good luck!
Dave

Dave Gillen | LinkedIn

[bb1]

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andrewdrake, post: 271652, member: 32126 wrote:

Hi [USER=78928]@Paul – FS Concierge[/USER]

Thanks, I actually joined quite some time ago but first post in the forum

I was wondering how many solo people actually use a CRM, what sort of free ones are available that aren’t too complicated or sell you into upgrades?

Right now I personally spending something like $800/mo on the various “apps” I require to operate my business efficiently these days! Seems crazy and I’m looking into a better way also.

Andrew

I think to get a valid answer, a better way would be to explain what kind of business, and what your need of a CRM is. All business have slightly different needs of a CRM, and one size does not fit all, although they all say they do, they don’t.

And also remember free is not always free.

When you say $800/month, I cringe with fear, at do you really need all those apps, or are you running some huge business, because thats a lot of widgets you need to sell, just to pay for the app’s, then add on top of that normal business costs. Maybe a review of your whole business is in order.

[andrewdrake]

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bb1, post: 271659, member: 53375 wrote:

I think to get a valid answer, a better way would be to explain what kind of business, and what your need of a CRM is. All business have slightly different needs of a CRM, and one size does not fit all, although they all say they do, they don’t.

And also remember free is not always free.

When you say $800/month, I cringe with fear, at do you really need all those apps, or are you running some huge business, because thats a lot of widgets you need to sell, just to pay for the app’s, then add on top of that normal business costs. Maybe a review of your whole business is in order.

It’s rather easy to get to $800, I’m an enterprise web app developer / consultant CTO. Actually looking at my Xero P&L it’s closer to $1000/mo!

IDE, Database modelling, adobe suite, project management, client comms (slack/zoom), prototyping software, code deployment, code analysis/checking, security monitoring, code private storage/repos, UAT software and a few more. Most of these tools range from $20/mo up to $200/mo

These days with privacy laws and changes to insurance policies as a developer working on projects with private data there needs to be a “compliant workflow” which has meant a few more tools were needed to manage administrative tasks

Without all these tools I would not be able to deliver secure, enterprise grade solutions in a competitive manner against every other developer out there.

[MattH753]

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Hubspot or EngageBay

[Tom ISW]

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Yes, I use Pipedrive CRM. I only pay for the “silver” subscription so it was about $200/year for me. You can buy the silver package (what I have) and if you need extra functionality the price goes up from there.

[IBFlyingSolo]

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Hi Andrew, I too am a Freelance Consultant and I use ZOHO One.
It’s AUD $50/mth per user and has about 40 apps attached to it.
It has the CRM that has Modules like Leads, Contacts, Accounts, Deals.
It also has a bunch more like forms etc.
But the real secret sauce is the Apps that go with it.
It has Cmpaigns which is like mailchimp or hubsport, it has books which is the same as Xero, it has Surveys, It has Forms, it’s got Cliq which is like Slack, Notebook which is Twillo (I think that’s waht it’s called). There’s more and they are all connect with API’s and can also connect with Chrome extensions and other 3rd party apps.
The killer is how simple it is to write workflows and blueprints (stages of a process) and they can trigger actions when a record field is changed. It’s friggin awsome.
It’s not intuitive and if you like to get into the details (like I do) it took me a few months to figure it out. I now have an administrator who’s managing it for me now.
They also have a cut down version called Bigin which is just a simple sales crm with lots of the ZOHO One functionality and I think it’s around $10/mth
There is over 13 million users and they’ve been around for 10 years (I think)
As you can tell I’m an evangelist for it – I can’t help you with the product as I don’t do that work, but I recommend it because it’s so awesome.
If you need someone to show it to you let me know and I can introduce you to my administrator.
If not there are plenty of resources on You Tube too

[MattDell]

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Whichever CRM you choose should be based on ease of workflow
What integrates with your email / contact / quoting-billing software?
My limited experience with Hubspot was that it had lots of integrations and could reduce steps taken, not increase them
Better to pay a fair amount for something that makes work more effective than little or nothing and have it be harder

[smithmelisa92@gmail.com]

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Yes, I have used CRM. It makes to run business easily.

[Glen]

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I’ve used HubSpot before, they have a free tier. Plus you can actually integrate it with Zappier and set up all kinds of neat conditions and rules to run or trigger other applications to do various things. Pretty handy really. If used right it can save you a lot of time.

Thriving Web Design  

[morganacollin]

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We’ve been using HubSpot and now have a new integration installed for personalized outreach called Hyperise. We were hesitant at first cause in terms of automation HubSpot can pretty much do everything.

But our sales needed some help. After 2-3 months of use, I think we made a great choice with it. And it has other integrations too, you can check out their sales automation guide. I believe it can also be integrated with others like Zapier if that’s what you prefer.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by Paul - FS Concierge.
• This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by Dave Gillen - Former FS Concierge.

[Megofors]

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Unfortunately, I don’t really understand your request, maybe I can ask my colleagues what would work best for you?
Which CRMs are of particular interest to you? What should they do or how do you think they should help you? What are your goals? I know that at our company we use a Phonexa CRM system to track calls https://www.bloggersideas.com/phonexa-review/. We offer a variety of products, and we need to not only retain customers, but also attract new ones. Perhaps this will help you too.

[ASOGordon]

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I am looking for a low cost CRM. I thought I would try Flying Solo and the forum here.

My ACT 2013 needs a replacement as my remote desktop will be migrated to Sharepoint and Microsoft365, so the old $0 a month ACT 2013 will no longer be supported. That could be accessed by a few employees. I only really need for one person. I could just start from scratch and update more recent information. I left an enquiry about migrating my ACT database to perhaps an ACT Cloud current version. I can export that database to a CSV file. I’ll be trying ACT Cloud trial to have a look at what it does these days.

I have basic needs: for B2B CRM.

Company
Contact
Phone
E-mail
Last Results
Referred By – Drop Down List
Date of Enquiry
Service Type – Drop Down List
Notes – entries by date.

Then once on a contact, I may schedule on a calendar next action (meeting, call, reminder e-mail).

I currently subscribe to ConstantContact e-mail marketing and so if the new software includes that functionality then I would drop the ConstantContact subscription. I just use that to send out notices to clients a few times a year – low usage.

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